Ano...Konnan Dekimashita Kedo

Yusuke Kamiji has a reputation and following as one of the "baka idols" (idiot singers) of the hit game show Quiz Hexagon in Japan. His role as a member of the group Shuchishin is a mix of musical performance and comic relief in that form. With his solo debut, he attempts to move toward a slightly more dignified mode, but only meets with some success. The pieces performed on the album are essentially light R&B with half-sung, half-rapped lyrics over simplistic R&B beats. This is the sort of material that makes singers like Shota Shimizu relevant in modern Japanese music. For Yusuke, there's an additional problem, however -- his voice is used in an intentionally overly flat manner, making everything sound like a whine. Working with pedestrian ideas (incorporating Pachelbel's Canon into a piece for the umpteenth time in Japanese R&B) and relatively standard aesthetics does nothing to separate Yusuke from the herd of modern J-R&B singers out there, and his delivery does little to inspire. Not worth picking up unless one is already a fan of the baka idols.