Yui: Can't Buy My Love

Let me confess now that I'm new to the whole J-Pop phenomenon, but I picked up this CD in Hong Kong and I'm hooked. Yoshioka Yui is a 20 year-old singer-songwriter from Fukuoka. Her second album, Can't Buy My Love, made it to the number 1 spot on the Japanese Oricon charts back in April and has so far sold more than half a million copies worldwide. Yui is like Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson and No Doubt mashed together and sung in Japanese (and let me apologize now for mashing No Doubt and the other two together). I know this doesn't sound particularly appealing, but the album is great, full of catchy riffs, catchy lyrics (I imagine, if you speak Japanese), hummable tunes and songs that could win the Eurovision song contest. Rolling Star, It's Alright, CHE.R.RY, and Winding Road are my favourite songs (why are the titles in English, you ask? I dunno.....). You can catch I Remember You and Goodbye Days on YouTube.