NSFW brings its most cohesive sound ever with “Sora Kara Furu Yume”, wrapping up the UNLIMITED CD series in style.
The Dear Vocalist cast counts with RE-O-DO (Toshiki Masuda), Joshua (Nobunaga Shimazaki), Judah (Soma Saito), A’ (Ryohei Kimura), Momochi (Toshiyuki Toyonaga), and (2)YOU (Natsuki Hanae).
Title: そらからふるゆめ (Sora Kara Furu Yume) Label: Rejet Release date: 21/12/2022 Genre: Pop-Rock/Trap/EDM
Tracklist:
1 - そらからふるゆめ (NEW SONG) 2 - THE MIRROR HOUSE (NEW SONG) 3 - Flavor of #HAPPY 4 - A≒A’≠A 5 - NeverEnding Story
Track by track analysis:
1 – そらからふるゆめ
Kicking off this CD is “Sora Kara Furu Yume”, song that brings to the spotlight a dreamy sound. The intro brings atmospheric synths and mid-tempo claps, giving life to the wide soundscape in front of you.
Slowly, Ryohei Kimura (as A’), gives life to this song, performing in legato, carefully trailing his way through this song. You can feel the love and care and how grounded A’ feels like in this performance.
And when it comes the time to change things around for the chorus, listeners are presented with a brief one that brings NSFW’s disruptive electronica to the spotlight however with a dash of groove to it.
And the soundscape is still as dreamy and wide as you can get yet it feels so warm and intimate.
It is noticeable that the electronica is not chaotic as it used to be. Now it has a set purpose. Now, it celebrates something dear to him. Looking happily at the sky and thinking about the future is what drives this song – and the character – forward as he fondly relives his memories.
The entrance of timpani in the instrumental creates the bridge to the groovy chorus yet one in which words are kept to a bare minimum, letting you sink in the overflowing passion in the instrumental.
“Sora Kara Furu Yume” is a hopeful, warm, and sweet song that shows a different side to A’ and tones down things for the – usually chaotic – NSFW band.
2 – THE MIRROR HOUSE
Wrapping up this release is “THE MIRROR HOUSE”, song that is quite cinematic. The session is going to start, let the people clap and… be welcomed to the Trap-meets-Rock tune “THE MIRROR HOUSE”.
Yes, don’t let yourself be fooled by the circus-like sound you get in the intro, this song is far from being it or sounding as crazy as that. The timpani and music box takes on a different form going forward in this song.
The type of “crazy” vibe in this song is another one completely as you will notice when you listen to this song.
That circus-y melody in the intro however is sampled into a synth and keeps on looping throughout the song but contrasting heavily with the heavy guitars and dark, hard-hitting trap beat.
The verses are bassy and crunchy with a hard-hitting snare and deep bassline creating the backdrop for this disruptive tune. Slowly, the song builds up tension to the chorus, one that you were not expecting, at least not how it sounds in its two polarizing versions.
The first chorus is all out a trap/hip-hop one that is dark and heavy but not open about it.
Starting from the second chorus, the sound is heavy and aggressive by bringing electric guitars and live drums into the mix, complementing the trap instrumental.
On the vocal end, Ryohei Kimura goes all out for this performance, adding a lot of flair in an almost dramatic, theatrical way in the chorus. There is something about the way he is using his vibrato that made my attention stick to his performance instead of the instrumental on a first listen (and it stayed like that for a while).
He is insanely groovy in his mix of clean singing and rapping in the verses, yet he always with an underlying crazy vibe going on in the way he delivers his lines.
And, it’s a wrap in the best way you could imagine for A’ and NSFW.
Final considerations
You can feel things have changed dramatically for A’ (CV: Ryohei Kimura) as this is the most cohesive and consistent-sounding CD in his repertoire.
While “Sora kara furu yume” is all hopeful for the future while fondly reliving memories, having a mid-tempo atmospheric tune that feels like you have a vast soundscape in front of you, it is actually a sweet song that has quite the intimate vibe to it.
If you actually have listened to the drama CDs, A’ is not that keen on keeping private the relationship with his significant other – you, the listener – and this song’s conflicting soundscape in a way encapsulates that really well by having a really wide soundscape (public) yet with an intimate (private) vibe.
His love is hard to contain and in this song you can really feel it in various details such as this one.
“THE MIRROR HOUSE” arrives to steal the show in the same way that “Pinch No. 102” did last year.
This is a trap-meets-rock tune that is so, so heavy yet so slow that you can really feel the violence and crazy vibes in there much better than you could if it had been a fast-paced EDM tune.
I was not expecting this song to start off with a circus vibe and then turn into the song it did, but I am so glad it got to turn into this heavy tune that perfectly wraps up the “UNLIMITED” CD series in the Dear Vocalist franchise.
As it is, NSFW wraps up this CD series in style and with A’ in a much better place mentally, showcasing a consistent, cohesive sound that is a first-time for the band and vocalist.
Absolutely amazing entry, a must-listen.
“Dear Vocalist Unlimited Entry No.6 NSFW” is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
