No buts! is Kawada Mami's 9th single released this November 3, 2010 under Geneon Entertainment. The song was used as the first opening theme of the anime To Aru Majutsu no Index II.
Almost a year has passed since the release of her 8th single Prophecy, her weakest single by far. With a comeback tie-up with a popular anime series as Index, Mami has once again rose up to the spotlight. Was this single enough to redeem her seemingly wilting career?
Almost a year has passed since the release of her 8th single Prophecy, her weakest single by far. With a comeback tie-up with a popular anime series as Index, Mami has once again rose up to the spotlight. Was this single enough to redeem her seemingly wilting career?
Tracklist:
01. No buts!
02. SATANIC
03. No buts! (instrumental)
04. SATANIC (instrumental)
No buts!
Lyrics and Vocals: Kawada MamiComposition: Tomoyuki Nakazawa
Arrangement: Tomoyuki Nakazawa, Ozaki Takeshi
Definitely yes. No buts! single certainly managed to bring back the rocker Mami we all love. A very strong single on many aspects.
Kawada Mami, with the NakaZaki duo backing her up again, came back with a darker, upbeat song. No buts! reeks of heavy guitar riffs and techno elements that will definitely leave anyone hyped up.
The song arrangement may seem a bit rough, loud, and hyper but NakaZaki knows how to trim those edges, coming up with a clean rock song, not like anything I've producer Maiko Iuchi ever came up with. Inadvertently, No buts! heavily resembled Iuchi's creations.
Indeed, the way the song was made was awesome in itself. Catchy. The only dreadful thing left to happen with the song was to be dragged down by lousy vocals. Fortunately, Mami's vocals coped up with the hype.
The vocals gave the song a unique contrast, mixing up rock with denpa. And it turned out to be a nice mixture of the two. Kawada Mami came up with surprising vocal strength, enough to reach those high notes and fast beats alike. The kind of vocal strength sure was rare for a song by her.
The great hybrid of vocals and instrumentals given by No buts! make this song seem like a god-like track. As an OP to a known anime series as Index, the song sure does a great job at luring the audience into an abyss of addiction.
Hyper, catchy, addictive. Solid melodies. No buts! would hook you up upon the first listen and keep you there for eons. Mayoe!
Rating: 9.9/10
SATANIC
Lyrics and Vocals: Kawada MamiComposition: Tomoyuki Nakazawa
Arrangement: Tomoyuki Nakazawa, Ozaki Takeshi
The A-side is already dark as it is. And here came I've making the single darker, plus added hints of mystery. SATANIC was definitely up for the job.
The B-side toned it down on the arrangements and settled with a slower tempo. A ballad. A dark ballad. A unique mixture of heartfelt vocals of a ballad, and techno-ish, groovy composition of a dark song. Finally something different from I've Sound after a long while. SATANIC even sort of resembles older I've songs like KOTOKO's Lament and Hane.
The vocals with the instrumentals gave coherence to the song. Mami sang it like a ballad while still evoking that certain mysterious and satanic tune. The vocal pace and quality succeeds in giving out a cult-like feeling, if that makes any sense at all.
Vague, mysterious, and satanic indeed.
Rating: 8.3/10
The single, in general, considerably strayed away from being generic. A hyper A-side with a darkly slower coupling track. This makes No buts! the best comeback Mami could have ever assumed after almost a year of no single release.
Great songs, promotions, and a strong tie-up. Mix these all up and you'll have a nice formula for success. A success that has given Mami her highest charting single by far.
No buts! peaked at #5 in the Oricon Charts, making this the second highest charting single I've Sound has came up with to date, second only to KOTOKO's being.
While this success can be purely attributed to the NakaZaki duo who produced both songs for the single, there arises the issue of the said duo being overused for Mami's songs. While I still think that they are the best choice of producers for Mami within I've and outside as well, there will come a time when this combination would eventually come up with a weak song like Prophecy again.
And with that, new and probable career directions would spring up, like the introduction of new producers into I've Sound or Kawada Mami's collaboration with producers outside of the circle. What will happen in the future is of course, uncertain and completely up to them.
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