Tomomi
Itano (板野友美) was
never my favorite AKB48 member. She was an important member of the group, and
one that was especially popular among young girls thanks to her fashion gyaru
looks. Even so, nothing on her quite caught my attention. Things changed a bit
when she released her first solo single, “Dear J”.
Musically
speaking, Tomochin was one of the least talented singers in the group,
something that became even more striking when she became the first member to
launch a proper solo career, in early 2011. What’s even more surprising: since the
time of her graduation, around the time “Koi Suru Fortune Cookie” (恋するフォーチュンクッキー) was released (2013), Tomochin easily
became the steadiest ex-AKB48 member in the music industry, releasing mildly
successful singles and full albums (her second album, “Get Ready♡”, will be released next month).
Released
in January 2011, “Dear J” served as Tomomi’s debut single, and it was a big
departure from AKB48’s typical sound. In fact, the heavy Technopop sound is
very reminiscent of what K-Pop veteran supergroups Girls’ Generation and KARA,
but also J-Pop longtime reigning queen Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵), were releasing at the time. Actually,
like one of my friends said, Tomochin must have had lots of Amuro’s posters
around her room during her “Dear J” era, because everything in this release,
from the song and music video to the looks and faces, screams Namie.
Since
Tomochin can’t sing, the vocals in “Dear J” are heavily autotuned in a way that
we almost can’t hear her true voice behind all the robotic singing. However, it
goes well with the club-friendly arrangement, and even with the somewhat
dramatic chorus.
In
the end, even though “Dear J” may sound like another disposable J-Pop tune, it
stood the test of time for me, as I still listen to it a lot after five years of its release.
In my opinion, Tomochin has not come up with another great song like this one in
the last couple of years, but I agree that 2015’s “Gimme Gimme Luv” comes close
at a second spot. I’ll probably give her second album a spin to see what she
has on the sleeves.
“Dear
J” reached #2 on the Oricon chart, selling 216,781 copies. Lyrics were written
by Yasushi Akimoto (秋元康),
while music was compsed by Keyz and Carlos K. As for the arrangement, corin.
was the responsible.
Source: generasia.com
