Alas, RL pwns Maou-squeeage
So, because one of my colleagues got ill, I'm pinch-hitting at a teachers-parents-children thing for families with disabled children this weekend. It goes from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, which means, sadly - no Maou squeeing from me until late Sunday night! *sad
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YES! EXACTLY! *______*
Pikanchi Double and Sakura Sake are two of my most favourite Arashi songs (actually, I think Pikanchi Double is my absolute favourite Arashi song), together with "Right Back To You", because they've got such powerful dynamics and interesting vocal parts and, as you say, hit you right in the gut. And "Truth" is just like that. *_______*
Aiba's voice is nice. It works so nicely low and furry (I'm not sure how else to describe the timbre of his voice :P) and blends with Ohno's so well
"Furry" works pretty well, considering that his voice is so hard to describe. Like, it's a bit husky, but also warm and smooth at the same time and there's really not a word to describe it properly. I think of it as melted dark chocolate. ^___^
And it does blend with Ohno's voice well - I'm not too bad at discerning the guys' voices, but there are some songs where it's really hard for me to tell whether it's Aiba or Ohno singing with one of the other guys at a certain part, because Aiba's singing voice sounds rather different from his speaking voice and Ohno's really good at blending with the other guys voices.
I think it is Sho who does that counterpoint when Ohno's got the long notes. I'm not sure who else is singing with him, it doesn't sound like it's only him though.
I've been wondering about that too! ^__^
I think it has to be Nino, because while Nino's voice is normally really distinctive, Sho's got the power to "over-sing" him, so Nino's voice would add to the power of the counterpoint, but without being very audible as 'Nino's voice'.
My guess as to who's singing what would be this:
Ohno - Ohno&Aiba - Ohno&Jun/Sho&NinoCP - Ohno/Sho&NinoCP - Ohno&Aiba[1] - Ohno&Aiba&Jun/Sho&NinoCP - Aiba&Jun?[2]/Sho&NinoCP - Ohno&Arashi[3]
[1] I'm REALLY unsure about this - it's a little part before Jun definitely comes in again, and I can hear that someone's singing with Ohno, only I have no idea who it is. It might be Aiba&Ohno&Jun, with Jun's voice blending in really well.
[2] Again, very unsure - it sounds as if it's just Aiba and Jun, but Ohno is probably just be blending in with those two very well. But, on the other hand, we definitely have Ohno coming in very strongly again at the next part, so it might actually be Aiba and Jun alone.
[3] At this point, they blend (or got blended?) together so well that the only voices I can pick up for sure are Ohno and Jun. But since it's the chorus, it would make sense for all of them to sing together.
As I said, I guess Nino's singing counterpoint together with Sho... but after having listened to the song far too many times in a row, I think he might also be in the Ohno&Jun&Aiba parts, with Sho singing counterpoint alone... *confused* My guess would still be that he's singing counterpoint with Sho, though, simply because the counterpoint isn't all that easy to sing, so Sho might do well with another member to support him there.
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I think of it as melted dark chocolate. ^___^
Mmmm, chocolate. :D That's interesting that you think of his voice as smooth. For me it's definitely warm, but more soft at the edges with a bit more...burr? Buzz? to it, compared to, say Ohno who attacks his notes crisply and cleanly. It actually makes it a bit easier for me to tell his voice.
Hee, your footnotes are cute. I'll go with your analysis, since listening to it so much is making my brain kinda fuzzy, hehe.
Ah, this is a complete and utter tangent, but I'm curious about your thoughts on harmonies. Not just in this song, but in general. Which is to say, who does them? Because I get confused when I hear, for example in Sakura Sake, tenor and almost counter tenor harmonies during the A melody, and I think it's Nino doing it. But then when it's in concert, I'm thinking it can't be Nino because he's one who goes obviously flat a lot once he starts running around and that can be killer for a song harmony. ^^;;; And Ohno's voice is so distinct...
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(And yes, I love good harmonizing too, though for some reason, it's not as important in bubblegum pop for me. ^-^)
Aiba's voice... is so hard to describe! ^^" I think the way his voice sounds is smooth (as I said, like melted chocolate), but you're right, his intonation isn't as sharp as Ohno's (or Nino's, when he's singing correctly) and it's sort of ...blurry around the edges? ...Still hard to describe. ^^"
Harmonies... I find that really hard to say with Arashi.
Generally it seems that Nino does the high harmonies they have in some songs and it makes sense, because he's got the highest voice and when rested he's the best singer after Ohno, and in the Sakura Sake recording (and in the video) it's definitely him doing the counter-tenor stuff; but you're right, in concert he tends to go flat as soon as he's out of breath (which he seems to get more easily than the others), so either he constantly lip-syncs his harmonies, or someone else supports him there. I'd like to think that they don't lip-sync to ALL their songs (and in some songs it's kind of painfully obvious that they don't - thankfully! ^^"), but I don't know who might be supporting him there. It definitely can't be Ohno - apart from his voice being distinct, he's also the lead singer in most songs with harmonies, so he's stuck with the main melody. It can't be Jun, because Jun needs a strong voice to support (and guide ^^") him (hence him getting stuck with Ohno most of the time), so I don't think he could give strength to Nino if his voice went flat. There's only Aiba and Sho left and... I don't know, Aiba and Sho both can obviously do harmonies, and actually, I'm pretty sure that it's Aiba who does most of the lower harmonies, and I think he can do high harmonies (see below), but I'm not sure he's doing it during Sakura Sake.
But I'm really not good at discerning who is doing harmonies. I've been trying to find out who's doing this really high part in "Right Back To You" from the beginning, and I'm still not sure! Actually, I'm not sure who does what part in that song most of the times.
At the beginning, it's definitely Aiba doing the harmonies to Ohno's main melody, but then (around 20 seconds into the song) comes a really short high part that I think might be Aiba still, but am not sure he is.
And then there's the chorus... IF Aiba's the one doing the first short high part, then he could also do that part (and actually, when he's screeching his voice can rise to an amazing pitch, so it would physically be possible to him), but he's doing the main part right after that and I'm not sure that he could go from that high to low and hit the right notes right away, too.
Then there's the "right about time" around 1:20, during Sho's solo part, which might be sung by either Nino or Ohno, but I can't say which of them... and it goes on like that. ^^"
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