What do you think of Kingdom?

[TITANIC]

its good..
but the best way is black cherry...

[Cyria]

It's alright. I love a couple of the single tracks but Himitsu ended up being the only new song I really like.

[ayu_ready?]

at least it's a waaay better than Black Cherry which I personally consider as one of her weakest albums...

this time Kumi tried to 'copy her Secret' imho and it turned out to be okay, but less powerful
and the thing I may dislike is the PVs...from the previews almoust all of them look quite cheap, meh =/

[orochicloud]

Way better than Black Cherry, I only liked the single tracks in that album, and I thought all the album tracks but Introduction and Getup&Move!! were really really bad. That's why I barely listen to the album at all, even though the single tracks were really good.
With Kingdom, I find the album tracks a lot better, sometimes even rivaling single tracks, Amai Wana, Under, and overall it seems to have a lot more of consistency than Black Cherry.

[AyUta]

Third option for me Too many singles included and there were two new tracks that were disappointing to me.

[CHE.R.RY]

'It's alright, it has its good and bad but not bad. ' This about sums it up.

The good: The tracklist was very good and featured some great up-beat hip-hopish music with some pop mixed in. Also, there were hardly any ballads and that was also good because I'm not that fond of Kumi's ballads.

The bad: Most of the songs were singles. The singles ARE good but this was kind of the same case as Ayu's 'GUILTY' album although we only had one interlude type of thing. I wish that there were more new songs featured but hey, you can't always get what you want.

All in all, I give this album an 8/10. I didn't like 'MORE' that much (although it was better than I thought it would be) and 'Wonderland' was kind of ghastly IMO, but otherwise bearable (haha confusing I know xD).

Do I think it will sell better than 'GUILTY'? No doubt about it, but I won't go into details.

[omgpeachsnapple]

Way better than Black Cherry. There are some songs I don't like, but overall, I think it's a pretty solid album.

[ayumisrael]

Already got tired of it, for some reason.

[Calico]

Out of 14 songs (not inc. the intro) 6 are from previous singles and 8 are brand new tracks. (I'm counting Black Cherry in this) That's not even half let alone most. =\ (That's actually about the same percentage as GUILTY, not counting the interludes)

I'm actually saddened that Run For Your Life is not on Kingdom, but glad that the other two aren't. At least the PV's included, so I guess that counts for something.

[MsMiyabi]

It's AWESOME!!! Best album in along time!!

I love almost every song, I can't remember the last time she made a album and I liked every song. Wait secret
lol

[KuroixShiroi_Namida]

It's definitely better than Black Cherry (Won't be long ruined it lol).

My favourite track is MORE but right now i don't know which one is my least favourite yet. Yes, it's a great album but her older material such as COLOR OF SOUL, m.a.z.e, love across the ocean etc... are way better imo.

Damn i wish girls + run for your life was on it XD!!

[Raleigh]

Well.. it's an okay album and probably above average from most of the stuff other artists released. However personally I felt it brought nothing groundbreaking or new to Koda Kumi. It has the same formula as BC, a mixture of urban and cutesy poppy songs, so I couldn't help get the feeling that this was Black Cherry Part 2. That was a bit of a disappointment.

Furthermore the lack of continuity made this album sound a bit messy. This album has this polished album cover and a proclamation of something superior with the "Kingdom" title but the content doesn't seem to hold up its' name. It was as if they threw the songs haphazardly in the album. A couple of interludes wouldn't have hurt to make this album sound more polished and professional.

I guess the genre selection was to make happy all her fans but I'm kinda sick of her cutesy pop songs. I'd prefer her mature songs and her urban tracks so I was left with few new tracks that I really liked. I really liked Under and Amai Wana though. Amai Wana was a really great track, they managed to recreate her Arabian genre without making it sound like the rest of her Arabian songs. I was kinda disappointed at how anticlimatic Black Cherry was though.. the interlude promised a lot but it was quite flat imo.

The album did seem kind of rushed in several ways, kinda like Ayu's albums. avex seems just happy to pack their artists albums with lackluster pvs just so that they can mention that x artist has x pvs in her album. A lot of the new pvs were rather cheap and quite boring, while others were okay but not particularly spectacular.

Personally I still think her older material is much better. Her Secret album had a lot of exciting material, jam packed with excellent ballads and urban tracks. Nothing can beat that album.

[PSYCHEDELICOdust]

her best album since secret. definitely.

[heartplace83]

is it me or this album really sounds mediocre?
i mean theres no song that catches my attention here, even the singles songs.
the rnb/hip hop tracks sounds just like the others, the ballads are bland and the pop songs..errr :S
on the other hand, i like quite some stuff in Black Cherry, including some album songs.
so i gave this album the last option =.="

[Teyla]

it's good but not the best

[elepop]

Well, it's a mixture of the last 2 options.

