BENI vs Thelma Aoyama: Covers Album

Battle of the Mix Breeds

BENI and Thelma Aoyama have both recently  released cover albums. Beni's is titled BENI Covers:2 and Thelma's is My Covers. These two singers
are two of my favorite J-pop singers. When I heard of Beni's first Covers album I was extremely excited. I hadn't heard any of the songs on the first covers album but she sang them all so well. Her first covers album did extremely well in sales (definitely better than her recent albums) and and even made #1 on Oricon; I know its Its been a looooooong time since she's even been mentioned in the same sentence as Oricon. That's why when I heard that she was releasing a 2nd Covers album, I couldn't help but wonder if it was just because she knew she was going to get more sales singing other peoples songs; rather than her own. A couple days ago I got the chance to listen to the whole Covers 2.album. The songs all sounded nice, Beni's voice is awesome as always. My only big problem with this album and the first one is that the songs sounded sooo translated. I mean, you listen to it and you can tell that she used the literal translation. Also there's some songs on the album that I felt should have been left as Japanese songs. It's nice that Beni is finally getting the attention that she deserves, but I prefer her original sound. There's only one or two songs that would make it to my playlist. My favorite song on this album is I Love You. It's one of the better translated songs that isn't soooo obviously translated. I love the melody and BENI's clean voice. Her voice is so soothing in this song.  This song will definitely make it to my J-pop Playlist.

BENI - I LOVE YOU

Thelma Aoyama is (and has been for a long time) my favorite J-pop singer. I am a HUGE fan of Japanese R&B. I don't really like overly Poppy-happy-jolly songs like AKB48. I was toooooooo excited to hear Thelma's covers, especially after watching her Short PV's. I listened to the album and I loved it. There were some songs that didn't fit her voice, but for the most part I loved it. My absolute favorite song was Imagine. I love this song so much. It suits her voice perfectly, and though I haven't heard the original i'm sure its a really good song. Or maybe it's a bad song that Thelma turned in to gold. I have a feeling that Thelma also decided to use this technique for the same reason Beni did; lack of sales.
 
T.O - Imagine by Classi2Scoops

In my opinion, Thelma Aoyama's album was a lot better than Beni's, but Beni's is more creative. Beni is an AMAZINGAWESOMEEFFINFANTASTIC singer. Every time I watch her live performances i'm in awe because it sounds just like the recording; maybe even better. Not to mention that she's drop dead gorgeous. I love the fact that she wanted to make her own English covers of popular Japanese songs, I just wish she tried a little harder with the lyrics. Take the meaning of the song and the story the song tells and make her own lyrics. Thelma's album was better because she has a wide variety of songs from R&B to straight up Rock. This shows that she's versatile.Whereas Beni's album was filled with a whole bunch of the same type of Ballad'y songs. BOOOOOOOOORRRIIIIIIIING.
In the Battle of the Mix Breeds: THELMA WINS!