Anna Tsuchiya - Taste My Beat

After leaving indie band Spin Aqua due to pregnancy and giving birth to her first child, Anna Tsuchiya made her comeback with her first mini solo album Taste My Beat. After releasing the album in August 2005, Taste My Beat appeared very soon at #27 on the Oricon charts and remained there for six weeks.

Ah Ah, the title track of the album, begins with a mix of drums and guitar followed by Anna Tsuchiya's strong voice. The song contains a few guitar riffs, which makes it a catchy song. The end of the song is quite quiet, whereupon it ends with a last quick guitar riff. The second song, Taste My Skin begins with a kind of Darkwave beat; then it proceeds with a short, almost western-like melody. The other part of the song is quite similar with a lot of the same melodies.

In My Hands shows a different part of Anna, one that is more upbeat. In My Hands was also used in the Venus Jean commercial as background music. The next number, FROZEN ROSE, is the only slow ballad on the Taste My Beat album. The orchestra in the background makes the sound dramatic. Anna's voice sounds like it does in the song Broken Rose from the "NANA" anime, in which she has a good control over her voice.

The shortest track on the album is MY LULLABY, and it is also the only song which contains a mix of Japanese and English lyrics. This song, together with Ah Ah, has a better rock sound in comparison with the other tracks on the album and has almost a hard rock-like side.

The last track of the album is Somebody Help Me, which is a cover from the American rock band Full Blown Rose. The track was also used on the television program "Tru Calling" as the Japanese version of the original ending theme Somebody Help Me. Anna seems to have covered this song very well. The voice of Anna Tsuchiya is quite in accordance with the voice of Full Blown Rose vocalist Josephine Conigliaro.

In short, Taste My Beat is a nice album to get familiar with Anna Tsuchiya's pop-rock music and powerful voice.