Straying from JDK Band 1 and 2, comes JDK Band 3, "Falcom Vocal Special". While still with a band, the "hard rock edge" of the first two begins to ebb, when you begin to find ballads, female vocals, and pop-like rhythms and instruments. Hey, at least these are live instruments, right?

The vocalists are Kishimoto himself, and two girls named Yayoi Yamashita and Yuka Nagaori. Sounding just like a late 80s cover band (but now covering videogame music), anyone who doesn't like vocals usually HATES this album. It takes the right kind of person to appreciate this album to the full extent, and I'm pretty sure that I'm not one of them.

I do like the instrumentals at least for every single track, the band does a really good job making each song rock-ish (unless the track isn't rock-ish, such as "Too Full With Love"). Just about every song has a guitar solo somewhere: and they're always really fast/loud/high-pitch, which pleases me.

Nothing is as corny as "She's Like so Hot"...Especially because these words are what repeat over and over during the chorus...Kishimoto isn't even delivering the phrase right. He just says "She's like so hot!" giving each word the same amount of time and stress. To say the sentence correctly, any American knows that it's "She's like...SO hot!". He probably shouldn't have had the "like" in there in the first place.

I really don't like having a female vocalist do "Departure at Sunrise", so this is probably my least favorite vocal version of the song. The new version of "See You Again" is pretty good, the guitars in "Paradise" are REALLY good, and I really like the way the first track sounds overall.

So, this lengthy opinion you just read along with the samples provided below should make it easy for you to decide whether or not you're a likely candidate for being a big fan of this CD. If you're not a big fan, stay away. If you are, check out eBay every now and then for it, and you may be lucky! IT'S LIKE SO HOT! - (I had to say it).

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann