嵐「untitled」Review
I wasn't sure where else to do it, but I'm going to post my opinions on/review of the new Arashi album here! I've never done anything like that before, so please don't take it too seriously. ^^ I also want to note that my Japanese isn't perfect so there is a lot I don't understand from all the lyrics. I haven't had the time to sit down and translate for myself yet.
Track 1 (Green Light): I think this was a good choice to start the album with! It's bright, peppy, and has a very Arashi feel to it. I'm surprised it wasn't a B-side on a single, honestly! It goes well with Power of the Paradise, I think.
Track 2 (tsunagu): I'm a little biased because I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it. It gets stuck in my head and I've started learning the choreography to it so I have a reason to listen to it over and over, haha. But yeah, super catchy and rhythmic.
Track 3 (mikan): SO. CATCHY. I was concerned about the tone changes in this song when I saw a TV spot where they previewed the song, but it has really grown on me. I'm not the biggest fan of the first half of Sakurai's rap. It's a little hard to hear, and especially as Japanese is my 2nd language it gets pretty hard to understand over the music and the background vocals. But otherwise, I like this one! It'll probably be my new ringtone out of the whole album.
Track 4 (Sugar): I'm glad they have been doing more like...adult love songs lately. As opposed to the kind of idealistic high-school type of love story kind of songs. This is straight up a club song. I'm all about it. The music sounds like it would be a US pop song, tbh, just half in Japanese.
Track 5 (Power of the Paradise): I'm not the biggest fan of this song, tbh. Just didn't inspire me, and it still doesn't. It just feels like I've heard this song on every album. It reminds me of Aozora Pedal in that way (not at all in sound). It isn't bad, but they have songs that sound like this so frequently. Since this was supposed to be the time to embrace different things, PotP doesn't do that for me.
Track 6 (ari no mama de): It's cute, but would have been better as a Sakurai solo song I think. It reminds me of Can't Let You Go in the rhythm a bit so maybe that's why I feel that way. It's a cute, carefree song, but not very memorable to me.
Track 7 (fuun): I like this one a lot! I think it's a good energizer, like Sakura Sake, and would be super fun to see in concerts. I like how this doesn't sound like an Arashi song with just the music, but the lyrics still convey that vibe.
Track 8 (I'll be there): I love this song so much! I really like when Arashi does songs with a kind of jazz flavor to it, like Aiba's Janakute solo for example. I think it suits their voices really well and something just clicks with me. So I loved this song (aside from the fact that I also enjoyed Kizoku Tantei). I wish they would do more that sound like this except for their maybe 1 per album!!
Track 9 (houyou): There is so much English in this song. I'm not a fan of that personally but can't seem to avoid it with Jpop anymore. It kind of distracted me from really hearing the song. It's good and reminded me of In the Room from the Japonism album. But it wasn't super memorable for me aside from vocals and the good bass line. Seriously, though, way too much English.
Track 10 (Pray): By this point in the album I really appreciated a slow song, so in terms of track list this one was placed well as 10/13. Sounds like a calming CM song~
Track 11 (hikari): The gospel-esque background vocals were super surprising at first, but I got into it once it started. I'm a big sucker for Arashi nostalgia, and this sounds a lot like some of their older songs/albums (think Lucky Man, Arashi No. 1 Ichigou, and Arashic). I enjoyed it a lot because of that. It's not a sound you would normally hear in a modern song, and I think that's what I liked about it. The lyrics are also pretty cute and uplifting from what I understood of it!
Track 12 (kanata e): This one also reminded me of American music, but I can't figure out what specifically it reminds me of. It has that Arashi vibe to it as well, that adds some predictability to the album that didn't have a specific theme like most of those in years past. Everyone has some good adlibbing in at the end too, which is wonderful and will hopefully be just as exciting at the concert!
Track 13 (Song for you): Well this is a roller coaster of an experience. This is the infamous 10+ minute song on the album! To be specific, it is 11 and a half minutes. For me it felt like blending 800000000 songs and it's hard to describe overall so I'll just talk about it in pieces. It started off with almost an intro "track" (like Dream A Live) that was completely instrumental. Like the intro song to Arafes in 2013. Ohno sings a bit and then it gets more poppy, almost like a Christmas song in a Hallmark movie. Then kind of ignores ALL of that and gets more "In the Room" vibes. Nino sounds great in this section so I'm all about it. It is definitely supposed to have more retro feeling, like swing music almost. It changes from there to what sounds like background music for a spy movie, then they (Sakurai and MatsuJun) sing again. It sounds like only the 2 of them for this section, honestly. Like a sneak peak to Disc 2. :p There's another interlude and Ohno starts off the next shift. It stays a little more hushed and Disney parade like for that section but sounds like everyone joined SakuMoto from earlier. The bit from the beginning plays again (the intro music over some drums). They do the big swelling of the music again, which morphs into a slower piece. It feels like heavily borrowed from the intro but with lyrics over it this time. It partially reminds me of 5x10, with a break to sound like the intro to One Love for a bit. But that is the final "piece" that the song ends with in terms of lyrics. If I had to pick a favorite section it would be the swing music section. Again, I love big band, brass-heavy sound that reminds me of jazz so it'd the part I get most excited for. I can't figure out how they will perform this at a concert but I'm sure MJ will come up with something clever.
Thanks for reading my rambling if you stuck through that! I may do another one of these for Disc 2 but I have to get out of fangirl mode for the return of unit songs before I even attempt it.
-Amaya