This actually leaked a few days ago, but it’s taken me this long to formulate a real opinion on the single and the songs it contains.
Loveless has three editions (
A with a DVD,
B with the title track and three b-sides and
C with the title track and three more b-sides.
I was really looking forward to
Loveless, especially after the, in my opinion, masterpiece, that was
抱いてセニョリータ back in 2006. Despite a few TV appearances and showings of the PV on music channels, I’d resisted until the full single leaked, even though I originally wanted to hold out until I received my own copies, just to savour listening to it for the first time.
However upon first listening, my initial reaction was rather underwhelming and let’s face it, more than a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong – I do like the songs, but I believe everyone, down to song writing and production could have done a lot better. The whole single has a very ‘rushed’ feel to it, more for the sake of getting more tracks done then to actually provide half the amount of songs with better quality (shown in my opinion, by the rather short track lengths – instrumental excluded, all seven songs total only 25 minutes playtime).
My first grievance with the single is that
Pi does not sound like
Pi. It’s kind of like, if you mixed
Ueda and
Jin of
KAT-TUN and then just added a bit of Pi to the mix. Someone’s opinion was that
Pi had had singing lessons, so it’s either that, or a shitload of editing (for my sanity let’s just call it editing as I don’t want to believe that he’s gone and trained his voice differently forever) but he sounds very weak, strained, washed out and quiet; a huge turnaround from the loud and strong, and let’s face it, sometimes nasally voice we know and love in
Daite Senorita and his solos within
NEWS. It sounds almost like he’s trying too hard to sound softer, and it doesn’t work for me.
loveless itself is a nice ballad. It’s got great music and lyrics, and the vocals are nice, however unlike him they sound. The melody and piano is charming, and the chorus is rather catchy. It doesn’t have the highest playcount in my library and it never will, but it’s unlikely that I would go out of my way to skip it if it was on. In tune with the title, the song does have a rather ‘depressed’ feeling to it, but more the ‘lost love’ sort of depressed rather than ‘take a knife and slash my wrists right now’ depressed.
After the Rain is the second of three ballads on the single, and I’m this far from saying I hate it. The lyrics are nice, and the vocals are nice (sounding more like what we’re used to in this song) and the music is nice. But they don’t work together well. This is a prime example of how he can sometimes sound whiny, but unlike most times, it really doesn’t work, and the song (despite its emotion filled chorus) grates on my nerves and becomes quite annoying. For the sake of my playcounts I listened to each track so it was on the nearest five or ten, and I dreaded having to listen to this one a second time in a row.
The last ballad of the album is
Moon Light, with the lyrics penned by
Pi himself. I quite like this track, I’m not sure if I would say I love it yet, but that’s quite possible in the future. It has a very smooth flow to it, and the music and lyrics work great together. It’s a very good mix of a little R’n’B (by R’n’B, I mean rhythm and blues and NOT the urban music of rap or hip hop that often gets labelled as R’n’B these days) mixed with pop.
Pi sounds the most like himself in this song (a fact I hope supports my argument of super editing) and I really like that, because while admittedly, he may not be the most talented singer vocally, he’s still got a very nice voice.
Dance Jam is the only one of the four dance style b-sides that isn’t completely in English (a fact that is a rather large thorn in my side, as though we knew previously from a source that
Crush On You would be partly in English, I definitely didn’t expect three full songs in English). I like
Dance Jam, it’s a bit of a pointless track, but it’s got a great beat (if that wasn’t already implied by the title) and a catchy chorus that makes it perfect from bopping in the car or in front of the computer, to really going at it on the dance floor.
Crush On You is the first of the English dance/sexually suggestive songs, that while enjoyable, are about nothing more than doing the dirty and/or shaking your ass, and I for one believe we could do with a few more deeper meanings then sex songs that are out and about. It’s got a nice beat, and a catchy chorus, and let’s face it, the success of just about all pop songs depended almost entirely on whether or not the chorus is catchy and draws people in. For want of a deeper meaning, the song is still fun and infectious and you find yourself singing (or at least humming) along.
Run From You is my second favourite track of the single (after
Moon Light and tied with
loveless) again it’s all in English, and while being grammatically correct is desirable (the lyrics booklet lists a westerner as the lyricist, so really, wtf was he thinking?) I absolutely LOVE the chorus; the way the lyrics flow and yet crash together, and the emphasis on the word ‘you’. Again we hear
Pi more like the way we know him, and hear some of his vocal trademarks (I won’t spoil for you if you haven’t heard any of the songs). The lyrical arrangement of the verses is a bit jumpy and paused (imagine: word word word PAUSE word word wordword PAUSE) but as I already stated, the chorus more than makes up for it, and again, while lacking in a little deeper meaning, the song is catchy and enjoyable.
ME is the last track and yet another English dance song. I swear the music for this is almost the same, perhaps even the same but differently arranged, as
BoA’s
Look Who's Talking. Obviously I’m not accusing anyone of plagiarism, but if the composer is the same, it’s well within their own rights to use it again and/or alter it to fit the artist using it. Again
ME wants for deeper meaning, but like all the dance songs, it’s catchy and that’s its saviour and selling point.
Overall, I believe there could have been more time and effort put into this release to make it better, but it doesn’t detract completely from the overall likeability of the tracks. I would have preferred to hear more Japanese in the lyrics of the dance songs, as opposed to the majority of them being in English, but I have to admit they are enjoyable and catchy. They perhaps aren’t the songs you would listen to on repeat, but more the songs you would listen to and think ‘oh I really like this song, I should listen to it more often’
The ballads are the stronger parts of the single with deeper meanings, and overall better music and lyrics. It’s however, a good mixture of ballad and dance, and the way the tracks are spaced over the two regular editions (loveless + dance + English dance + ballad) guarantees the best sales with people wanting all the new tracks.
As I’ve previously said, I
DO like the single and the majority of the tracks; however, it leaves a little to be desired. I would in all actuality, rather not see any of these tracks appear on the next
NEWS album as his solo, as I don’t believe any of these tracks would fit particularly well with
NEWS’ overall musical style, but it would also rob us of another
Pi solo track, and hopefully the chance to really hear whether or not the vocals on this single were edited or trained. A live would also be a good opportunity to hear the real voice, provided there’s no lip-synching (ie, Shounen Club)
It is however, a very different style to his previous stuff, and apart from the title ballad, definately not what I was expecting from the titles of the tracks.
The catchiness of the tracks though, does not rescue the single from a personal rating of 6.5/10
(majority of names and titles are links not mistagged for people who may read this, who can't read kanji)
After re-reading this, I surprised myself with how critical I am, and I very much give off the impression I think the single sucks. This is far from the truth, as I really do like the songs, but this comes from a little disappointment at the release and trying to take as much as possible, an objective view XD
KAT-TUN
st track: (10 Oct 2008)
