“Tempest” is a charming single with mellow dance tracks to 80s pop throwbacks aplenty, with Miyano delivering a set of high-quality performances.
Title: Tempest Label: King Records Release date: 12/10/2016 Genre: J-Pop/Dance
Tracklist:
1 - テンペスト 2 - Sugar, Sugar (Mamoru Miyano's RADIO SMILE opening theme)
Track by track analysis:
1 – テンペスト
“Tempest” is a well-known song among the fans of shoujo/music anime series “Uta no Prince Sama Legend Star“.
A simple piano melody paves the way for Miyano‘s vocals to shine, building up the tension, ultimately exploding in the exciting electro-pop chorus in which strings, bass, synths, and piano blend in to deliver a powerful melody.
It’s actually a nice change of pace to find Elements Garden delivering something other than those overhyped dance tracks that have turned into completely bland and expected flicks.
This tracks’ outro is something so beautiful that we really recommend you to pay close attention to it.
Vocally, Miyano tackles this track with a whole lot of falsetto and high notes leaving us in awe. It might be a mellower dance-pop track but it still has that excitement that only Miyano‘s songs have, and his golden touch is there for everyone to hear – just pay attention to the stunning lyrics.
2 – Sugar, Sugar
This release is complete with the retro-pop “Sugar, Sugar“.
Led by a funky bassline, this tracks’ instrumental counts with the entertaining brass that gives this track an 80s pop twist to it, soulful guitar melodies, vocoder, and several assorted percussion instruments.
Fun, upbeat, exciting but most of all, an addictive song from start to finish.
Miyano‘s vocals are stunning, hitting those high notes in the chorus. Overall, a fantastic vocal performance and by far one of the best upbeat tracks released by Miyano to date.
Final considerations
It’s impressive just how Mamoru Miyano manages to make a double release and snatch full marks for both singles.
As fantastic as “The Birth” was, “Tempest” has a different charm – firstly because of the slightly unusual mellow dance track “Tempest“, a surprise considering that Elements Garden often produces instrumental pieces that range from the extremely bright to the guns blazing, synth galore.
They merged their trademark piano melodies with the synths and it worked out better than usual. Making good use of his vocals, Miyano managed to display his powerful falsetto, a trademark asset that never fails to make its appearance in his releases.
Then we have the incredibly charming “Sugar, Sugar“. Such an upbeat, bright and funky song is joy to listen to. With vocals as melodic as his, it’s no wonder why the song sounds funkier than what would be expected.
In our opinion, “Sugar, Sugar” would have been a better title track, considering that it clashes with the music genre and overall feel around “The Birth“.
From an artist’s point of view, it would have been a better choice to show completely different charms to his audience.
It’s unfortunate that this track wasn’t the chosen one but it’s featured as the opening theme for Miyano‘s radio show “Radio Smile“, so not everything is lost.
To conclude this review we only need to say that Miyano is in constant evolution. His music is improving by heaps, his vocals are getting polished by the day, and although this might seem irrelevant, even his English pronunciation is sounding better.
He’s showcasing his versatility through various music genres, nailing each and every attempt, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s to come next.
“Tempest” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN.
[…] tracks. This album features tracks from previous singles, such as SHOUT!, HOW CLOSE YOU ARE, テンペスト and The […]