Fero☆men arrives with an upgraded seductive and provocative combo of sound + lyrics with the new single “Dakiyosete TONIGHT”.
Title: 抱きよせてTONIGHT (Dakiyosete TONIGHT) Label: Columbia Release date: 01/10/14 Genre: J-Pop
Tracklist:
1.抱きよせてTONIGHT 2.ベイビー アイラブユー 3.ラブソング
Track by track analysis:
1.抱きよせてTONIGHT
With Junichi Suwabe behind the lyrics, we can only expect something highly provocative… and that’s exactly what we get with the title track Dakiyosete TONIGHT. Strings, heavy guitar riffs, and a reverberating bass lead the way into this seductive track.
The Spanish viola makes its entrance midway into the song leaving behind a trace of high-grade seductiveness and embellishing the overall track.
The simple instrumental revolves around the basics and in the end, フェロ☆メン makes things simple but always in the best way possible, this track is enough proof of that. The vocal track is also simple, no need to resort to highly technical singing tricks (vibrato, falsetto) so it’s not a highly demanding track to sing but still, the performance is solid, entertaining, and overall seductive.
2.ベイビー アイラブユー (Baby I love you)
Toriumi pens this track’s lyrics and we get yet a different vibe to the unit’s sound.
“Baby I love you” shows a smoother sound with mild guitar work, heavy bass, and assertive drums, all of that blended with synths – seems like a pretty elaborated piece but it isn’t – it’s a simple pop-rock ballad with a pretty interesting lyrics to go along to.
It’s a completely different instrumental and something the unit hasn’t tried in their last releases. It’s not heavy electronic pop or Latin pop like some of their previous work, it goes by a simple formula and it worked in the end, the problem is: it didn’t impress.
3.ラブソング (Love song)
To complete this release we find yet another track penned by Junichi Suwabe, once again we expect something dubious – you know it -.
“Love Song” is a textbook ballad going way deeper on the emotional side than the previous track. The track is built beautifully with strings accompanying the jazzy drums, piano, smooth bass, and soft guitar riffs.
It’s a tender, gentle track that will sway you off your feet with its instrumental only.
If we turn to the vocal track we find a befitting performance with both Suwabe and Toriumi delivering an array of emotions that we’ve never heard them do in any of Fero☆men ‘s previous work.
And we have a winner, “Love Song” is, by far, the most complete track in this release.
Final considerations
There’s a lot of ups and downs in this release. Fero☆men or simply Pheromen, have shown that they can keep us entertained as long as they keep on making entertaining, engaging music, and that’s exactly what they’ve done with this release. Dakiyosete TONIGHT is on equal footing with “IMMORAL WEDDING“.
Vocally both Toriumi and Suwabe sound great, there’s no rushing in, off-key parts, or really places where they don’t even get close to the ideal tone. They are in sync and that’s awesome.
In terms of arrangement and the whole instrumentalization, this release is by far more complete and diverse than the previous ones.
We have the “mandatory” strings and Spanish guitar making their appearances, but we don’t only listen to those fun, provocative tracks, we’re finally starting to listen to more serious tracks where lyrics really take the spotlight.
It’s an interesting release, not as addictive as “IMMORAL WEDDING” was but certainly better sounding and overall more artistic than it.
It’s textbook pop with a little bit of twist and it sounds good, but still far from perfect.
“抱きよせてTONIGHT” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.
