Tohoshinki – T

東方神起 – T

Released: 23 January 2008

Buy the album at cdjapan

CD 1

1. TRICK
2. No?
3. Purple Line
4. Forever Love
5. Summer Dream
6. Ride on
7. DARKNESS EYES
8. Lovin’ you
9. Rainbow
10. SHINE
11. LAST ANGEL (Tohoshinki Version)
12. CLAP!
13. Love in the Ice
14. Together

CD 2

1. Song for you
2. Day Moon ～ハルダル～
3. Beautiful Life (Japanese Version)
4. You’re my miracle (Japanese Version)
5. Kissしたまま、さよなら

This is Tohoshinki’s 3rd Japanese album to date and it’s also the album with the most songs, consisting of 2CDs. Yup, that should totally scream “TAKAI!” but I still bought it anyway. People have said that this is their best Japanese album to date and it’s not like I disagree with it but I liked their second album, Five in the Black, too (which I would put up one of these days). Songs that deserve special mention are, No?, DARKNESS EYES, Purple Line, CLAP!, …. wait, all that deserve special mention are already uploaded. >.> Just download them.

TRICK is actually a pretty interesting song as it combines 5 different songs into one which spawned the TRICK single project. The TRICK single project featured one member as the main vocalist of a song which was used in the TRICK track in the T album. I’ll get to uploading that too so you have a better idea of what the TRICK single project is about.

No? is a smooth R&B-ish song which I thought had a pretty sexy feeling to it. I feel they should dabble more into songs like these. It has a fun boppy feeling yet sexy and teasing. A song that you’ll easily start to like.

Purple Line. I actually have a list of Tohoshinki Sex Songs and so far, there’s three: Try My Love, Ride On and Purple Line. It doesn’t help that Yoochun says, “I really wanna touch myself” which got all the fangirls hyperventilating and wanting to see him REALLY touch himself in the PV (which sadly did NOT feature that but still had him looking hot driving a car). It’s composed by famous Korean composer, Yoo Youngjin. That said, it’s an SMP song; SMP being SM Music Performance, a genre SM Entertainment coined. SMP includes a mixture of rock and R&B. The genre also incorpoates heavy hip hop beats and rap, very suitable for dance performances. Definitely different from their Jpop-ish songs. I loved this a lot the moment I heard it.

DARKNESS EYES. I still have no idea why Japanese are so fond of having their English titled songs in capital letters. Sounds angry, no? Anyhow, this song was also another song I loved the moment I heard it. The dark intro and the gloomy feeling throughout the whole song gave it a different feel than the others. This song is just fantastic to me, then again, fangirl talking so not much credibility there but DO give it a try!

Last Angel was a song they collaborated with Koda Kumi. This track on their album is without her so they take over her parts and I have to laugh at some of it because Junsu and Jaejoong ended up sounding like a strangled cat because they tried to reach the same high notes. Apparently, the song was not altered to suit their pitch. Other than that, it’s a pretty cool song with some nice bass notes and it was the song for Resident Evil:Extinction in Japan.

CLAP! is a fun and upbeat song which ironically makes you really want to clap your hands. Changmin’s “OH-oh” in the beginnings are cute and just sets the groove. Short song but one that makes you sway a little.

Song For You is an underrated song in their Summer Dream single. It’s a typical Jpop song but it’s for the summer so it’s okay. Light and breezy, it’s an easy song to listen to. This is stupid but it makes me smile and makes me sing along all the time.

Day Moon ~Harudaru~ is the Japanese version of their Korean song, Harudal. Harudaru (Japanese romanization for Harudal) was the theme song for popular Korean drama, Air City. It gives off a feeling of despair and helplessness. Beautiful harmony. Definitely one song you don’t wanna miss out on.

Kiss shita mama, sayonara. Heartbreaking ballad. Piano and vocals = WIN! This song was composed by Yoochun and Jaejoong. Fantastic. Fave ballad in this album. A definite must try. I’m at a loss for words when it comes to this simply because I love it so much, you don’t really need anymore reasons to try it out. In fact, I command you to!

