17 Review
While it’s been a while I haven’t listened to any Japanese artist nor watched any Japanese drama (I somehow got very busy these past 2 or 3 years and basically lost the interest at some point), I suddenly experienced a renewed craze for the Japanese language itself (which I partly try to learn on my own, partly with a friend of mine) and got back to TOKIO. I think I came to an age when boys bands are just too silly for me and definitely too girlish, however I kept a certain fondness for this band which isn’t quite like the other Johnny’s units around (and don’t mistake me, I don’t mean to criticize the other groups, it’s just that I either never paid attention to them or just outgrew them). With this in mind I finally listened to 17 and felt like giving my opinion on it.
To me the best album TOKIO had done so far was Harvest: it is filled with hit songs obviously but it is also filled with a lot of pieces the members have written themselves that I came to like even more than the songs ‘programmed’ to be singles (I’m thinking of songs that are really representative of TOKIO’s ‘sound’ to me like SONIC DRIVE! or Uta ni Shichaimashita and of course the 2 singles written by the members).
With 17 I feel like we have reached a certain level of maturity that wasn’t yet in Harvest but rather still in progress, but along with that we also have lost a certain roughness or rock sound to end up in a more pop-like territory which I’m not always sure about. To make myself clear, I wish someday TOKIO will be allowed to make an album entirely on their own rather than having to sing and play whatever is thought to be more commercially successful. It sometimes works but sometimes ends up being too mellow or flat for my own taste.
From the 8 singles we find on 17 - that is the songs that were not composed by the members - I’m very fond of 3 of them. Amagasa to begin with has always been a favourite of mine: it is like a breath of fresh air, not like any other songs you find on the album and yet quite perfect to my ears. I like the swing of it, its minimalistic approach musically speaking and the depth of the lyrics which at first can be quite disconcerting. I don’t know it feels quite sophisticated to me while remaining simple in appearance. Haruka is also a single that has grown on me (maybe because one day while it was playing on my stereo my sister told me how she really liked this song: that’s when I started to pay more attention to it). At first it can feel mellow but in the end I find I really like Taichi’s keyboard here and the fact that Nagase’s voice is unusually deep (he was straining his voice on Amagasa to keep it high and here tried to do the reverse effect). In the end the song is quite harmonious and relaxing. Finally Taiyou to Sabaku no Bara is another favourite of mine: I like its musicality as well as its intricate lyrics somehow. It is a pop-rock piece which is more on the pop side than the rock one but a very fine pop with a bittersweet kind of feel.
As you would have guessed by now I’m not as fond of the other singles (I know I’m not fond of a song when I end up deleting it from my IPod to make some room). For one I’ve never been a huge fan of Advance: maybe it is the over-present synthesizer sound that bothers me or the fact that Kibou which was released later is kind of a twin sister that sounds slightly better to me. Kibou is one of the songs from this category I dislike the least but still sounds too much like a commercial soundtrack (and the fact that it actually is doesn’t help). It is upbeat and energetic (a style that suits TOKIO) but a bit too artificial. However on a brighter side I like the orchestral version they’ve done of it on the album (it also worked very well as an interlude during the concert). Another song which I know is meant to highlight the lighter side of TOKIO and be cute and everything but that I’m not that keen on either is Nanana (Tayou Nante Ira Nee). I like it as the insert song of Unubore (in fact I like it when at some point Toma’s character, Sadame, uses the title of the song in a very sarcastic way even though he is not aware of it xD) but ends up sounding a bit dull as a TOKIO single. It works well during concert since it allows the public to participate (I particularly like Koki’s appearance on stage at the end of the PLUS concert during this song) but remains to me a minor piece. As for Miageta Ryusei, it is the kind of song that sounds kind of nice the first time your ears land on it because it is meant to be all heart-warming and sweet but which quickly sounds flat after you have listened to it quite a few times. Actually it is a song I feel could have been sung by Arashi or any other units: it lacks a special ‘TOKIO’ flavor and once again makes them dangle dangerously close to the mellow territory. The last single I haven’t talked about yet is Haneda Kuko no Kiseki. The thing is I’m not very sure of what to think of it as it is a bit of a musical UFO to me. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little but I mean that you can feel right away it is Yokoyama Ken who wrote this piece for TOKIO. It has the same kind of flamboyance you find in Transistor G Girl while being less wild and a bit more refined. To be honest I didn’t quite like it the first few times I listened to it but it kind of grew on me somehow (let’s say I’m in the process of liking it more, or maybe I’m way too much influenced by the PV in which TOKIO is just too pretty in suits ^^). Anyway, just as Amagasa has a special feel to it (maybe the strong presence of the artist who wrote the song), Haneda Kuko no Kiseki gives another dimension to TOKIO which you either hate or end up being seduced by. All in all, one song that ends up missing from this list of singles chosen for the regular edition of the album is Akireru Kurai Bokura wa Negou which I would have easily traded with Miageta Ryusei for example. Even though it could be considered to be yet another kind of power-ballad in the same trend, Akireru Kurai Bokura wa Negaou has a depth and a certain dignity you do not find in Miageta Ryusei. It is bittersweet and beautiful while remaining sober. I also find Nagase’s singing particularly powerful on this one.
