Hey everyone! Petridisch here, bringing to you a review of an old classic Vocaloid release. According to the vast web that is the web, “Lots of Love” is a game soundtrack, released on the Grand Muse label in 2012. To many Vocaloid fans, it’s the one with the Miku stalwart “LOL (Lots of Laugh)”. For me, it’s mainly the latter as well, except the quality of the songs on this CD take it from ‘extended single’ into true album territory.
The disc leads off with the expected but wild: “LOL (Lots of Laugh).” This was the first Vocaloid song to ever catch my ears, and it’s easy to see why. All the musical lines are out of control, yet completely IN control. To have a mind to come up with such jaunty melodies and bass lines, and the most irresistable line as an UNDERTOW — well, that person is either a madperson or a genius, or both — as if someone said “let’s out-sugar everything ever”. It makes me somewhat upset even, that something like this can be created and who do most of us turn to? Our “Pop” “Artists”. Something of this deep compositional caliber, while still maintaining a completely pop atmosphere, should be topping the charts everywhere in my opinion. Anyway, this I believe features Miku V2, and Crypton certainly have improved on it since then, but V2 does feature this really attractive, ‘primitive’ quality. I wish the producer Mikumix did more than this one song — it’s THE JAM.
The second track, “Song of the Earth”, introduces the stunning ‘production’ work of sakamotoP. It is definitely a highlight, invoking the spirit of early 1990’s Stock-Aitken-Waterman and “Santa Maria”-era Samantha Fox but with an admittedly beautiful sad melody, of course with the energy amped up to 11. The Vocaloid work seems a bit more clean here, maybe due to the addition of production/effects. Either way, it’s a great club pop song and definitely keeps you listening.
sakamotoP is also responsible for the lovely piano ballad “冬のエチュード”, which, sure, smooth as anything arrangement, but should it be anything else? I really do love the early sound of the V2 Vocaloid, and sakamotoP makes it work incredibly well for a track that focuses so much on the vocal line. Another one of the ballads on the record comes from this dude as well, called “45分の恋人”. Again, he lets the Vocaloid do most of the work to great effect — some real emotional highlights.
The other producer showcased on this CD is KeN. I will say I was pleased but not blown away by “Sa-Ku-Ra” and “ミルクココア”. At worst it’s ‘typical 2012 Vocaloid fare’, at best they are a nice touch of familiarity and ease. However, the absolutely rockin’ and badass “PoiPoi-DameDame” and “maybe love me” completely make up for the ‘standardness’ of the formerly mentioned works with catchy-as-getout choruses and true rockin’ riffage. Not to mention the awesomeness of the raspy Miku vocal. She really sounds very ‘rock and roll’ on these cuts, major props to KeN on that one! Also here of his doing is “迷路”, what I’d call a club banger which happens to have some gnarly guitar and delightfully unpredictable chord changes. Love the addition of the Speak-and-Spell sounds (makes me think of when I was a kid, heh!)
The CD ends with two ‘bonus tracks’: a fairly straight-ahead ‘boom-chick-boom-chick’ remix of “Song of the Earth”, again recalling now the REMIXES of early 1990’s Stock-Aitken-Waterman (hah!). I miss these types of remixes, not too much playing around…
Rounding it out is a laconic, and to these ears, fairly unnecessary lounge remix of “LOL (Lots of Laugh)”. It’s always nice to hear a song in many settings, but this one just seems a bit unnecessary and far-reaching. It works just so well as a pop tune, but I appreciate the effort.
Needless to say, “Lots of Love” comes extremely highly recommended by me, and is a true classic in the Vocaloid-verse. It’s also available RIGHT HERE on our site, so check it on out!
‘Till next time…