"It's alright, it has its good and bad but not bad. It's crap, she should release more Secret-esque albums."

1. Definitely better than Black Cherry.
2. The tracks are quite good. (anytime, Himitsu, Wonderland, LAST ANGEL, Koi no Mahou)
3. Some are bad though. (Ai no Uta, MORE, Black Cherry, FREAKY)
4. I still prefer secret by a whole lot though.

[Love Appears]

I don't understand the dislike for Black Cherry. I think Black Cherry was much better than Kingdom. I know I'm probably alone here. Yume no Uta was one of the best J-pop ballads I've heard. Ningyo Hime and Juicy were so catchy. The summery, cutesy songs such as With your smile, I'll be there and Koi no Tsubomi were songs I really enjoyed. And yes I have heard her older songs.

The PVs were very different from each other, at least compared to the Kingdom ones. I just feel like there really isn't any variation on this new album. Perhaps it needs time to grow on me.

But I just had to chime in that I think Black Cherry is full of great songs.

[CHE.R.RY]

Originally Posted by Demure_Dusk

Well.. it's an okay album and probably above average from most of the stuff other artists released. However personally I felt it brought nothing groundbreaking or new to Koda Kumi. It has the same formula as BC, a mixture of urban and cutesy poppy songs, so I couldn't help get the feeling that this was Black Cherry Part 2. That was a bit of a disappointment.

Furthermore the lack of continuity made this album sound a bit messy. This album has this polished album cover and a proclamation of something superior with the "Kingdom" title but the content doesn't seem to hold up its' name. It was as if they threw the songs haphazardly in the album. A couple of interludes wouldn't have hurt to make this album sound more polished and professional.

I guess the genre selection was to make happy all her fans but I'm kinda sick of her cutesy pop songs. I'd prefer her mature songs and her urban tracks so I was left with few new tracks that I really liked. I really liked Under and Amai Wana though. Amai Wana was a really great track, they managed to recreate her Arabian genre without making it sound like the rest of her Arabian songs. I was kinda disappointed at how anticlimatic Black Cherry was though.. the interlude promised a lot but it was quite flat imo.

The album did seem kind of rushed in several ways, kinda like Ayu's albums. avex seems just happy to pack their artists albums with lackluster pvs just so that they can mention that x artist has x pvs in her album.

I agree with you in a lot of ways, and I forgot to mention the bolded area in my post. I think it didn't flow as well as it could've and the procession the tracks followed each other was a little random. And the other issue, is that Avex always pulls this on us where they try to hurry up and release new material like there's no tomorrow (which can be good and bad). But, either way it is obvious and I don't know about you guys but it kind of sounds like funny business to me ...xD

So it was a lot like Black Cherry in some ways but I personally enjoyed the music more. Black Cherry WAS good though so don't get me wrong. I do feel in some ways that this album does show a stronger j-urban (or hip-hop) sound infused in her music but ya know, I've only been a fan of Kumi for about a year and I haven't listened to every single song from her like I have for Ayu and Hika (Utada Hikaru).

But anyways, well-said Demure_Dusk.

[ayu_fan929]

Originally Posted by Love Appears

I don't understand the dislike for Black Cherry. I think Black Cherry was much better than Kingdom. I know I'm probably alone here. Yume no Uta was one of the best J-pop ballads I've heard. Ningyo Hime and Juicy were so catchy. The summery, cutesy songs such as With your smile, I'll be there and Koi no Tsubomi were songs I really enjoyed. And yes I have heard her older songs.

imo, Black Cherry had its' very high points (the singles) and very low points (album tracks minus Get Up & Move!!) while Kingdom didn't really have that (it was pretty constant)

[Kikaru]

It's more consistent than Black Cherry, but not in the "every song is awesome" way. While Black Cherry had very lacking album songs, the singles are far more stronger than Kingdom Singles. Unmei is quickly becoming one of my favorite Kuu songs and Koi no Tsubomi is the kind of Cute song that I like from her, plus it has great composition and arrangment. With your Smile is very strong as an upbeat song. Even Yume no Uta and Futari De are growing on me.

I would probably describe Kingdom as mediocre or lackluster just because I don't have any other words. It's not unlistenable. While the album tracks are better (Himitsu, Under, Amai Wana) I felt there were way too much fillers.

And the PVs, bravo for the flashier affects to make them not look like they were made on a shoestring budget, but it seem like these amount of PV were made just so Avex can say that they have every PV for every song. Instead of focusing at making three or four PVs, they did 14 PVs that at best are mediocre (Amai Wana, Himitsu, Under) and at worst boring or downright tacky (Wonderland, Koi no Mahou, Anata...).

But Demure_dusk said it all.