Mamoru Miyano has released his 6th album “The Love”. As has been the tendency, Mamoru has written the lyrics for four of tracks in the album. As the singer has mentioned in an interview, “The Love” is more focused on the jazz and R&B genre, therefore we can expect some interesting tracks. This album features tracks from previous singles, such as SHOUT!, HOW CLOSE YOU ARE, テンペスト and The Birth.
More details regarding the album.
Title: The Love Label: King Records Release date: 02/08/2017 Genre: J-Pop/Dance
Tracklist:
| 01 | EVER LOVE | |
| 02 | SHOUT! | |
| 03 | 恋されガール | |
| 04 | Now and Forever | |
| 05 | Uhh | |
| 06 | HOW CLOSE YOU ARE | |
| 07 | Space Travellers | |
| 08 | テンペスト | |
| 09 | 僕のマニュアル | |
| 10 | 愛溢れる | |
| 11 | The Birth | |
| 12 | POWER OF LOVE |
Track by track analysis:
1- EVER LOVE
A playful piano accompanies Mamoru‘s vocal performance without outshining it, while the drums and dragging synths prove us that EVER LOVE has a lot more that just a little EDM influence. The chorus explodes into a up beat and cheerful track delivered by the violins, synths and the same percussion work from the intro. Mamoru’s mellow vocals make this track somewhat soothing. Although not always perceptible the bass plays a major role in this track’s instrumental piece bringing the synths and violins together into a perfect harmonious track. As Jin Nakamura‘s trademark the synth drums and the synths are present and to add to the great instrumental piece we have great lyrics written by Mamoru himself. 4.5/5
2- SHOUT!
[as previously reviewed]
Kicking off this single we have SHOUT!, a track with an intro mainly focused on the synths and the synthetic drums that scream of NEW ORDER, an easy explanation is giving to us as soon as we see that STY was the one who produced the track. With the fast tempo synthetic drums, the bass and guitar plus the piano, we have the main instrumental piece laid for us. This track shows us a familiar yet comforting side of Mamoru‘s songs for the fans. SHOUT! has some space for Mamo to make the best out of his crystal clear high pitched notes, always on point. 4.5/5
How Close You Are, the ending theme of Ajin:Demi-Human, has violins as the main focus in the intro with some pads as backup, but we are mistaken if we think that’s it for the instrumental, we quickly have an acoustic guitar making its first steps in this slow tempo track afterwards. The chorus really makes one remember the power ballads from the 80’s/90’s. Although the instrumental is simple it really is well arranged and it really suits Mamoru. The violins in the outro are also good and even though the instrumental is minimalist it still is a refreshing one. The best track in the single. 5/5
Tempest” is a well known song among the fans of shoujo 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. 5/5
Starting it off quietly with soothing strings in the background against a piano melody, “The Birth” soon evolves into an alternative pop-rock tune. Addictive guitar riffs guide us through the song to the unusual pre-chorus in which synths and metalic drums take the front seat (but only for a couple of seconds). On the other side, the chorus is all we could ever ask from Miyano, it’s powerful but without being noisy, and blends rock elements with the emotional strings playing in the background. Regarding the vocal performance we can only point out good things. Miyano‘s high notes and falsetto never fail to impress us. “The Birth” made us excited for what’s next, that is for sure. 5/5
Final rating:
The Love is certainly a jazzy, R&B oriented album with a personal touch to some of the tracks, namely those whose lyrics were written by Mamoru itself, meaning EVER LOVE, テンペスト, The Birth and Power of Love.
Between all the tracks in the album, 愛溢れる was one of the tracks which surprised us the most for good reasons. Not only did Mamo give his best performance possible vocal wise, but the instrumental piece was perfectly composed in order to bright out the singer’s full potential.
Space Travellers was also another track that highlighted the fact that the singer can indeed pull off numerous genres without failing to do so. In fact Space Travellers makes us recall tracks like Golden Night, a track which the main focus is the heavy and prominent presence of EDM elements.
Aside from the electronica oriented tracks, we must bring forth 恋されガール as it was a track that completely got us. Not only does this track have a rock genre, not so common for the singer, but it also fit the singer like a glove, which is not surprising if we recall previous tracks such as the famous Orpheus, a track with some strong rock elements.
All in all, The Love was a success, in fact this has been one of the best albums the singer has released so far, so it is only fair to expect the next releases to be just as good or even better than this one.
“The Love” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.
[…] “The love“, album released in August, impressed the critics with Miyano embracing a jazzier sound, not forgetting to add some of the previous released hits “Tempest” and “Shout!” into the mix. The album ranked high on Oricon Weekly and sold over 20.000 copies. This was a big year for him. […]
[…] of 16 singles being its last one titled The Birth and a total of 6 albums being its last one The Love achieving 6th place on the charts. It was precisely after he released his 1st album that he also […]
He is amazing. I just finished listening to this cd. His voice has such a broad range. He can sing in so many different styles. He can “rock out” but also sing a ballad like no one else. My favorite song is Now and Forever. The entire CD is quite good.. I agree it is definitely 5 stars. .I wish his music was more easily available in the USA.