Cover for both CD & CD + DVD versions
1) JUST FINE
2) Hajimari no Uta
3) COLOURS
4) YOUR SONG Feat MISIA
GLAY's last single release was last Nov's Urei no Prisoner / YOUR SONG .
All 4 songs have promo tie in's except for JUST FINE . Before G4・V-Democracy 2019- was released physically , JUST FINE was released digitally on 21st June .
GLAY only made videos for JUST FINE & COLOURS and both videos were filmed in Hawaii .
The 2nd song Hajimari no Uta was used as the opening theme for the Daiya no Ace act II anime .
Daiya no Ace act II is the sequel to Daiya no Ace , which revolved around Sawamura Eijun , a baseball pitcher who enters a prestigious school known for their strong baseball team and works hard to make it into the nationals .
Hajimari no Uta is described as a refreshing number written by vocalist TERU who's a big Daiya no Ace fan . TERU commented , "I wrote Hajimari no Uta hoping that it would become someone's opportunity to start a new dream or new lifestyle ."
This's the 4th time GLAY provided their songs to be used for the Daiya no Ace anime after HEROES , Hashire! Mirai & Sora ga Aozora de Aru Tame ni .
The 3rd song COLOURS was picked to be used as the theme song for the Final Fantasy XIV Hikari no Otousan TV series .
While the last track in G4・V-Democracy 2019- , YOUR SONG is a remake of sorts as the version included in the single , it features a collaboration with MISIA .
Back when Urei no Prisoner / YOUR SONG was released last Nov , YOUR SONG was chosen to be used as the official support song for the Special Olympics Nippon .
This year is GLAY's 25th anniversary in the business & they no doubt stamped their mark with the release of their latest single offering G4・V-Democracy 2019- .
All the 4 songs in G4・V-Democracy 2019- are different from each other musically so there's something for everyone to enjoy .
Out of all the 4 songs , I feel that Hajimari no Uta is the weak link as compared to GLAY's past songs they've provided for the Daiya no Ace anime , Hajimari no Uta is not very memorable sounding .
On the other hand , it took me a while to warm up to JUST FINE while COLOURS is a great emotional ballad .
I liked YOUR SONG a lot so I was very surprised GLAY chose to re-release the song of sorts in G4・V-Democracy 2019- & this time round , they got MISIA to sing alongside with them .
I don't listen to MISIA but it's real surprising that vocally she sounds really great & in synch with TERU . My only minor grouse is that I wished a different melody would have been used in the newly updated version of YOUR SONG but other than that , MISIA brings great star quality to the duet .
To survive in the music business for 25 years & counting , that's no easy feat but looks like GLAY managed to figure things out & with the conclusion of 2019 looming in less than 6 months' time , I'm sure GLAY will do even more great things in time to come , as part of their GLAY DEMOCRACY 7 Promises 'Pledge' .
And in 1 of the GLAY DEMOCRACY 7 Promises , that includes the release of their 15th studio album while their best album REVIEW II will be released next year .
Cover for all 3 versions (CD , CD + T-shirt & Analog)
1) My New Love
2) Hei, Hashiru
3) WOLF
4) Deus
5) Majestic
6) MR. ARMOUR
7) Da La Da Da
8) Koi Karasu
9) Rain & Dream
10) Ore yo Karma wo Ikiro
11) Golden Rookie
12) SICK
13) Towa ni Wakaku
B'z's last studio album release was 2017's DINOSAUR .
All songs in NEW LOVE were written by vocalist Inaba Koshi while all songs were composed by guitarist Matsumoto Tak .
HINOTORI is excluded from NEW LOVE .
No singles are included in NEW LOVE but the following songs received different promo tie in's prior to the announcement of the new album :
- Majestic ; used in the ads of Pocky
- WOLF ; used to promote the Japanese remake of the drama Suits
- Hei, Hashiru ; used in the ads of Lipovitan D
- Deus ; used in the ads of Suzuki's Escudo car range
Top musicians participated in the album recording including Stone Temple Pilots' Robert DeLeo , Aerosmith's Joe Perry and supporting band members of the current ongoing B'z LIVE-GYM 2019 -Whole Lotta NEW LOVE- .
