Thoughts on Arashi's Albums
I was reading arashic0804's Post on Vox about what makes a good song a good song? And her thoughts on Arashi's music.
I was going to leave a comment in response, but my response become so long, I figured I'd make my own post about it.
Arashi's Good Albums, and Why They were Good
I must say, I agree with how the ONE and TIME albums are one of their best (and my favorites). And you can definitely notice Arashi must have liked those too - or at least, songs from there - because they selected those songs to be on the ALL THE BEST album. (or at least, the music producers for ALL THE BEST felt they would be right to select those songs).
What was good about those albums, I think, were that most (if not all) of the songs were "really good". But what makes a song good, like arashic0804 asked? I liked her answer:
"For me a good song means it is a song where you remember at heart and will listen to it from years to come…
This also applied on Arashi…"
I really liked this answer, and it made me think of my own, slightly revised version of that: A good song is one that I think gets to you, emotionally, on some level: whether you are happy, sad, moved, energized, or something. If you have an emotional connection to the song, it's one you remember. The more evocative, the more memorable.
And what makes it a “good” song? Mostly this is a question of personal taste, but some songs that are catchy enough and evocative enough manage to capture the hearts of most of the population (with allowance for differences in personal taste).
Like who can forget the nostalgic and beautiful "Subarashiki Sekai" and the up-beat, rallying anthem, "Sakura Sake" from ONE? Or the songs from TIME, like Aiba's sweet and earnest "Friendship" and the sweeping and ardent "Life", or hard-edged, cool "Firefly"?
But a good album is more than just a bunch of "good songs" (although that's important too). What else matters?
Consistency
The other thing that made these albums great, in my opinion, was that there was a good consistency with the songs. As in, the album felt "connected" and all the songs had the same vibe. Not to say that ALL the songs were the 'same' (there were ballads and pop songs mixed in), but the SOUND was such that: "oh! This is the vibe for 'Time'" or 'One'.
For example, ONE, for me, sounds like nostalgic, happy summer time.
TIME is the new wave, a time for transition and slowly moving forward into new things.
Both albums had songs that were upbeat and moving, somehow - which I feel is what Arashi's "Sound" is, as an artist.
In tandem with consistency, these albums felt like listening to a "movie" that had a beginning, middle, and end, instead of a hodge-podge patch-work of sounds and flavors. True, this hodge-podge of music may sound good, depending on how well it is executed -- for example, ARASHIC has that sense of mixed-genres. And if an album’s intent is for the artist to experiment, that's great. However, at its core, an album should have some sense of fixed "identity", which makes the album stand out, in a person's mind.
And of course, do not underestimate the importance of having good songs.
Arashi's Not-So-Memorable Albums, and Why They Weren't
DREAM “A”LIVE. Everybody loved the solos from it, but the album itself was very much "forgettable". For me, it didn't leave much of an impression on me, because it felt too retro (like 80s and 70s music, which I don’t like). Again, although DREAM “A”LIVE had a “vibe”, and attempts consistency, it doesn’t do a very good job of it. The consistency strikes a chord of dissonance and in all honesty: there were not a lot of good, memorable songs there.
The only memorable, good song there was “Once Again” and the solo songs.
What makes these songs good? I don’t know, but the solo songs here up-beat, memorable, and each sound evoked some emotion strong enough for us to like. E.g. - “Take Me Faraway” was evocative song of yearning with an R&B style. “Gimmick Game” was pop-ish and bratty but mixed well enough that it got your heart racing and the party started.
Another “forgettable” album was Here We Go! True, this was more of Arashi’s older work, but the reason I didn’t like it was the songs seemed to blend together, they were all attempts at being more hip-hop (which, honestly isn’t Arashi’s “sound”, as we know it now), but the songs were similar and nothing really stood out.
The New Album…?
Anyway, that is my analysis. As for the new album: I have yet to form an opinion on the entire album. I’ve only listened to it once through. Although there are some songs in there that alone, are shining gems, while other songs are “okay”… I wonder if you have too many multi-colored gems in a bracelet, each standing to shine its own way, it ruins the effect of each one, creating some dizzying mess of color.