[PUZZLE] Thoughts on Unit songs and Solo songs
Let me just first say that I LOVE the main album!! There's soooooooooo much in there. To think that there are 12 new songs just in the main album... THANK YOU, haha it's worth the wait, eh? There's so much to memorize now though, lol. I hope I'll be ready for the upcoming tour!!
As for the unit songs and solo songs...
GLORIOUS - I think it's a catchy song and even though I'm 100% Japanese, the English lyrics come in easier for me, lol. It's a good song but it's just so-so for me because during the interviews for this song, they've been saying that they couldn't come up with anything themselves so they just decided on a song the day before their recording. I mean, it's their style and I have nothing against it, but I just feel like they could have put just a bit more thought into it, you know? Haha. I wonder if they can memorize the whole song for the tour!
KICYU - No doubt my favorite song out of the three, haha. The lyrics are too cute and the song is awesome in many ways. I honestly was very disappointed when I first heard Yoko saying that their PV was all animation. I thought he was joking, but it made me sad that he wasn't. But, once I watched the whole thing... I actually liked it a lot and thought that the whole thing was very fitting. I really like how Yoko and Shota were working together on this. Yoko's said it many times that him and Shota had texted each other, talked over the phone, went over and over their ideas until 3 or 4am every night. Yoko said he had never been so nice to Shota before because he was worried that he was bothering Shota while he was rehearsing for his play. I just love how they did things on their own. I liked the part in the "making" DVD where Shota was saying that he's putting little breaks here and there in the song so that it'll be more disco-like. He is so musically TALENTED; I thought it was awesome that he was coming up with that wacky background music on his guitar!! Yoko's lyrics are just too cute, too!! I don't think there's any other 27, 28-year old men out there that can write lyrics like this, haha.
YOU CAN SEE - Just listening to the song was not that fun, but I liked the PV. I love how it's somewhat funny when Hina and Maru act all cool and tough, lol. I also love how Maru couldn't hold it in the end! He just HAD to let it out, eh!? Hahaha. I like the word play they use in the lyrics. It'll be hard to memorize the whole song, though!!
Some thoughts on the solo songs, in the order of my favorite...
#1 AIRAIRO - This was the first song I listened to out of all, haha. I always mentally set a hurdle on Shota, expecting him to do even better than the one before. I mean, Watashi Kagami was unbelievably awesome so I thought that it was going to be very hard to beat that, but this was well beyond my expectations. At the beginning of the song, I heard him singing with his guitar so I thought, okay, maybe it's another nice, soft-sounding guitar piece. Then, some Hawaiian-type rhythm played for a few seconds so I thought that maybe it's that kind of song, cool, I mean he's into Hawaiian and all... but then!!! What is this funky bass tune!?!?!? OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "KAKKOII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" was my first impression of the song. It's so MANLY compared to Watashi Kagami. Written and sung from a guy's perspective, for sure!!! You can just FEEL that he's put sooooooooooooooo much thought and effort into the details of this song. I think he's gained a lot of confidence in song making after his success with Watashi Kagami and desire. He said that Watashi Kagami was ranked somewhere in the 60's out of ALL the songs in a ranking (he didn't specify what it was but I'm guessing maybe it's the cell phone ring tone download ranking or most-sung-at-karaoke ranking) so that must have given him even more motivation to write songs. I... just don't know what to say other than that I am so proud of him!!!
#2 413man - Yes, Yokocho! I actually got teary after reading the lyrics for the first time. He writes such warm-hearted lyrics. Songs like "Fantastic Music" and "Wonder Boy" are okay, but I prefer him to sing warmer songs like the Sankyodai songs, Hoshiimonowa or this "413man." I really like this song.
#3 Wanshan Ronpin - HAHAHAHAHA Can you believe it!? Ranked 3rd!? LOL. The first time I saw the lyrics I was like WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS DUDE. I listened to the song and it was all jungle-like and I was like "Is this Maru doing Lion King all by himself???" Then the middle part was soooooo Uta-Oni-like!!! He is such a good Uta no Oniisan, btw. I think he's a better Uta-Oni than Ohno. Anyway, I was able to memorize the Uta-Oni part after listening to it just once, haha. It's just so catchy! I like it way more than Magic Word. He is so special, haha.
#4 Half Down - Ryo's songs are always safely-sung, you know what I mean? He never tries new things. Can't he try singing a song like WANSHAN ROOOOON PIN DON SHAAAAAN???? LOL Well, he doesn't have to be THAT extreme, but you know. Anyway, I think this song was pretty good. The melody line suits Ryo and the arrangement of the song was pretty. I haven't read the lyrics carefully yet, but overall it was sounding nice!
#5 words - When I first read that Subaru was singing just with the piano, I was expecting a jazzy song like Greedy. So, in a way, this song was kind of blah for me. But the more I listen to it, the more I'm looking forward to hearing it live. His solo songs are usually "stay still and listen" type songs, you know, you can't really dance or move around to his songs. But this one, you can actually say ohhhhh or clap hands! Haha. He really likes the "cry" "try" rhyming, doesn't he. I also think that he's including FFF in the song because the repetition of "Rafu" is Rafurafurafura fura furafura, haha see?? Fura Fura!
#6 no-no-no - The moment I heard the intro I was like "HEY BRITNEY" lol. I remember Ohkura saying that his song was like Britney, and sure enough it sounded like it!! Hahaha. Sorry to all the Ohkura fans, but I don't find his sighs that sexy... when I hear him breathe like that, I can only think of him trying to catch his breath after climbing a mountain or doing tough trainings at temples, lol. I feel like this is not the kind of song that he sounds best in.
#7 One's shadow - Oh, Hina... Hina's solo was disappointing this time around :-( Because I liked Forward so much, this was blaaaaaah. This is SO NOT Hina!! Forward was just too perfect for him, so I didn't think that this song stood out at all. He's trying to be all fancy!! He already did that with YOU CAN SEE!!
That's just my opinion, haha.