THESE Kanami Solos, Tho!! BAND-MAID / Choose Me OMV [REACTION/ANALYSIS!! 2nd Time's the Charm! :P]

[@zinoviylubman5553]

Kanami is the best female guitar player in the world!!!! She is amazing!!!!

[@chakouyang2545]

There's no band in the world like band maid

[@bocatampere]

Kanami 🔥❤️🤘 Her guitarplayin’ is so tasteful. She is the Special One.

[@Kozouakomachan9079]

Shes so amazing voclist vocks really great band and song! parfect Scampering!!🎶⚡☝🏻🤘🏼👍✨🌠🌟

[@richardn8866]

This song ticks all the boxes for me emotionally as a perfect song. Groove, musicianship, fills, solo's, vocals. Then I heard the striped down version at Yokohama Arena (I was there) and it ticked off even more boxes. I will say it again, IMHO it is just the perfect song. Thanks Jon for doing this. Happy New Year !

[@あめやま-h8w]

I really enjoy and appreciate your reaction. Your statement will make many KANAMI fans smile, as few people admit that KANAMI continues to put in so much effort behind SAIKI's vocals. Thank you.

[@tonygriffin_]

They love playing this song as much as we love hearing it! I recently edited 6 versions of this song, from 2018 to 2023, into one continuous performance and put it on my YT channel - and I didn't even have to add the performances from their Yokohama gig, where they played it twice, once while Kanami, Saiki and MISA walked around the stadium as they sang and played and another one where Saiki sang and played piano solo, which was a delight to hear and see. That Akane fill into the push for the chorus is tightAF.

[@MusicMike747]

The second song I heard from them after “Thrill.” At the time, I didn’t hear half of what I hear now. Typical Band Maid. Kanami’s guitar work is underneath. For guitar fans, it’s frustrating at times. Knowing she writes much of her music on piano, is it possible that her lead guitar parts mirror her right hand? Simply coloring the underlying chords? Wild guessing. Kanami loves tremolo picking, same as Carlos Santana. I made that connection early on. She also relies on octaves a lot. And also easy to miss here, but at the end of her outro solo, she sweep picks for an entire measure. (She’s a Maid; of course she sweeps 🧹) Jon, you claim this solo is your favorite so far? 😂 Let’s see how long that lasts. Here are two wildly different Band Maid songs, each with Kanami solos worthy to challenge: “Daydreaming,” official music video. “FATE,” live if you can find it. Or just the studio version.

[@interstellardave]

“Mirage”, too… I still say it’s one of her best solos, if not the best.

[@enzoloveless132]

Miku does all harmonies (whether high or ultra low, she's got a wider range than Saiki)

[@falconsooner]

Really great analysis. Love the sweeps in the last solo.

[@jeffersoncosgrove1910]

Definitely gotta check out the solo on Unfair Game. Might be Kanami's longest or close to it. i think 22 bars of pure sickness.

[@me262a1]

This one was played at most of the 2023 shows and it was the show closer in Hong Kong . I love Mincho's sweep picking. They played "You" in Houston and that sweep has a much more aggressive almost violent feel to it. IMO

[@Kevin6059]

Good explanation of the flat vs. major 7th.

[@miqoto]

Choose Me has a special rearranged version from a few years ago as well :)

[@fernandoloya6325]

Kanamincho Tono - has an influencer by the name of none other than the great Carlos Santana and she plays a bit of his riffs and licks with her own twist very genius like she's one of my fave writer composer in rock today and tomorrow cheers mate great reaction

[@DavidMISAMISAMISACook]

MISA MISA MISA!!!!!

[@greylocke100]

There is another version from their Yokohama performance, where Saiki take the reins and plays/performs this song by herself, accompanied by herself on the piano, and she slays it. Unfortunately, you can't post a reaction to it yet as the performance is still behind a paywall. But Creator is it glorious and beautiful.

[@grahamreed8774]

Hi Jon, I've become accustomed to your reaction style and really enjoyed this one. You often on only see Saiki singing in a MV, but live you get to see Miku covering her with the same lyrics as backing vocals. Kanami composes like for an orchestra- layers that are sometimes working together- Bass/Lead Vocals or all independently. Kanami deffinately has a bluesy soul and is everything to this band.

[@RahimRahmat]

Hey, you know, you could always post a first-time reaction AND a second-time listen reaction to Band-Maid songs, and I'd happily still listen to what you have to say in both videos. You're spot on when you say "It's not like listening to a Band-Maid song and you get it.... you *don't* ...".

[@paulread4886]

Kanami's song writing and arrangement skills are what puts them head and shoulders above Japanese female bands, and honestly , MOST bands. When you pile on all the talent from the other 4 girls, its a done deal. Best hard rock band on the planet. For proof you only need to watch there performance at Chicago Lolla festival. They nailed it !

[@TlanImass]

I can’t remember from the LIVE whether they both sang in the beginning. But from just this studio version it seems like just Saiki-san singing solo in mono but mixed post as stereo. It’s nice.