But of course the real highlights of 17 are the songs composed by the members themselves: maybe it is because they sound more sincere and more TOKIO-like but I definitely find them way better than the ones they are generally given as singles.
Of course I also have my favourites in this category which are Autumn, Sometimes and Jiyuu na Na no Moto ni. A good thing these three songs were written by a different member each time, since it allows us to get a peek at different aspects of the band while showing us what TOKIO is like as one unique band and therefore sound, but still made of different composers and therefore sensitivities.
Autumn is actually the first song I happened to listen to from the album and it sucked me in right away. I love the atmosphere and how everything seems to be muffled and quite sensual. I think the lyrics are superb and the whole feel is very Mabo-like: sophisticated and very mature as well as mesmerizing somehow. Sometimes is a very touching piece where you feel like Nagase wanted to lay bare very deep emotions. If the lyrics in Autumn are rather sophisticated they are on the contrary quite direct and simple in Sometimes, which is why they are so effective. The whole song remains simple and yet quite powerful and airy with the use of the Soldano in the background. At the end it somehow climaxes in a sort of complaint without being cheesy or anything, just beautiful. Jiyuu Na na no Moto ni is another gem that I loved right away. It is another beautiful ballad that brings the album to a close in a sort of majestic way. It feels like a sort of gentle fireworks that celebrates everything that the band is while remaining sober. The music and the lyrics just blend beautifully and make you want to listen to the whole album all over again. As for the other pieces on the album that were written by the members I love how for each of them you can almost systematically guess who wrote it. Archive for example is very Nagase-like in its riffs, in the sense that it is more rock-centric than what the other members can do (which makes me think that for a good moment I was struck at how Lyrics was very Nagase-like as well without knowing at the time he was the one who actually wrote it). It is a very good piece to introduce the album as it progressively raises the tension to finally engulf the listener in it. It is a good example of how Nagase matured as a composer while reminding us of some older songs he wrote (I’m thinking of relatively recent songs like Sugar or way older stuff like Brake Down on Yesterday and Today for example). More is also very Leader-like: while it is not my favourite of the batch (this may have to do with the fact it is sung in English and that I don’t understand a bit of it, which ends up being to me quite amusing and frustrating at the same time), it definitely brings a flavor of its own. As Mabo underlined in an interview, Leader seems to be coming from another time, or more precisely the 50s, which is why his songs seem to be coming from this era too (here I’m thinking of Midnight Rose on Glider for instance which has the same kind of feel). In the end I think More could be coupled with Haneda Kuko no Kiseki on the album in terms of atmosphere. What Taichi wrote for this album is quite pop-like and you can easily hear that As one and The course of life were written by the same person (along with Jiyuu na Na no Moto ni). Both songs are very melodious while at the same time being quite energetic. They also show how Taichi grew up as a composer as I feel he tried to come up with even more elaborated or maybe more mature songs than he used to do. As one and The course of life, and more generally all the songs written by the members could be summarized by the word ‘maturity’ anyway, something that gives unity to the whole album. The sole hint of the past could be Low Speed which is a song I kind of dismissed the first time but ended up growing quite fond of: it may be a minor song but a joyful and upbeat one, which in the end is TOKIO’s true source of appeal.