:+: No Music No Life :+:

Friday, August 01, 2008

CD Review :: NEWS - pacific

CD Only Regular Edition Cover :

CD Only Limited Edition Cover :

Tracklist :

1) Ai no Matador (Matador Of Love)
2) Sayaendou (Green Peas)
3) TEPPEN
4) Change the World
5) Kimi Omou Yoru (A Night I Think Of You)
6) Alibi [A Proof Where A Person Was Somewhere] (Koyama Keiichiro & Kato Shigeaki's No.)
7) code (Ryo Nishikido's Solo)
8) Chirarizumu [Taking A Glance] (Koyama Keiichiro & Kato Shigeaki's No.)
9) Ai Nante [Just Love] (Tegoshi Yuya , Ryo Nishikido & Kato Shigeaki's No.)
10) Nantoka Narusa [We Can Work It Out] (Masuda Takahisa , Yamashita Tomohisa & Koyama Keiichiro's No.)
11) Gomen ne Juliet [I Am Sorry Juliet] (Yamashita Tomohisa's Solo)
12) Hadashi no Cinderella Boy (Bare Footed Cinderella Boy)
13) Hoshi wo Mezashite (Aim At A Star)
14) Mafuyu no Nagareboshi [Shooting Stars In Middle Of Winter] (Regular Edition Track)
15) Sono Egao Boku ni Misete [Show Me The Smiling Face] (Regular Edition Track)

pacific is NEWS's 2nd album . This was released last Nov on the 7th in Japan simultaneously with their 7th single weeeek .

The limited edition comes with a 32-page booklet , while the regular edition comes with a 16-page booklet & 2 bonus tracks .

3 singles are included in pacific in which 1 of them's a double A side single .

The album start things off with 1 extremely infectious Spanish influence no. called Ai no Matador (Matador Of Love) & Ai no Matador is 1 of my fave non singles found on pacific simply because it's such a strong catchy no. that I like on 1st instance .

Track 2 is the 1st 1/2 of the band's 5th/double A side single Sayaendou (Green Peas) . Sayaendou was used as the opening song for the One Piece movie & this's 1 single that I really like because of the strong Carribean beats going on in Sayaendou & also the mention of One Piece in the background does help to promote the movie in everyway possible .

Next up in line's the band's 4th single TEPPEN (Top) . TEPPEN was used as the theme song to Fuji TV's coverage of the Women's Volleyball World Grand Prix 2005 . I was feeling a sense of deja vu when I 1st heard TEPPEN because I definitely have heard this song somewhere before but it's just that at that time , I don't know who sang it but at least now I do .

Track 4's the 2nd non single on pacific . Titled Change the World , it's quite a charged up rock driven no. & I do think it almost borderline on the filler factor because the sound transition from TEPPEN to Change the World wasn't there at all but I'm ok with it now .

Kimi Omou Yoru (A Night I Think Of You) is the next track & this's 1 of the few slow no.s on pacific & I like this song . The guys's vocals on here are calm & it's a mellow driven no. with some extra help from the appearance of an enka which gives Kimi Omou Yoru an unique touch .

Track 6's called Alibi (A Proof Where A Person Was Somewhere) & this's only sung by Koyama & Shige . Both of the guys's vocals are in synth & compliment each other extremely well in this laidback tune .

The next track after Koyama & Shige's no. is a solo song performed by Ryo that's named code . I would have liked this song a lot more if Ryo were to cut down on screaming yeah yeah yeah in the background or he should have stopped doing that altogether because frankly that's the only thing which really stood out in code which's unfortunate because I personally think code had a lot of potential to be a good solo song but something minor like this came in & just destroyed everything but I give Ryo credit for having good vocals in carrying off this solo song of his pretty well .

Track 8's called Chirarizumu (Taking A Glance) & it's a pop/rock no. & it's the 2nd song to feature just Koyama & Shige on vocals . It does get samey as time goes by because the chorus keeps getting repetitive which got a bit annoying for me but at least the sound transition from code to Chirarizumu is there .

