hellcat
hellcat is Kuroki Meisa’s debut album. It was released on April 8, 2009, and reached #9 on the weekly charts. It sold a total of 15, 128 copies during it’s 2 weeks stay at the top 30.
Album Review
Kuroki Meisa – hellcat
tracklist:
1. Hear the Alarm?
2. Like This
3. Bad Girl
4. Criminal
5. No, no, no
6. SEX
7. Lost
8. THIS IS CRAZY
Right after Kuroki Meisa released Like This, I must say, I don’t know what to expect from this album. But as soon a I heard an opening track, starting with synths and more synths, I knew that this album was an excellent one. There’s no doubt about the fact that Hear the Alarm? makes up 
for a perfect opening. It’s a song that surprisingly gives the listeners a wake up call, warning us that she is coming. She tells us to be prepared for a sexy and fierce treat coming right at us. This song mainly is composed only of constant synth lines, and a medium-type beat. There’s also a string arrangement accompanying her after the chorus, but that’s just all. Even though this song hardly is composed of those 3 main instruments, they were enough to make this kick ass track. I loved how catchy this song sounds, and how playful, yet strong it remains from time to time. Meisa’s vocals, as I have said in the Like This review in the last post, isn’t impressive, but there’s something about it that fits the music she creates. That is the case for this song. Even though her voice may not be as mind-blowing as other JPop artists, it was perfect for the arrangement of this song. In this song, we don’t really need a strong voice to make it look so awesome, because the way Meisa’s voice sounds is perfectly fine for this mix. After hearing this, I am EXCITED for the next 7 tracks.
Putting Like This next to the opener was not actually such a bad idea. In fact, It kinda fits, because the synths in this song are quite similar to some from Hear the Alarm?. One thing I noticed about this song though is that the version found in this album is quite different from the one released digitally, because it is extended. A quick instrumental plays and fades right after Meisa finishes singing 
“Bounce Bounce, so do you like this” line. Despite the difference, I think it’s better because it flows gently and proceeds with the next track smoothly.
The next track, Bad Girl, was used as the main promotional song for this album. Which I think was a good choice because Bad Girl is the result when you combine all of the tracks in this album. You just get the synths, the attitude, and the hype, found in all of the songs, then mix them and BAM — You got this track. Another great reason why this was a great promotional track because based on the Music Video, Meisa acts like a bad girl, which shows what she is in this album — A Bad Girl. A great thing about this song is that it contains an edge, that you can’t find in any of the other tracks. I can’t really describe what edge it is, but with that being unknown really helps make this song sound so unique.
Dance and Rock together? I’M IN. Ever since the first time I watched the Music Video for Criminal, I fell in love. Well, what’s not to like? It’s Danceand Rock wrapped up to make a track that will surely blow your mind, even if it’s been only 5 seconds when the song started to play. What I’m actually saying is that every second of this song was just awesome. Not even a single milli-second was a waste of time. I don’t know why I keep repeating how great it is but, I just 
can’t help it. It’s just so Amazing. Like I said a while ago, this song is made up of mainly Dance and Rock, which was the most awesome thing about this track because you’ll never think both will blend in. The guitar riffs here and there blended smoothly with the buzzing synth, and the drum hits. With that arrangement kicking ass everywhere, another thing rocks, the CATCHINESS. I’m serious. This song is drop dead catchy, and how Meisa delivers the tune in the chorus was just so infectious. Although, there’s one thing that could have been better — Meisa’s vocals. Don’t get me wrong, I think Meisa performed this song quite well but, the “yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah” during the last line of the chorus could’ve been changed for something else. For now, those “yeahs” don’t get in my nerves yet but, I’m hoping it won’t because it will totally ruin the greatness of this song. But anyways, with or without those “yeahs”, I still love this song to death.
The next track, No, no, no, wasn’t that much of my type but it’s alright. I think the arrangement was a bit dull for my tastes because all it does is to repeat the same synth notes again and again BUT, I think the spanish guitars in the bridge sounded cool. I do think Meisa sings quite well here, but there’s nothing as outstanding as the surprises the other tracks had.
Probably the dirtiest JPop track since Namie Amuro’s WANT ME, WANT ME back in 2005 is SEX. One warning before anything though, it is not for children. It has lyrics about making out but, I’m not really sure what she’s talking about. I just had
that conclusion based from the english lines she was saying. Speaking of Meisa’s english, I must say that she’s quite fluent. The “you make it so good”, and “..into the bed” lines are evident of that fluency. Despite the naughty content in this song, I still do enjoy it’s catchiness. Whenever Meisa says “Going crazy ‘coz I’m thinking ’bout sex”, I have to admit that I find that catchy. Another catchy thing for me is the rapping section during the bridge. It’s not my favorite part but, I really like how the guy rhymes things out. It adds some kind of coolness in this song.
Another favorite of mines from this album is Lost. Well, not quite because come to think of it, almost all of the songs here are my favorites. Anyways, I find this song to be so catchy especially when Meisa sings the first line of the chorus. I always find myself singing that line whenever it plays. The arrangement of this song is quite similar to the one on SEX but, I this one is a lot heavier. Perhaps not a lot heavier, but it quite is. It’s percussion gets strong once it reaches the chorus but, I’m glad it didn’t break off the ballad-like arrangement of this song because we could all use something a bit slower than the other tracks, right? Plus, we get to see how Meisa sounds like when she sings something a lot calmer.
THIS IS CRAZY ends this album with a not-so-fast arrangement, which is quite great because it sounds so polished, especially when the background vocals accompany the vocoded vocals of Meisa. Yes, VOCODED. I’m actually glad that I heard a song from 
her that uses the vocoder a lot because I’m quite curious how she would sound like with one. After hearing it, I must say that she sounds amazing. Although, I do not encourage her to use it a lot because her natural voice is a lot nicer to the ears. The R&B-nized arrangement this song contained suited Meisa’s voice really well. I guess that’s not really a surprise because even I said so myself a while ago that her voice suits the music she makes. This song ends the album in kind-of-a slow way but, nothing else can end things better like this track does. 
To be honest, I am not sure if hellcat is entirely an Album or a Mini-Album but, as far as I know, it is announced by her official site as an album. Either way, this was an awesome release. Almost all of the songs had each of their own coolness, which is quite rare in releases these days. I did enjoy everything Meisa presented in this album, and I definitely enjoyed how polished this album was. After hearing this, I really can’t wait for more from her singing carrer, especially her next single.
Favorite Track:
Criminal, Hear the Alarm?, Bad Girl, and Lost
shuffle rating!
A+
Like This is Kuroki Meisa’s 1st digital single. It was released on June 21, 2008, and was used as the CM song for TOSHIBA’s Sportio/W62T commercials.