In Rain & Dream , Aerosmith's guitarist Joe Perry participated in the recording of the song .
B'z made videos recorded in the studio for Hei, Hashiru , WOLF & Majestic . These 3 clips are uploaded on their YouTube account .
Now in the 31st year of their career , B'z begins the new era with NEW LOVE ! The legendary rock duo's latest album features 4 tie in songs including Suits theme song Wolf , Lipovitan D Japan Rugby support song Hei , Hashiru & the CM songs Majestic and Deus .
This's going to be a bit different in the way I write album reviews so unlike other album reviews I wrote in the past , for B'z's latest album offering , I'm going to write in a summary of sorts .
For NEW LOVE , I decided to take a different approach as no singles are included in the new album & I was deciding how I should go about writing it .
For starters , NEW LOVE is 1 of B'z harder albums to get into . I started listening from their 17th album MAGIC & out of the ones I've listened to , NEW LOVE takes a different music approach as compared to B'z past albums .
I don't know if that's a good or bad thing but the 3 songs in NEW LOVE that I felt are borderline filler tracks are Deus , Koi Karasu & Ore yo Karma wo Ikiro as these are the hardest songs for me to remember .
Also I would have loved to see more ballads in NEW LOVE . I like Majestic a lot & it's a shame this's the only slow song in the album .
Normally B'z opening album tracks are quite catchy but this time round that oddly doesn't apply to My New Love . It would have been better if Hei, Hashiru was put as the 1st song in the tracklist .
Other than that , the rest of NEW LOVE is pretty good & quite typical B'z . Rain & Dream is possibly my favourite out of the new material . It's also the longest track in the album but when you have someone like Aerosmith's Joe Perry who plays such a great spellbinding long guitar solo , the time duration is secondary .
It's risky for artistes to release albums that have no singles but for B'z , I guess the risk was quite worth it to some extent . After all they've been in the business for more than 3 decades so they know what works & doesn't work in their favour .
This song was released digitally a week after Eh Yo while the last 3 back to back weekly digitally released song DO ME was released last week .
Out of the 3 new songs that Koda released digitally , Summer Time is my favourite and it's so easy to see why .
Unlike Eh Yo which took me a while to get used to , I didn't had that problem with Summer Time as I like the way how fuss free it sounds .
The best way I can describe Summer Time is if HOTEL & LIT had an offspring together .
CD
CD + DVD A
CD + DVD B
NEWS's 10th album WORLDISTA was released in March while their last double A-side single release was 2016's Hikari no Shizuku / Touch .
Both Top Gun & Love Story had different promo tie in's .
The outfits for both Top Gun & Love Story were produced and styled by member Masuda Takahisa .
Top Gun was used in TV Tokyo's drama Yotsuba Ginko Harashima Hiromi ga Mono Mosu! ~Kono Onna ni Kakeru~ which member Kato Shigeaki made a guest appearance on the 3rd episode of the drama .
The 1st A-side is described as an uptempo tune with powerful brass & strings .
The 2nd A-side Love Story was used in the ads of GREE NEWS ni Koishite handphone game in celebration of the game's 1st anniversary .
Described as the group's purest love song ever , Love Story is a message from NEWS & the singing voices of fans recorded at NEWS DOME TOUR 2018 - 2019 EPCOTIA -ENCORE- are integrated into this love story created by everyone .
Both A-sides have videos made and for Love Story , aside from the standard group version , 4 solo versions were made as well .
3 different B-sides are available in all 3 versions of Top Gun / Love Story : CD only - Dragonism
CD + DVD A - weeeek -Represent NEWS Mix- ; 7th single
CD + DVD B - Yume no Kazu dake Ai ga Umareru -Represent NEWS Mix- ; B-side in 4th single TEPPEN
I was really disappointed with WORLDISTA as it was unusually dreadfully boring despite the awesome concept that NEWS presented but luckily , NEWS has not lost their spark when comes to their singles (yet) .
