SUPERGOOD SUPERBAD review by Tomohisa Yamashita (translation)

TV Guide (Kanto version)

January 22 – 28 2011

To be released January 26, Tomohisa Yamashita’s first album “SUPERGOOD, SUPERBAD”

Yamapi gives his own comments on all the songs.

Disc 1 – SUPERGOOD

1. 抱いてセニョリータ (Daite Senorita)

“It’s a song about wanting to be held by my senorita.  Sorry to just repeat the title (laughs)”

2. はだかんぼー(Album version) (Hadakanbo)

“Who needs lies, go as your true self.  The lyrics are about baring your heart and letting out what is truly you.  ‘脱いで脱いで(take it off, take it off)’ repeats a lot too.  I hope businessmen can sing this when they’re having a bad day.”

3. 月と太陽のラブソディ(Tsuki to Taiyo no Rhapsody)

“It’s a song aimed at a rival; like, ‘I won’t lose to you but you better not lose to me either’.  It’s got a hint of Showa period feel and a global view.”

4.Crazy You

“It’s a song that says…’I’ve fallen completely and crazily in love with you!'”

5. サンタマリア (Santa Maria)

“Thoughts about admiring Saint Mary.”

6.　溺愛ROBOT (Dekiai ROBOT)

“A song about…’I’m going to give you heaps of love’.”

7. 罪と罰 (Tsumi to Batsu)

“This is a really up-tempo dance number, everything about if from the arrangement.  The ‘Yamapi’ calls are fun too.  It’s got a taste of the 1980’s.  I think its old feel is cool too!”

8. 口づけでアディオス (Kuchiduke de Adios)

“‘Adios’ is Spanish (laughs).  Please listen to the song for the rest.”

9. 青春アミーゴ(Seishun Amigo) by Shuji & Akira

“It’s a memorable song I sang with (Kazuya) Kamenashi!”

10. 最強のラブ・ソング(Saikyo no Love Song)

“This is my first ballad.  It’s emotional.”

BONUS TRACKS (only available on regular edition)

11. 青 (Ao)

“This is a song I wrote the music and lyrics to when I was 19.  A lot of fans had requested this song so we recorded it properly and were able to put it in the album.  Please have a listen!”

Disc 2 – SUPERBAD

1. Theme of “SUPERBAD”

“It might only be the intro, but it has power!”

2. Tokyo Sinfonietta

“This is a song that says, ‘ Tokyo is city like this’.  Many kinds of dreams come true here.  Dreams do come true okay!”

3. PARTY DON’T STOP (feat. DJ DASK)

“Like the title says, it’s the perfect dance song for a party!”

4. One in a million

“This is another dance song, and it naturally makes you want to move your body!”

5. Yours Baby

“A little mellow, but it’s a song that suits that mirrorball scene.”

6. ONE GIRL

“It’s a very pop song!”

7. Loveless

“It’s a slightly sad song about love having come to an end.”

8. ごめんね (Gomen-ne)

“It’s a song that you’d sing to a girl when you’re sorry.  I can’t say anything more about it from my mouth so please listen to the rest yourselves.  I’m sorry! (laughs)”

9. Blood Diamond

“It sounds cool and heavy.  It is a very cool song so please check it out!”

10. Sleepwalking

“This is a love song.  It describes how no one can wake me up from it…how I can’t get out of love.”

BONUS TRACKS (only available on regular edition)

11. Touch You

“This song’s motif is a mobile phone.  It describes how calling isn’t enough and I want to feel you.”

12. TOMO

“‘TOMO’ comes from the ‘TOMO’ of ‘Tomohisa’.  You’ll have to hear it to know what kind of song it is!”

13. Friday Night

“You won’t be able to listen to this unless it’s Friday, but that makes it special (laughs).  It’s an up-tempo number about meeting a girl.”

14.  MOLA (R-midwest REMIX)

“MOLA is Spanish for ‘cool’.  It brings out that taste in the song!”

Jin Akanishi aiming for US debut on his birthday

Plans to release his first album in the summer, a single release in Japan, and a planned tour of the US and Asia were all revealed at Jin Akanishi’s concert in Tokyo on January 14, reports Sports Hochi and Sankei Sports.

 

“I hope I can release a single in the US by summer too,” Akanishi said.

 

As a way to say thank you to his Japanese fans, the singer announced he would release “Eternal”, a single in Japanese on March 2.

 

It has been reported Akanishi had been busy working towards his first album, and even flew over to the US on January 2 for work.

“I’ve been chasing time since last year so I haven’t had much time to sleep,” he said.

 

At a press conference before his Tokyo concert, it had been revealed his team was aiming for a July 4 release date for his debut album, which not only is Independence Day in the US, but is also Akanishi’s 27th birthday.

“I hope it will be this day,” he said.

 

It has been reported that after the album’s release, Akanishi will embark on another tour that will include both the US and a number of Asian countries.

 

At yesterday’s concert, Akanishi entertained more than 22,000 fans in Saitama Arena with the performance he had given in the US, plus three songs in Japanese.

 

His Japan concert tour will continue in the Saitama Super Arena on January 15 and 16 before moving onto the Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, the Nihon Budokan in Tokyo, and the Kobe World Kinen Hall by mid-February.