The next track's possibly my fave non single on pacific & also the most surprising song on the album . Titled Ai Nante (Just Love) , this no. is performed by Tegoshi , Ryo & Shige although most of the time , I tend to hear Tegoshi's vocals more than the other 2 on this song .

Still , Ai Nante is an amazing emotional ballad delivered by 1/2 of NEWS & it's quite evident from this song , Tegoshi has the best vocals in the band .

Nantoka Narusa (We Can Work It Out) is up next & this's performed by Masuda , Yamapi & Koyama . This's 1 fun summery track as evident in the melody of Nantoka Narusa & just like Ai Nante , I tend to hear more of Masuda's vocals as compared to the other 2 (Koyama seemed to be MIA on here & I only managed to hear Yamapi sing for a brief moment) but it sounded like the other 1/2 of NEWS had a lot of fun recording this song .

Gomen ne Juliet (I Am Sorry Juliet) is after Nantoka Narusa & this's the 2nd solo song found on pacific that's performed by the group's leader Yamapi . As compared to Ryo's solo no. on the album , I prefer this because the melody of Gomen ne Juliet is less complex than code & also Yamapi has more control over his vocals than Ryo .

Yamapi can carry off solo songs on his own with ease as I have heard his other solo songs prior to pacific so Gomen ne Juliet is good for me !

The next song's the other 1/2 of NEWS's 5th/double A side . Titled Hadashi no Cinderella Boy (Bare Footed Cinderella Boy) , this song was the theme song for the dorama Isshun no Kaze ni Nare & Hadashi no Cinderella Boy is a highly charged up techo driven no. which surprised me at 1st because I thought with a song title like Hadashi no Cinderella Boy , I thought it might be a ballad or something .

The last single to be found in pacific Hoshi wo Mezashite (Aim At A Star) is track 13. This's the band's 6th single & the 1st one after their year long suspension as former NEWS members Kusano Hironori and Uchi Hiroki were demoted to the status of "trainees" because of the fact that they were caught for underage drinking .

Hoshi wo Mezashite was used as the theme song of the Japanese release of Happy Feet for which member Tegoshi voiced the main character Mumble .

I really like Hoshi wo Mezashite the 1st time I heard it as it's 1 of the rare mid tempo no.s that NEWS has put out during that time because their 1st few singles were extremely upbeat & complex so Hoshi wo Mezashite was a nice change in music direction for NEWS .

The last 2 tracks are only available in the regular edition of pacific . 1st up in line's a song called Mafuyu no Nagareboshi (Shooting Stars In Middle Of Winter) & just like Hoshi wo Mezashite , Mafuyu no Nagareboshi is a relatively calm & finger snapping guitar driven no. which's very nice & pleasant to listen to on a lazy afternoon .

The final track is incidentally the shortest track on pacific clocking in at 1:14 mins . Titled Sono Egao Boku ni Misete (Show Me The Smiling Face) , this's a really short but sweet track & the guys's delivered it acapella style which was really refreshing . Too bad the duration of Sono Egao Boku ni Misete is so short as I'm sure if they were to expand the song by a few secs or something , it will be a great non single .

pacific was an interesting album for me to listen to because in the middle of the album's tracklist , it consists of some songs that were not sung by the whole band & as such , initally I had a bit of problem identifying who did or did not sung on which song/s but aside from that , the album's a pretty good listen although some parts can be improved like the introduction of more ballads & acapellas as I realised the guys tend to place quite a lot of emphasis on upbeat pop/rock driven no.s .

While I don't mind that , I thought it will be better to include more ballads in their future album/s to balance things out since there's only 1 ballad found on pacific techincally but at least those non singles songs that were partially performed by the group are strong & they're great/unique in their own right & also the singles included on the album are winners & distingused enough to hold a candle by themselves .

Not to mention I like that they incorporated exotic music influences in their songs as evident in Ai no Matador & Sayaendou .

& before I forget , it wouldn't hurt to give the other 4 members their own spotlight when comes to solo songs as it's a bit unfair to leave it all for Yamapi & Ryo to enjoy the limelight as the rest ain't 1/2 bad vocalists to begin with , especially Tegoshi & Masuda .

Give pacific a try & you'll be pleasantly surprised at the musical journey it will takes you from the start to the end .