Japanese Rock
G. Lockhart | Missouri, USA | 05/12/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is single/title CD for the third of the Bleach (anime) opening songs.
Ichirin no hana means literally Ichi(one) rin(counter word for flowers[no meaning]) no (of) hana (flower), so the title litterally means "One flower" though the fansubbers and translators for the series tended towards "Lone Flower" or "Single Flower" for the more poetic translation.
The track listings are (in romanji):
1) Ichirin no hana
2) Warped Reflections
3) Ichirin no hana - huge hollow mix -
4) Ichirin no hana (less vocal track)
Fair warning that this is the full version of the song, which is significantly longer than the TV cut for the intro song, mostly due to a large guitar instrumental section. The second track is another song by the same group, I suppose meant to help push some of their other work. Warped Reflections is a bit more j-pop typical, fast beat, and the yelling vocal is cut back a rather lot so that it's not blasting out too much. The third track is just another mix of the song, which I do not like better than the original, and the last track is a karaoke track for Ichirin.
This group is definitely a slightly harder rock group than most people tend to expect, especially from those who are used to j-pop. Most of their songs consist of really rather good guitar and base combo, good background drums, and an alto female vocal occasionally joined by a tenor male backup. Almost every song has parts with a male roar/yeller (I'm not entirely certain if this is the same man who does the occasional male vocals or not), but he generally isn't put in the foreground of the song, instead generally blended back a little with the music going on in the background so that the yell doesn't overwhelm.
"
Track Listings (4) - Disc #1