1) Overture 2) Natsu no Namae (The name of summer) 3) ROMANCE 4) Lai-Lai-Lai 5) Days 6) Subarashiki Sekai (It's a Wonderful World) 7) Sakura Sake 8) Rain (Ohno Satoshi's Solo) 9) Itsuka no (The one day) Summer (Aiba Masaki's Solo) 10) W / ME (Matsumoto Jun's Solo) 11) Hitmitsu [Secret] (Ninomiya Kazunari's Solo) 12) Yume de li Kara [You can dream] (Sakurai Sho's Solo) 13) Yes ? No ? 14) Kazamidori [Weathercock] (Regular Edition Track)
One is ARASHI's 5th album . It was released 3 years ago on 3rd Aug in Japan in 2 different formats .
The regular edition contains a bonus track Kazamidori (Weathercock) , while the limited edition contains a DVD which contains a documentary of the making of the album & a 32-page booklet .
There's only 1 single included in One & this's the 1st album that included 5 solo songs that were done from each of the guys in the band . This measure followed suit in their future 7th & 8th albums , Time & Dream"A"live respectively .
I don't consider ARASHIC in the picture since the guys did pick up songs in that record so techincally they're not full solo songs by right .
I will review the 5 solo songs separately from the mix .
The album start things off with a rather long introduction called Overture . & after that you get 3 uptempo tracks .
I start 1st with Natsu no Namae (The name of summer) which's a really nice song to listen to especially since summer's here & the song's made even better with the apperance of Sakurap .
Track 3's called ROMANCE . It's quite a poppy upbeat no. & it gets quite addictive as I listened to it everytime the song rolls . This's followed by the next song titled Lai-Lai-Lai & as the title suggest , you get to hear lots of the words Lai-Lai-Lai in the song & this's 1 guilty pleasure song that I like .
The only ballad of sorts in the album is up next . Titled Days , this's probably the only slow jam no. in One but I adore it big time . I love the fact that Days sounded really uplifting & soaring at the same time which's backed up by strong saxophone & trumpet influences being thrown in the mix . This song's a keeper in One .
The next track's 1 of my fave non singles on the album . Titled Subarashiki Sekai (It's a Wonderful World) , I love the harder gritter rock sound attached to the song & Sakurap just makes the song even more better as each listen goes by .
The album has reached the 1/2 way mark now & what better way to fill the spot with the only single found on One which's the band's 14th single Sakura Sake ! & I can definitely tell that the sound transition's there after the spotlight on Subarashiki Sekai been shifted to Sakura Sake .
Sakura Sake was used as an image song for Johnan Yobiko , a prep school which features Sakurai . This's probably the last single that the band has put out in a while which has a strong rock edge to it although the most hard rock song that they have put out the last time was their 9th single PIKA☆NCHI that was released 6 years ago .
But still I adore Sakura Sake , Sakurap in the song's just awesome & the PV was quite random for that matter .
Since the next 5 songs are the solo no.s of each member , I will skip this part for a while & jump all the way straight to the last 2 songs on One .
1st in line's 1 of the more stronger tracks on the album . Called Yes ? No ? , there're traces of Sakurap yes & also the melody of the song presented a more heavy trance disco setting which I surprisingly like considering that I'm not really a trance person to begin with .
Kazamidori (Weathercock) is only available in the regular edition of One & this's such a cool way to close off the album . I like the melody of Kazamidori as it's really charming .
& right now I will review the solo songs that're available in One .
1) Rain (Ohno Satoshi's Solo) - Rain's the 1st solo song done by Ohno & once again he doesn't disappoint to deliver this rather mid tempo no. . He has great control over his vocals in this no. & you can definitely tell that outta the 5 , I enjoy all the solo songs that he has put out in One , Time & Dream"A"live the most .
2) Itsuka no (The one day) Summer (Aiba Masaki's Solo) - a rather well summer & cheery song coming from Aiba which's quite nice really . It will be good for him to do ballads as solo tunes in future ARASHI albums since the other 2 found on Time & Dream"A"live are also in the same vein as Itsuka no Summer .
3) W / ME (Matsumoto Jun's Solo) - MatsuJun's 1st solo song . In case you're wondering how to pronounce this title , it's Without Me .
W / ME is not bad but it's not the best solo tune coming from MatsuJun & the chorus gets repetitive as each time I listened to it . His vocals seems to wear thin after a while but still I prefer this over the solo songs that he put out in Time & Dream"A"live & yes my stand's still the same in that I like I Want Somebody outta the whole lot .
4) Hitmitsu [Secret] (Ninomiya Kazunari's Solo) - This solo tune coming from Nino is really breezy & fun . The piano & the beats going on in Hitmitsu is quite cool although I definitely can tell he doesn't seem to have much control in his vocals in here as compared to future solo songs that he put out in subsequent albums .
5) Yume de li Kara [You can dream] (Sakurai Sho's Solo) - my 2nd fave solo song in One coming from Sakurai . Yume de li Kara is quite a chilled out & smooth no. & you get a good mixture of Sakurap & his singing in this song which's good .
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At 1st , I was skeptical to give One a listen because well there's only 1 single available in the album but I'm surprised that I enjoyed the non singles & also considering that this's the 1st album that they included solo songs in the mix , it's not bad really .
The non singles are quite well defined & strong in their own way although I personally think it would have been better to include the band's 13th single Hitomi no Naka no (In the eyes) Galaxy / Hero as this's 1 double A side that I enjoyed a lot .
With that said , One's worth getting especially if you want to add it to your ARASHI CD collection .
Blog Personnel
Karen Pang
# 10th Jan
# #1 BREAKERZ fan in Singapore since 2008 debut single ♥
# My music blog consists of JPop/Rock singles & albums reviews that I put my heart , efforts & soul into writing them as I'm disgusted with the way that JPop/Rock music is being treated/written/reviewed in Singapore so to the local media (yes you TEENS , Teenage Magazine & The Strait Times) , screw you all . I basically can write better JPop/Rock reviews , period