[@alanstamper4345]

Every song they do has multiple layers and little touches where they do things differently or something you don’t expect, and it never seems out of place. Most times when people play with something standard by tweaking it, well it just comes off badly or obviously out of place. Saying Kanami is a genius is easy. Getting the scope of how good she is? It’s like being a pro race car driver and then coming up against Micheal Schumacher, or being a physicist and then meeting Einstein. She is so far above the standard with what she writes, it’s incredible. Then add in the genius of the rest of the band members on top of it. That’s Band-Maid.

[@_JimS]

Yeah, that sounds like Miku and Saiki vocals at the start. Like in "Blooming" Kanami's dual solos are wonderful. Her first one here is one of the longest for sure.

[@zer0tzer0]

The LIVE version is even better! But Kanami takes her role as Lead Guitar very seriously. When she's composing the song she is only going to play the rhythm part twice. once for the demo and once for the record. After that that's Miku's job. That frees Kanami up to do all the little fiddly bit of the song. She isn't going to reinforce the rhythm part with Miku, unless the song calls for that. That will be very seldom. She has the best Rhythm Section in the Biz that can do that, but that's rare too because MISA plays Lead Bass. And she's often playing low in the mix. Some of her parts are almost subliminal. And people will complain, "The lead's not loud enough!" I used to be one of them. But I've learned that she knows what she's doing. She'll turn up where it's appropriate for the song. Composer is quite correct. MISA usually writes her bass parts on the piano so that she doesn't get in a rut. Kanami may be doing the same thing, because who plays like that?

[@TomClark-Futoura]

The way Miku and Saiki manipulate and sing the Japanese language makes for great RnR lyrical cadence with an authentic, soulful feel. "Choose Me" is a great example to hear that clearly. But the fact remains that if groups like RUSH (had they been from Germany, for example), Jinjer and The Warning sang in their home language (Ukrainian and Spanish respectively), I surmise they would be less than half as popular as they are (were) today. It is a real, serious barrier. Again, I don't mind it since Band-Maid's music and vocalization is so fulfilling. But I think it's delaying Band-Maid from reaching the international bigtime. I might be wrong. I'm hoping that because they include English more and more in their lyrics, maybe they can have a mega hit with only 50% English. But how much more of a hit would "Daydreaming" be if it was originally sung in English? Thx, Jon!

[@doraemonnobita2730]

Mr. TOM, don't say that. That's something everyone understands. But there's nothing we can do about it. For example, compare Floor Jansen, a native Dutch speaker, learning English and singing in English, and SAIKI, who grew up in Japan and had no specialized education in English, learning English and singing in English. Unlike Floor Jansen, who sang from Dutch to English, it is virtually impossible for SAIKI to achieve the same expressiveness in English as when singing in Japanese. LOVEBITES' songs are all written in English. Vocalist ASAMI is a complete native Japanese speaker with no professional training in English, and she lives in Japan. However, she sings all of LOVEBITES' songs in English. As a result, their vocal expressiveness is considered to be inferior to, for example, Floor Jansen. However, the playing ability of the other members of LOVEBITES is equal to or even better than the members of NIGHTWISH. As a result, although ASAMI's vocal skills are not weak, her vocals have become LOVEBITES' weak point. Linguistically, the English words used in BAND-MAID's songs up to and including their album "CONQUEROR" belong to "loan words." It is a word commonly used in Japanese society, where English education is compulsory from elementary school onwards. And that sentence is an English sentence that any junior high school student can understand. Currently, BAND-MAID has a large number of fans overseas. The songs after "Unseen World" frequently used English sentences that were more complex than those used in previous songs and required translation for Japanese middle school students. I think it would be possible for BAND-MAID to have one or two songs with all English lyrics, with thorough training. However, I think that the current percentage of English lyrics is at its limit. If I were to dream, if BAND-MAID were to perform in the UK, I would like them to cover "LED ZEPPELIN"'s "Stairway to Heaven". All in English, of course. Because I think KANAMI is Jimmy Page.......

[@TomClark-Futoura]

@@doraemonnobita2730 Interesting. Thx!

[@enol8603]

A few reactors have said that you listen to Band-Maid to become a better musician! Did someone say blues/jazz? ... Misa: "Hold my beer..."

[@Parker--]

You’re absolutely right about depth, especially in this mid-00’s pop-rock subgenre that Choose Me would fit perfectly into. Those songs don’t have this sort if depth, nor do they have solos that shred anywhere close to this.

[@stevehall5128]

It's almost a shame that the consensus is "Live Band-Maid is even better. " I mean, it's _true_ overall, but that's more to do with the energy level, new arrangements, and the band having got comfortable with the song. But there's no way one can hear all the nuances and details of the studio versions at a live concert. That said, I'm really glad they use the backing tracks in concert because I think it would sound thin in comparison to the jam- packed studio tracks. To put it another way, I'm glad it's not just 4 instruments and 2 vocal tracks on record, and that they try to replicate that full sound live.

[@kevinhardy8997]

🕊️❄️🍌🥷🎸

[@jeffersoncosgrove1910]

Theres definitely another vocal track under Saiki in the intro, sining the unison melody one octave down. Not uncommon for them in a verse.

[@rockyetsx70]

The Miku/Saiki vocals are this tight in the live versions too.