Top Gun & Love Story contrast each other differently . I wasn't sure what to think about Top Gun at 1st but I grow to enjoy it as time goes by .
Also I like the inspiration behind the creation of Love Story . I thought it was going to be some cheesy love song but once I found out the back story of the no. , it's a nice gesture for NEWS to incorporate their fans' input into it .
As for the B-sides , I have mixed thoughts about them . I felt Dragonism could have been something included in WORLDISTA as it would have fit the album's theme .
While it was nice to hear the newly recorded versions of weeeek & Yume no Kazu dake Ai ga Umareru , this time round I felt the originals are still better .
The original take of weeeek felt more energetic sounding but for the newly recorded version , it felt quite lifeless to some extent . If a different melody was used , it would have been better .
Likewise the same thing goes for Yume no Kazu dake Ai ga Umareru too . I don't mind if the newly recorded version was an acapella version which will pay a great homage to 1 of the old version of the song as back in NEWS's debut album touch , a short acapella rendition was included in the tracklist which was & is still great up to this date .
Top Gun / Love Story overall is not NEWS's best single they delivered but given a choice , I do not mind to listen to their latest single offering as compared to WORLDISTA .
This new song of Koda was chosen to be used to promote the upcoming Rugby World Cup 2019 .
Koda's 2nd back to back digital released song Summer Time was released last week on 10th July & this will followed by DO ME tomorrow on 17th July .
I wouldn't lie that when I 1st heard Eh Yo , it reminds me of ARASHI's BRAVE a lot to a certain extent and in a way that's not surprising as both songs were chosen to be used to promote Rugby World Cup 2019 .
It's interesting that both Eh Yo & BRAVE sound quite similar but yet they were created by different people .
Eh Yo is not that catchy on 1st listen but the song grows on me after a few listens .
Despite being a digital released song , it was nice to see Koda performed Eh Yo on TV to get the word out that she's back with new material after releasing AND & DNA last year .
Shota has not released anything new music this year until Sorry .
Even prior to listening to Sorry , I already had a feeling I was not going to like the song & unfortunately my hunch was right .
Already the beginning of Sorry turned me off due to the autotune which's something Shota has been overusing since 2015 .
I already wrote numerous times that I got into Shota's music more than a decade ago not because of his over usage of autotune & I feel that he genuinely can sing well .
It's sad that autotune has somewhat stunted Shota's musical growth in recent years . For once I rather hear Shota rap as compared to him using autotune yet again in his material .
CD
CD + Blu-ray
1) fabulous (Instrumental)
2) FAB LOVE
3) move on! Ibaramichi
4) Jump And Pump
5) BEASTFUL
6) RakugakiMOON
7) BIG SUN
8) JUNK-YARD DOG
9) Deadly Drive
10) Endless Summer [with FIRE HORNS]
11) Glorious days
12) the one
13) Take it easy
GRANRODEO's new album was released a week after their 30th single Setsuna no Ai & FAB LOVE is GRANRODEO's 1st studio album since 2017's Pierrot Dancin' .
4 singles & 2 B-sides are included in FAB LOVE . Setsuna no Ai & material from GRANRODEO's 1st mini album M・S COWBOY no Gyakushuu EP are not included in the new album .
All songs in FAB LOVE were written by vocalist KISHOW while all songs were composed by guitarist e-ZUKA .
2 videos were made for 2 new album tracks in FAB LOVE ie. FAB LOVE & Take it easy .
After a rather strange out of place yet beautiful orchestra instrumental opening no. fabulous kicks off FAB LOVE , the new album wastes no time diving straight into the 1st new album track which shares the same name as the album title .
