Checkmate Audio CD – CD, May 3, 2011

I was never a fan of Namie's discography as I find her albums to be too trendy and lack novelty as a result. Her latest album "_genic" is no exception. This collaboration album on the other hand is more up my alley in that there many songs with great replay value. This album is filled with songs from many genres such as hip-hop, r&b, rock, urban pop, electro-pop and dance pop. This album has great appeal with its collection of nostalgic early 21'st century and contemporary pop/urban music. I'm a fan of R&B Japanese singer AI and Hip-hop duo m-flo (Verbal & DJ Taku) so seeing their contributions made this album all the more worth while.Definitely a great and much needed addition to her discography. I hope she does another collaboration album in the future. I bought a used CD+DVD version and the videos are great. Some of Namie's best in all honesty.

This CD is more than I expected. Came quicker than expected, nicely packaged, clean, no scratches, works fine in the USA. The DVD doesn't work as expected due to regional codes or something... not worried about it though. I just wanted the music. I honestly just ordered this CD for one song on it since I couldn't buy it online- Unusual featuring Tomohisa Yamashita; but the rest of the songs are great! Love the CD!いいだよ。ありがとう。

I love Amuro Namie and this album is a "must have" for any Jpop fan.

Collection of Namie cross-over projects. There's a great variety of sound, but mostly is danceable pop. For some reason lil Wayne's line "I run this S**t like a flanker" just seems funny every time I hear it. Verbal does some very impressive rapping. Perhaps NA is a bit outshone by some of her song partners, but the combinations are always entertaining.

Great album, comes with a video DVD. You will need a region free or correct region(Japan) DVD player to play the DVD.

Namie has recorded a solid album that combines rock,rap,dance,and electro pop. Because of the number of styles on this album, the songs will appeal to a broad range listeners. Each song selection features colaborations with various performers (including Lil Wayne). The arrangements of the songs are first rate and give the album a current (hip) vibe. Namie switches back and forth quite freely singing some words in english, other words (from the same sentence) in Japanese. The rappers also do the same thing,sometimes so quickly that you can't always make out what they are saying but it sounds so cool!I would LOVE to see this album released in the USA. The songs and arrangements are very strong and appealing. It would be a perfect "crossover" album due to the variety of styles on the album. I also think the fusion of English and Japanese lyrics (as well as the bilingual rapping) would give the album a cool vibe for most listeners.