CD
2 CDs + DVD
1) Motto Ii Hi ni
2) Kinmokusei
3) Blue Moon
4) Victim of Love Feat ONE OK ROCK's Taka
5) Kibou no Yuragi
6) Michishirube
7) Negaiboshi (ayaka & Miura Daichi)
8) Xmas Santa
9) Tender Love
10) 100 Years 10 Colours
11) Love for everyone
ayaka's studio album release was 2018's 30 y/o & for LOVE CYCLE , the new album depicts love in many different forms .
7 songs that were released digitally prior to LOVE CYCLE are included in the new release which included :
Released in 2020 :
- Michishirube ; released digitally in March 2020 ; used in the ads of fashion brand earth music&ecology
- Negaiboshi (ayaka & Miura Daichi) ; released digitally in July 2020
- Xmas Santa ; released digitally on Christmas in 2020
Released last year :
- Motto Ii Hi ni ; released digitally last April
- Tender Love ; released digitally last April ; tie-up with Chugai Pharmaceuticals
- Blue Moon ; released digitally last Aug ; used as the theme song for the PG Tales of ARISE which's the latest installment of the popular RPG series Tales of
- Kinmokusei ; released digitally last Nov
4 new album tracks are made available in LOVE CYCLE .
LOVE CYCLE's lead album promo track Victim of Love was 1st released digitally last month on 19th Jan . Featuring ONE OK ROCK's Taka , the song has a video made .
ayaka participated in the [re:]project launched by Taka & Shota Shimizu in 2020 . After this , Taka & ayaka became friends , which led to this collaboration .
Victim of Love was composed by ayaka & written by Taka and it took about 6 months to complete . Produced by UTA , it's described as a love ballad with a delicate melody & simple yet straightforward lyrics
The album's 2nd new song Kibou no Yuragi was used to promote the web drama Jinsei Toushi Annai Hito .
100 Years 10 Colours which's the 3rd new album track was used to promote the movie Persephone no Namida starring Watenabe Shu & Goriki Ayame . A video was also made for 100 Years 10 Colours but not only it's not included in LOVE CYCLE , ayaka does not appeared in the video just like Kinmokusei .
While the last new album track Love for everyone is the only new song that has no promo tie in's .
Celebrating her 16th debut anniversary , ayaka brings her 1st new album in 3 years ! LOVE CYCLE is a work painted with different kinds of love .
Compared to ayaka's previous album 30 y/o , LOVE CYCLE is definitely a lot more musically diverse .
However I personally have mixed feelings towards the new album & my main issue is that there're so little new album material but luckily I like all of them & no surprises Victim of Love is the best out of the lot as ONE OK ROCK's Taka is vocally in sync with ayaka really well .
I'm sure if I didn't listen to the prior digital released songs , I probably would like LOVE CYCLE on whole a little bit more but 1 thing about ayaka is that she more or less consistently deliver music wise which could be a good or bad thing .
Due to this , Victim of Love is quite a big step away from ayaka's musical comfort zone .
Hopefully for ayaka's next future album release , she will not repeat what she did for LOVE CYCLE ie. incorporate so many prior digital released songs which I suspect it could be 1 of many reasons why it's her 1st studio album not to debut in the Top 10 in its 1st week of release & that's a real shame as after all these years , she's still 1 of my favourite female solo acts to listen + support .
This song was chosen to be used to promote NTV's coverage of 2022 Winter Olympics starting from 4th Feb until today .
ARASHI's Sakurai Sho wrote the rap lyrics in CRYSTAL MOMENT .
With Sakurai having some personal input towards CRYSTAL MOMENT , it's no surprises that the song is very ARASHI ish sounding ie. in the same music vein as Kaze no Mukou e , Road to Glory & Shiro ga Mau which coincidentally all the songs were used to promote past Olympics coverage .
So for those who do not like or support ARASHI then chances are CRYSTAL MOMENT is something that might be skip but to me at least KAT-TUN tried something different even if it wouldn't please everyone .
That said , KAT-TUN's 10th album Honey will be released on 29th March & CRYSTAL MOMENT will be included in the new album .
This version is a re-recorded version of Michishirube which was originally included as a B-side no. in Fukuyama's 24th single Keshin .
