CD
CD + DVD
1) Nocturne
2) A or B
3) KISS OF DEATH
4) Good Bye
5) DESIRE
6) So What
7) Justice
8) Mukunaru Mono (Marie starring MIKA NAKASHIMA)
9) Happy Life (Mika Nakashima x Salyu)
10) Sairen ~SAI_REN~
11) innocent
12) Domino
13) Yo ga Akeru Mae ni
14) Niji ga Detara Kimi ni Ai ni
Mika's last studio album release was 2017's TOUGH .
JOKER includes 2 singles , 1 B-side & 2 digital released songs .
Videos were made for 2 album tracks , Nocturne & Justice with the last time Mika made videos for album tracks was her 4th album / 2007 release YES .
Kicking things off in JOKER is the 1st album track Nocturne .
Described as a love ballad , Nocturne expresses the sad feelings for a love that has ended .
Prior to JOKER's release , Nocturne was 1st released digitally last month on 16th Sept .
The next 2 songs are singles that Mika released .
A or B was released as Mika's 42nd single & it was used in the ads of Kao's Flare Fragrance Kokoro ni Hanasaku which actress Ishihara Satomi appears in the ad .
While KISS OF DEATH was released as Mika's 43rd single & the hyde created song was used as the opening theme song for the DARLING in the FRANXX anime .
The next 4 songs are new album tracks in JOKER .
Good Bye & DESIRE are both upbeat songs , with DESIRE used to promote the Netflix drama FOLLOWERS which Mika starred in .
On the other hand , So What & Justice are both Rock songs which Mika wrote Justice herself .
Justice was 1st released digitally last month on 23rd Sept .
I find it a slight shame that Mika did not perform Justice on TV as I thought the song has quite a bit of spunk but I suppose she rather go for the more safe route ie. Nocturne .
Mukunaru Mono originally served as the B-side of Mika's 44th single Innocent Rouge & this acoustic song was sung by Mika during the Japan run of the Innocent musical which she starred in .
Oddly , Innocent Rouge is not included in the main CD of JOKER but the video is included in the DVD .
This's the 1st time that a Mika single is excluded from her album & in a way it's quite ironic that Innocent Rouge was and is still such a great song but at least the video is in the album's DVD so all's not lost .
Happy Life was originally included as the B-side in A or B and it was used in the ads of Tokyo Metro's Find my Tokyo. which starred actress Ishihara Satomi & with Mika making a cameo appearance .
Sairen ~SAI_REN~ was used as the insert song for Fuji TV's drama Tasogare Ryuseigun: Jinsei Orikaeshi, Koi wo Shita & it was 1 of the 3 new songs included in compilation album Yuki no Hana 15 Shuunen Kinen Best-ban BIBLE .
Just like DESIRE , innocent was also used to promote the Netflix drama FOLLOWERS .
Both DESIRE & innocent are very different in a good way . While DESIRE is an almost English/Engrish auto tune driven song , innoncent is a good old classic ballad .
Domino is 1 of my favourite album tracks as it's very mysterious sounding & unlike any other type of songs found in Mika's discography . It would have been great if Domino had a video made .
Similar with Sairen ~SAI_REN~ , Yo ga Akeru Mae ni was also included in Yuki no Hana 15 Shuunen Kinen Best-ban BIBLE & it was used as the theme song to promote the drama Maeda Masana -Ryuuma ga Takushita Otoko- .
Concluding JOKER is the last album track Niji ga Detara Kimi ni Ai ni & it's a nice mid tempo song in wrapping up the album on a positive note .
I will not deny that I did not like Mika's last studio album TOUGH as the main issue I had with was the severe lack of new material it had unlike JOKER which for once , not only there were a lot more new material , but at least most of the new songs were almost on par if not better than the inclusion of prior released material .
Due to just how much I disliked TOUGH , I kept my expectations quite low for JOKER but I was still overall surprised by how much I like Mika's new album release .
And for Mika to take so long to at last make videos for her album tracks , it's a bit surreal especially since YES was the very 1st Mika album I listened to . Why this took so long to happen again I have no idea but it's better late than never .
JOKER might not be Mika's overall best studio album but I personally feel that it sets a pretty good tone in line of early celebration of Mika's impending 20th anniversary next year & I do hope she will plan to do a series of things to celebrate this momentum milestone as she deserves so .