FAB LOVE (the song) is 1 of 2 videos that GRANRODEO made . This song wasn't memorable on 1st listen but the more I listen to it , the more it slowly grows on me .
move on! Ibaramichi is GRANRODEO's 27th single & it was used as the opening theme for the anime Saiyuki RELOAD BLAST .
Jump And Pump is the 2nd album track and as the song title suggests , this definitely sounds like something that will get fans excited during a concert .
BEASTFUL is GRANRODEO's 29th single & this was used as the opening theme song for the Baki anime .
The next album track RakugakiMOON has an interesting start as the opening of the song has oddly Hawaiian influences with the ukulele being used .
I thought RakugakiMOON would sound like that for the whole song but unfortunately that only happened briefly in the beginning .
BIG SUN was originally included as the 1st of 2 B-sides in GRANRODEO's 26th single Glorious days .
When I 1st wrote about Glorious days at that time , I liked the other B-side Tsuki ni Daka Rete Nemuritai a lot more than BIG SUN .
Given a choice I rather see Tsuki ni Daka Rete Nemuritai make the cut in FAB LOVE as there's not much ballads in the new album .
JUNK-YARD DOG is the 4th album track & this song alongside with the last track Take it easy were recorded overseas in Los Angeles's prestigious Capitol Studios which's a 1st for GRANRODEO to do so .
GRANRODEO went to Los Angeles last Oct to do their 1st overseas recording & at that time they discussed they wanted to do this during the creation of M・S COWBOY no Gyakushuu EP .
Deadly Drive is GRANRODEO's 28th single & this was used as the opening theme song to promote the Bungo Stray Dogs DEAD APPLE movie which KISHOW had a voice role credit in the animated movie .
Endless Summer was originally included as the 2nd B-side in GRANRODEO's 27th single move on ! Ibaramichi .
In FAB LOVE , Endless Summer has been given a FIRE HORNS remix just like what happened to Punky Funky Love in Pierrot Dnacin' .
I think both Endless Summer & Endless Summer [with FIRE HORNS] are equally fun Summer inspired songs . For the version in FAB LOVE , it's just as upbeat as the original .
Glorious days is GRANRODEO's 26th single & this was used to promote the Kuroko's Basketball LAST GAME movie .
Wrapping things up in FAB LOVE are the album's last 2 new material the one & Take it easy .
Both the one & Take it easy are 2 equally long tracks but surprisingly for GRANRODEO's case , I enjoy their long songs a lot which's unusual .
the one is the closest I can consider it to be a ballad & this reminds me of GRANRODEO's 12th single Koi Oto to some extent .
Take it easy is the 2nd album track GRANRODEO made a video for & it rightfully deserves so as it's a great empowering no. which's a good choice to conclude FAB LOVE on a positive note .
GRANRODEO's latest album release FAB LOVE is a bit of a music departure from their last 2 studio albums where it took me quite relatively fast to get into the material .
This time round , that didn't happen for FAB LOVE but that's not necessary a bad thing as the material in GRANRODEO's new album is quite different from Pierrot Dancin' .
For starters , the new material in FAB LOVE has a more Americanised flair to it which's not a surprise given that it was the 1st time for them to fly to Los Angeles which led to the creation of JUNK-YARD DOG & Take it easy .
Some of the minor grouses I have towards FAB LOVE is that I would have preferred if GRANRODEO put the singles + B-sides in the 1st 1/2 of the album while the 2nd 1/2 of the record to be new material or vice versa as it's quite disruptive to have existing material interwined with new songs .
Maybe it's just me being picky & also it would have better to see GRANRODEO put in more ballads in FAB LOVE as I do feel they're real good in doing ballads , just as well as the upbeat rock songs .
But overall , FAB LOVE is pretty good . It sort of picks up from where Pierrot Dancin' left with some different music twists & I don't find it as dark moody as compared to Karma to Labyrinth .
GRANRODEO LIVE 2018 G13 ROCK☆SHOW "Don't show your back!" Blu-ray will be released next month on 21st Aug .