Fukuyama performed Michishirube ~Kouhaku 2021 ver.~ at last year's 72nd NHK Kouhauku Uta Gassen & he was the last artiste to perform in the White team .
This's the 2nd time Fukuyama has re-recorded Michishirube after he 1st did so for Michishirube 2010 which was included in 2010's THE BEST BANG!! compilation .
Michishirube is a very personal song to Fukuyama as it's dedicated to his late grandmother so it's no surprises he decided to do so again & with how empowering Michishirube ~Kouhaku 2021 ver.~ sounded when this song was done at last year's 72nd NHK Kouhauku Uta Gassen , being in awe is an understatement .
CD Regular
1) SWEET MOONLIGHT
2) Silent Rain
3) SWEET MOONLIGHT -Instrumental-
CD Detective Conan version
1) SWEET MOONLIGHT
2) Tsukiyo no Itazura no Mahou -Acoustic Version- with Miyakawa Airi
3) SWEET MOONLIGHT -TV Size Edit-
This's the guys' 1st release of 2022 & it's marketed as the group's 1st 15th anniversary release .
SWEET MOONLIGHT was chosen to be used as the 65th ending theme no. for the Detective Conan anime , their 1st since 2017's Yume Monogatari .
Prior to the physical single release , the A-side was 1st released digitally last year on 5th Dec .
SWEET MOONLIGHT was written by DAIGO & composed by SHINPEI and it's described as a Rock number about 2 people in love .
2 B-sides are included in SWEET MOONLIGHT . Silent Rain is only available in the CD regular version . This sad Rock ballad was written by AKIHIDE & composed by SHINPEI and it's the 1st song in the guys' discography that DAIGO did not had any personal input , be it lyrics and/or melody composition .
Exclusively available in the Detective Conan version is the acoustic take of Tsukiyo no Itazura no Mahou which's the 1st A-side of BREAKERZ's 10th single Tsukiyo no Itazura no Mahou / CLIMBER x CLIMBER .
For Tsukiyo no Itazura no Mahou -Acoustic Version- , it features guest vocalist Miyakawa Airi . A video was made for the song but it's not included in any version of SWEET MOONLIGHT .
The fanclub version of SWEET MOONLIGHT includes 2 exclusive B-sides , D.A.S' D.A.S & SUMMER BLUE .
D.A.S is a dance unit trio formed by the guys in 2019 . Contrary to what most fans assume , D.A.S name is not based on each of the members' initials .
Instead it stands for :
D - Destiny
A - Against
S - Sorrow
In D.A.S , AKIHIDE + DAIGO share joint vocals while SHINPEI rapped with the other 2 members . DAIGO wrote & composed both D.A.S & SUMMER BLUE .
2022 is BREAKERZ's 15th anniversary & what better way to kick off the new year with the release of their latest single offering SWEET MOONLIGHT .
For starters I was real surprised the guys have once again provided another song to promote the Detective Conan anime because after they released BREAKERZ × Detective Conan COLLABORATION BEST in 2019 , I thought that was a done deal but no complaints on this .
Despite this , on 1st listen I felt that SWEET MOONLIGHT sounded like Ikusen no Meikyuu de Ikusen no Nazo wo Toite & it's 1 of their weaker less memorable songs although to be less harsh , SWEET MOONLIGHT is the 1st song that SHINPEI composed to promote Detective Conan .
B-sides wise , Silent Rain is fantastic & contrasts SWEET MOONLIGHT extremely well . And for DAIGO to be hands off in this song for once , it's a refreshing change .
As for the acoustic take of Tsukiyo no Itazura no Mahou , while it's nice , I will not consider it as a top favourite acoustic song the guys did because the original version was & is still so amazing and I realised it's the same problem when the guys turned Sekai wa Odoru & Hikari into acoustic versions .
But same with what happened to Silent Rain , it's interesting that the guys brought in Miyakawa Airi to duet with DAIGO which they have never done before for the past acoustic songs they've created until now .
All in all SWEET MOONLIGHT has many 1st's from the guys & this's what I like about them in that they still can do different things to surprise me even though they've been around for so long . That says a lot & I really look forward to see how they will celebrate another important milestone of theirs this year .