Kanjani8’s first album in one-and-a-half years set to break new grounds (interview translation)

Interview script released by オリ★スタ (Ori-suta), October 25 edition, on sale October 15

Q: Now everything about your new project has become clear.  Your new album will be released as a set with “FEATURE MUSIC FILM”, a 77-minute DVD that includes all of the album’s songs.  I found the idea of fusing together your music with film something very new.

Murakami: Thank you very much.

Q: The seven of you haven’t acted together since your stage show at Osaka’s Shochiku theater (in 2006) but did you have fun during filming?

Yokoyama: We did have fun.  We were all playing games together between shoots.

Q: Unlike the things people see in variety and music shows, there were plenty of scenes where you all showed more cool and serious expressions.

Yokoyama: When I saw the finished product, I was surprised.  I thought, “they were filming so much”.  I didn’t know how many scenes I wasn’t in until I saw the end product.  I felt like there were a lot more scenes where we were together with the other members than I had imagined while reading the script.

Nishikido:  Filming was fun, but I particularly enjoyed the time we had in between filming.  Usually when I’m out filming a drama, it’s like I’m on my own because the other members aren’t there.  I’m quite lonely a lot of the time (laughs).  But this time I was always with the others during breaks.

Yokoyama: We even went out to eat steak during one break eh.

Maruyama: Oh yeah, we did.

Yokoyama: I think this might’ve been the first time I was able to see how much each of us had matured while we were working together.  I remember the first stage show we did together, and because Okura only had variety show experience, he was trying to stick his ear mike onto his chest.  But of course it wouldn’t stick so he was panicking (laughs).  That had such a big impact on me, I can still picture that scene clearly in my head.

Okura: Ohh, will you stop it (laughs).

Yokoyama: And now I’ve seen how much you’ve changed after being in so many dramas.

Q: In the past, Yasuda-san and Okura-san said they had wanted to do a movie as a group.  Is this project a fulfillment of that request?

Murakami: No, the staff had suggested all of it.

Yokoyama: Of course, I do think there would’ve been some parts they had thought of after hearing our comments.  While we were rehearsing for our New Year’s Eve concert last year, the staff were telling me, “wouldn’t it be great if you get the chance to make a new album and a concert tour next year”.

Q: So, you already knew that you’d be having a second New Year’s Eve concert around that time?

Yokoyama: We found out about it during our concert tour at the end of last year.  Some people at our agency suggested it might be easier to schedule in a New Year’s countdown concert if we planned our tour to end around then.

Q: When did you shoot this movie?

Yasuda: Around May to July.

Q: And the album was recorded around the same time?

Nishikido: No, that was quite a while afterwards.

Yokoyama: But the staff would talk about the album’s songs a lot during filming.  Things like, “we’ve asked these people to write the songs”.

Q: So you didn’t go through a process like you did for last year’s album “PUZZLE”, where you chose songs from a long list of choices?

Nishikido: The staff were directing us and saying, “this song is like that so go along with it”.

Murakami: But for our solo songs we did get to choose our favourite one from a list of a few choices.  Except for those who wrote their own songs.

Q: Having listened to your album, and your recent singles, I felt they were all high quality, “musically competitive” songs.  Especially “LIFE～目の前の向こうへ～”, which was your first single as a band.

Nishikido: I’d been talking about this for ages.  I’ve been saying I wanted to release a single as a band and perform on music shows.

Yasuda: I’d always thought it would be cool to show people that Kanjani8 can do a lot of things other than the style they had seen up to now.  I think that having various musical skills is what makes us strong.

Nishikido: For our singles up to now, it was all about the performance.  Of course, performance is a very important thing and it’s not that I’m suggesting we won’t do it in the future.  I just wanted to show as many people as possible that we can do something different.  It’s not even a new challenge for us, we’ve done it before during concerts, it’s just that we’ve never done it on TV.

Q: The ballad song “願い (Negai, Wish)”, where you all sing in unison, is an example where I felt betrayed in a good way.  I got the sense that you’ve been putting a lot of work into harmonies.

Shibutani: We made these songs knowing they’d have video footage playing alongside it.  I think we were constantly imagining that whoever was singing would have their shots running at the same time.  There was a lot to take into consideration when figuring out how to sing your part.  I found the way that we developed this as something new and interesting.

Q: Yasuda-san, Okura-san, where did the song “って!!!!!!! (tte!!!!!!!)” (available in regular edition only) come from?

Okura: When I was out drinking with Yasu and…it came out from the flow of things.  Yasu asked me, “So?”…so I did my best.

Yasuda: At the start, Okura wrote out the first draft of the lyrics, then one of us would edit it and send it to the other via email.  I’d change some words or add some in.

Q: “って!!!!!!! (tte!!!!!!!)” was the most Kanjani8-like song to me.  Especially because it has seven exclamation marks.

Yasuda: We wanted to make a song unlike any other.  We thought that if you were going to sing a rock medley, it would sound something like this.

Yokoyama: “Rock medley” sounds embarrassing.  I think Johnny’s are the only people who would call it something like that (laughs).  I swear musicians like Mr. Children wouldn’t say, “for out next rock medley…”.

Okura: (laughs) Yeah, well, at least it shows that Johnny’s encompasses a variety of genres, right.