RUBIA Leopard surprises with a melancholic acoustic rock tune overflowing with emotion in “HOME”.
DIG-ROCK is a 2D rock music franchise created by TEAM Entertainment in 2019. The franchise branches out from the drama CD series, MintLip. This is a mixed media project that incorporates music with drama CDs.
DIG-ROCK counts with 3 rock bands of different backgrounds and sound: RUBIA Leopard (Makoto Furukawa on vocals), Impish Crow (Yuma Uchida on vocals), and HOUND ROAR (Toshiyuki Toyonaga on vocals).
Review
Title: DIG-ROCK －BREAK TIME in NY－ Type:RL Label: TEAM Entertainment Inc. Release date: 22/12/2021 Genre: Acoustic Rock
Tracklist:
1 - 日本脱出！ 2 - 想定内のハプニング 3 - ようこそ、ニューヨークへ！ 4 - ビジネス イン ニューヨーク 5 - いま、ここにいるという選択 6 - HOME (NEW SONG) 7 - 正解の確信 8 - グッドモーニング・ルビアレパード
Track analysis:
6 – HOME
Going back home. That’s a theme that is fairly common to rock music – or even music in general – and that’s usually a theme met with upbeat music, sometimes even happy-go-lucky tunes, however seldom getting a gloomy, melancholic approach.
Well, RUBIA Leopard goes the melancholic route, with acoustic guitars slowly trailing their way, serving as a comfortable blanket over your shoulders as Makoto Furukawa’s warm, raspy baritone vocals carefully trail their way through the emotional lyrics.
While the verses are simple, with a sweet acoustic sound, the chorus explodes in emotion, bringing shredding guitar riffs, a powerful bassline, and steady snary drums to the spotlight.
The chorus does really feel like the feelings that were sort of bottled in the verses poured over and as such, the intensity you find in this part of the song may overwhelm you at first.
I do actually appreciate the slightly classic rock/power ballad twist that the chorus has. It is almost like it has the makings of a power ballad, only it never comes to fruition as the listener is taken back to the comfortable, warm soundscape in the acoustic verses.
The verses do have an intimate vibe to them, with the acoustic guitar being the only thing separating you from Furukawa’s vocals – or, bringing you together for this cozy performance.
On the vocal end, Makoto Furukawa approached his performance in a sweet, almost gentle way in the verses, keeping his powerful vibrato in check, just using it for accents in specific endings to the words. Now, when he gets to the chorus, his vibrato goes full blast, heightening the emotions in the chorus.
“HOME” is an unexpected entry in RUBIA Leopard’s repertoire, embracing a downtempo, cozy acoustic sound instead of their high-throttle, intense hard rock sound. That shift in tone in the instrumental influenced the way Makoto Furukawa had to tackle his performance. What you get as a result is an unusually sweet performance with a lot of melancholy on top.
Refreshing addition to RUBIA Leopard’s repertoire that showcases that this band does have a soft side.
“DIG-ROCK －BREAK TIME in NY－ Type:RL“ is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
