Tales of Vesperia: Ring a Bell – Bonnie Pink

	Album Title: Tales of Vesperia: Ring a Bell – Bonnie Pink
	Record Label: Warner Music Japan
	Catalog No.: WPCL-10488
	Release Date: August 6, 2008
	Purchase: Buy at CDJapan

Overview

This is Bonnie Pink’s 24th single and it was released on August 6, 2008. This single reached #9 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and it has sold 32,087 copies. The title track was used as the theme song for the Japanese release of the video game Tales of Vesperia. Here are my thoughts about the release.

Body

Earlier in April, Bonnie Pink released her first worldwide digital single titled “Ring A Bell” for the video game Tales of Vesperia. The song was in English and I thought that it was a pretty good pop rock track. I liked the various electric guitar riffs and the upbeat nature of the music was nice and steady too. “Kane wo Narashite” is the Japanese version and it was written after “Ring A Bell” so she translated the lyrics and did some changes to make it sound more cohesive in the language. I think that she did a good job on that part, give or take a few clunky spots.

The B-side is something completely new from Bonnie Pink and I loved it. “Pump It Up!” has an awesome 80s dance inspired sound filled with catchy synth riffs and beats. The chorus is fantastic and I liked the muffled voice in the background that said “Let me hear you”. The song as a whole is very infectious and the melody is something that hasn’t left my head.

As much as I love “A Perfect Sky”, the Björn Remix is absolutely terrible. It was originally included as a bonus track on the Swedish release of the Thinking Out Loud album and now it’s on this single for some reason. I pretty much hated everything about this remix but the newly added background vocals were the worst thing about it. They’re just so annoying! The music is really corny because of the awful clapping beat and synth lines too.

Summary

Despite a disappointing remix, the A-side here is a solid track. Those who want the English version may enjoy downloading the iTunes version instead, but followers of the artist won’t go wrong here.

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