CD
CD + DVD
1) A or B
2) Happy Life (Mika Nakashima × Salyu)
3) A or B -instrumental-
Mika's 8th album TOUGH was released in March .
A or B was used in the ads of Kao's Flare Fragrance Kokoro ni Hanasaku which actress Ishihara Satomi appears in the ad .
The A-side is described as a cute love song & it's a bright uptempo no. . The covers contrast each other , playing with the themes of Rain and Sunny .
A or B is a pop song about choosing between 2 different options in regards to love .
Happy Life serves as the B-side in the single & this was 1st released digitally on 12th May under the name Mika Nakashima × Salyu .
Produced by Kobayashi Takeshi , Happy Life was used in the ads of Tokyo Metro's Find my Tokyo. which also starred Ishihara Satomi & with Mika making a cameo appearance .
Mika's previous single Koi wo Suru showcased a different music side of her & similarly that goes for her latest single offering A or B .
1 thing that surprised me about A or B is the length as I didn't expect it to be quite long . I didn't quite like the song at 1st but the video no doubt changed my perception on it in due time .
Also I liked Happy Life when I 1st reviewed it so I have no issue for it to be included as the B-side in the single .
I'm not sure what Mika's next move will be but I assume that A or B will be her last music release of 2017 as she will be starting her new hall tour MIKA NAKASHIMA FULL COURSE TOUR 2017 ~YOU WON'T LOSE~ this coming Thurs & I'm quite sure she will be performing A or B .
CD
2 CDs
2nd CD tracklist - acoustic songs . Disc is named Acoustic Sessions
1) Samurai Heart (Some Like It Hot !!) ; 4th single
2) RAGE OF DUST ; 19th single
3) Be with ; 20th single
4) Supersonic ; track #8 in 3rd album MILLION
5) Stand by me ; track #12 in 4th album 4
Tracklist for all 3 versions
1) THE WORLD IS MINE
2) RAGE OF DUST
3) MIDNIGHT
4) Scramble
5) Kimi ga Ita Natsu
6) THIS IS HOW WE ROCK
7) BRING IT ON ~Battle of Rap~
8) Don't Look Back
9) Brand New Days
10) C!RCUS
11) Goldship
12) Be with
The group's last studio album release was 2015's 4 . KINGDOM was released in 3 versions , CD , 2 CDs (2nd disc has 5 acoustic songs) & CD + DVD .
4 singles , 1 special single & 2 B-sides are included in the new album .
Kicking things off in KINGDOM is THE WORLD IS MINE which was a special single that only can be purchased at JUST LIKE THIS 2017 outdoor concert .
THE WORLD IS MINE was used as the theme song for JUST LIKE THIS 2017 . A video containing digest footages from JUST LIKE THIS 2017 was made for the song & it's included in the DVD of KINGDOM .
In addition , THE WORLD IS MINE was also chosen to be used as the opening theme song for TBS's CDTV for this & next month .
I'm so relieved SPYAIR included THE WORLD IS MINE in KINGDOM as prior to that , I've heard the edited version of the song which I really like & I feel it's a great choice to make it as the album's opening track .
The next 2 songs are singles before KINGDOM was released .
RAGE OF DUST was released as SPYAIR's 19th single & it was used as the opening theme no. for the 2nd season of the Mobile Suit Gundam : Iron-Blooded Orphans anime . The song was described as a positive & powerful message song that portrays the theme of 'battle' .
MIDNIGHT is SPYAIR's 21st single & it was used to promote Fuji TV's Utsubokazura no Yume drama . It was the most single release prior to KINGDOM .
Album track Scramble was chosen to be used as the theme song to promote the upcoming new Gintama Ranbu PlayStation4 / PlayStation Vita that will be released in Jan 2018 .
Past single songs of SPYAIR that were used to promote the Gintama anime franchise included 4th single Samurai Heart (Some Like It Hot!!) {ending theme} , 10th single Sakura Mitsutsuki (opening theme) & 12th single Genjou Destruction (theme song for Gintama : The Movie : The Final Chapter : Be Forever Yorozuya) .
After a considerable number of upbeat songs , things slow down considerably in the form of the mid tempo Kimi ga Ita Natsu & this's the 2nd longest track in KINGDOM after Be with .
THIS IS HOW WE ROCK was released as SPYAIR's 18th single & it was used as the theme song for last year's JUST LIKE THIS 2016 outdoor concert .
BRING IT ON ~Battle of Rap~ was originally included as a B-side track in SPYAIR's 20th single Be with & this song features a rap battle between vocalist IKE & guitarist UZ .
Don't Look Back & Brand New Days are 2 new album tracks back to back . Don't Look Back is aggressive sounding just like RAGE OF DUST while Brand New Days goes into synth usage overdrive which makes this song a class of its own .
C!RCUS was originally included as the B-side track of SPYAIR's 19th single RAGE OF DUST . This was used as the theme song to promote SPYAIR's 2nd Arena tour , SPYAIR ARENA TOUR 2016-2017 『Mafuyu no Dai Circus 』 .
When I 1st reviewed RAGE OF DUST , I really like C!RCUS so I'm pleased to see it made the cut in KINGDOM as it's still such a fun song to listen to .
