misono - Never+Land (28 February 2007)

This was the debut solo album of Misono Koda, usually stylized as ‘misono’. She’s probably best known for being the younger sister of Kumi Koda. Misono’s career goes back to 2002 when she debuted as a member of the trio Day After Tomorrow. In a lot of ways the band was a rip-off of Every Little Thing; Day After Tomorrow was produced by Mitsuru Igarashi, a former member of Every Little Thing who left that band in 2000 after they released Eternity. Day After Tomorrow had a short but productive career, releasing five studio albums in three years before disbanding in 2005. After their break-up Avex Trax signed misono to their label and a year later she released Never+Land. Approximately half of the album was released across five singles leading up to the album, which personally always annoys me but it’s also typical of Avex Trax and other mainstream labels. The album was not commercially succesful and received an apathetic, lukewarm critical response. In my own opinion it’s not a bad album, but there’s also nothing about it that stands out. It’s a nice J-Pop album but not one I’d leave on repeat.

Heh, that all said, I hope you enjoy it!