CHEMISTRY – Second to None

Buy the album here

   1.Intro-lude～You’re My Second to None～
　2.It Takes Two
　3.STILL ECHO
　4.My Gift to You
　5.Running Away
　6.BACK TOGETHER AGAIN～@Electric Lady Studio, NYC～
　7.No Color Line
　8.FLOATIN’
　9.SOLID DREAM
  10.Let’s Get Together Now（Tokyo Calling）Interlude～@Yuigahama, KAMAKURA～
　11.RIPTIDE
　12.月夜
　13.マイウェイ
　14.君をさがしてた～New Jersey United～（BONUS TRACK）

Chemistry consists of  Yoshikuni Dōchin (堂珍嘉邦) and Kaname Kawabata (川畑要). Their first single, Pieces Of A Dream debuted on March 3, 2001 winning the best selling single in the same year (over 2 millions).

Chemistry is a group I recently got myself into via the program Music Fair 2200 where Tohoshinki sang PIECES OF A DREAM with them and I was just impressed. This is their second album, Second To None, and these three songs are some of my favourites. Track 12, 月夜 (tsukiyo) is my personal favourite. I have this on repeat. It’s a really simple track, only with piano as the accompaniment and their voices. The harmonization at the end blew me away with its ethereal feeling. A definite MUST LISTEN; that is of course if you trust my taste in music.

Gundam 00 op and ed themes

L’Arc~en~Ciel – DAYBREAK’S BELL

The Brilliant Green – Ash Like Snow

The opening theme to Gundam 00 currently is The Brilliant Green’s Ash Like Snow. In my opinion, this song totally rocks just like its predecessor, L’Arc~en~Ciel’s Daybreak Bell. For an anime like this, a rock-ish song is needed and these two songs deliver just that, building up the atmosphere at the beginning. The two songs are addictive; I find myself bopping my head to the music.

The Back Horn – Wana

Stephanie – Friends
The first ending theme to Gundam is from The Back Horn Wana. I gotta say though the beginning was a lil “errr…..” to me but then they make it up at the chorus where they sound like a really good rock-ish anime song. You know, some songs just sound anime-ish and this is one of those kinds. The ending theme to Gundam 00 now is Stephanie’s Friends which is something new from Stephanie herself in my opinion. She is usually singing ballads and Friends shows her deviation from that genre. It’s not bad, it just needs to take a little getting used to. It has a tinge of rock and coupled with her pleasant voice, it’s reason enough to try it out and also listen to more of her other songs which you can find in previous posts.

Japanese ballads from Tohoshinki

This time, I’m going to share 4 ballads from Korean group, Tohoshinki, who is under AVEX. When they started out, you could feel that they were still apprehensive in singing Japanese. Most probably it was due to them singing something they are not so sure the meaning of. Now, you see an improvement in the songs they sing as they have been spending a considerable amount of time in Japan, brushing up their Japanese. As a result, you get ballads that really hit those sentimental chords as you can really feel the feeling they put into the song, especially Junsu who is fantastic at conveying the meaning of the song and putting his feelings into singing every word.

Asu wa kuru kara (also available in One Piece anime OST)

Begin

Begin acapella version

Love in the ice

Forever Love

They are a group worth supporting. At least I think they are better than JE because they are first and foremost a singing group and then dancing comes later. This is because they can really sing. Try them out (especially Love In The Ice and Forever Love) and you won’t be disappointed.

If you like what you hear, buy their singles and albums!

Asu wa kuru kara is available on their first Japanese album, Heart, Mind and Soul @ cdjapan or buy their single Asu wa kuru kara @ cdjapan.

Begin is available on their second Japanese album, Five In The Black @ cdjpan or buy their single Begin @ cdjapan.

Buy their single Love in the Ice @ cdjapan

Buy their single Forever Love @ cdjapan

Next post, I will introduce some songs from their Five In The Black album.