1995.07.07 平井間 (Hirai Ken) Un-balanced

okay, I think I've been putting up too many Chinese albums for the last little while and neglecting all the other stuff~ there are others out there who crave for J-pop and yes, indeed, J-pop makes up a lot of the listening I do daily~ therefore, I thought I might share something from my collections (yes, I am in the sharing mood somehow)

This is Hirai Ken's debut album "Unbalanced", which was released all the way back in 1995. The first time I came across Hirai Ken was back in 2000 with his hit release "The Changing Same", which is still one of my favourite Japanese albums, if not my favourite of 'em all. Release of "The Changing Same" was the the turning point for Hirai Ken, as he was little known before the album. After hit singles from the album such as "Why", "Lakuen" and "Love Love Love", the record enjoyed massive sales. Anyways, I shouldn't go too detailed into his hit album; I'll save that when I put the album up.

After I became enchanted by Hirai Ken's amazing vocals, I went about picking up everything I could of him. I picked up this album back in high school and this album sure gives a different side of Hirai Ken with a different music style. Compared to his renowned r&b, this album has more of the late 80s early 90s jazzy and ballad feel to it. I guess this album follows more of the Southern All Stars line; indeed, Hirai Ken actually writes Southern All Stars into the lyrics of one of his songs on the album. However, I guess only the All Stars could do the trick with jazz as Hirai Ken didn't get noticed with this album. When r&b started taking off back in 98-2000 or so, Hirai Ken rose to instant stardom with his breakout release afore mentioned.

This is still a pretty good album with some good songs though. My personal favourites are track 4 "e-gao" and track 3 "precious junk". Most of the songs on this album are light and happy tunes. In this album, one can hear an un-polished Hirai Ken. Yet one can still hear Hirai Ken's really clear, bright and distinguished vocals, which makes him one of the best male vocals around. Well, without further ado, plunge in and take a listen.

PS: anyone want me to do a Hirai Ken special?


平井間 Un-balanced
part 1
part 2

01 二人の迷路
02 Negative
03 Precious Junk
04 笑顔
05 片方ずつのイヤフォン
06 EASY
07 破りたい
08 青空
09 花びら
10 White　～僕に会いたい～
11 STAR