Goldship is the last album track & this's a bit on the weaker side as it took me a while to remember how the song sounds like but aside from that , Goldship is an uplifting track .
Concluding KINGDOM is the ballad Be with which was released as SPYAIR's 20th single .
Overall I really enjoy listening to SPYAIR's latest album KINGDOM . 1 thing I notice about their past album releases is that the album tracks tend to be on par if not sound more superior than the single songs which's not an easy thing to do especially since they don't have a habit of including interlude in their albums .
I find it interesting that in KINGDOM there're 2 songs which were used in both last year & this year's JUST LIKE THIS outdoor concerts . Not sure if it's coincidental though .
Also , I like the acoustic songs that're included in the 2nd disc of KINGDOM . Out of the 5 songs given the acoustic treatment , I feel the acoustic take of Be with is the weakest as it doesn't elevate the original take of the song that much .
But the acoustic versions of the other 4 songs were good . Samurai Heart (Some Like It Hot !!) done acoustic was a nice surprise while the acoustic take of RAGE OF DUST more or less managed to retain the same attitude as the original .
Also hearing the acoustic take of Supersonic was interesting as I didn't expect that as I thought maybe Winding Road might get an acoustic treatment and lastly , acoustic take of Stand by me was good & it has become a favourite song of SPYAIR to perform during their recent concerts/tours during the encore segment .
End of the day , it's great to see how much SPYAIR has progressed since their early humble indie days . Fans have speculated that the round circle below the M word on the KINGDOM covers is Tokyo Dome & I don't see why SPYAIR is unable to perform in a future Dome tour where they already did so well for their 2 Arena tours .
CD
1) HUSH
2) HUSH -Instrumental-
For this , HUSH is the 2nd of 3 limited release singles from Koda just like last April's Shhh! & August's LIT . Koda's 62nd single will be released in Dec .
HUSH is described as a medium Autumn dance tune that's filled with different vocal expressions .
Unlike LIT which's a straightforward fun upbeat Summer song , HUSH itself is quite unusual as it was not what I thought it might sound like .
Traces of Insane can be felt in HUSH and just like in Insane & Bassline , Koda once again does a fair bit of rapping .
All in all , HUSH is a very interesting song & I enjoy it considerably . It wouldn't surprise me if Koda's next single will be a Winter ballad but I definitely am looking forward to it before 2017 wraps up .
CD
CD + Photobook
CD + DVD
1) NOMAD
2) XYZ
3) Glass no Hitomi
4) Snow
5) Shitsuke
6) Butterfly Effect
7) Teion
8) KILL TIME
9) Rasen no Yume
10) Futsu no Kiseki
SID's last album release was 2014's OUTSIDER . NOMAD includes 3 singles that were all released this year .
All songs in SID's new album were written by vocalist Mao . 6 songs were composed by bassist Aki except for :
- Glass no Hitomi , Butterfly Effect & Teoin ; composed by drummer Yuya
- KILL TIME ; composed by guitarist Shinji
Kicking things off is the 1st new album track that shares the same title as the record and NOMAD (the song) is a great empowering uplifting opening no. .
XYZ is a straightforward upbeat Rock song and it's also the shortest track in NOMAD , just under 3 mins .
Glass no Hitomi is SID's 21st single & it was used to promote the anime movie Kuroshitsuji Book of the Atlantic . On Glass no Hitomi , Mao commented , "We produced the music & lyrics as if we were creating the worldview of Kuroshitsuji together with the movie ."
Snow & Shitsuke are the next 2 album tracks that follow suit . Snow is a laidback mid tempo song while Shitsuke is an outright aggressive track so both no.s are complete opposites of each other .
Butterfly Effect was SID's 22nd single & the single was 1 of the rare instances where there was no B-side/s available (same with their past singles such as hug , White tree) .
Teoin is the only album track that was composed by drummer Yuya & it's also 1 of my favourite new songs in NOMAD as it's quite a cool intriguing no. .
Similarly , KILL TIME is the only song in the album that was composed by guitarist Shinji . I wished this track had a lot more stronger Jazz Bossanova influence as the introduction was promising but that was only quite subtle .
Rasen no Yume is SID's 23rd single & it was used as the opening theme song for the Shoukoku no Altair anime .
Prior to the release of NOMAD , Rasen no Yume was the latest single release from SID .
Concluding things in NOMAD is Futsu no Kiseki . NOMAD (the song) is a great album opening track & it only makes sense to get a good closing no. which's what I felt towards Futsu no Kiseki .
It's quite surreal that it has been so long since SID last released a new studio album as the last few years bassist Aki unexpectedly was the 1st from the group to release solo music , followed by vocalist Mao .
On 1st look , 10 songs in NOMAD doesn't seem a lot but I feel most of the new material is quite good and it's very evident Aki has a flair for composing as all the while , he tends to compose a considerable amount of songs in SID's discography unlike Shinji and/or Yuya .
Also in SID's past studio albums , they don't have the tendency to include instrumental interlude tracks which can be a good or bad thing .
Some might feel shortchanged regarding NOMAD but I personally have no problems with the album as for once , I actually like the album tracks more than the single songs to a certain extent which doesn't happen that often .
That said , I hope I wouldn't need to wait for another 3 years for SID to release another new album once more .