Electronic rock makes a return to the spotlight for Yuma Uchida‘s stellar new single “Comin’ Back“.
Title: Comin' Back Label: KING AMUSEMENT CREATIVE (KING RECORDS) Release date: 21/04/2021 Genre: Rock / Ballad
Tracklist:
1 - Comin' Back 2 - スタートライン 3 - 初恋 4 - Comin' Back（off vocal ver.） 5 - スタートライン（off vocal ver.） 6 - 初恋（off vocal ver.）
Track by track analysis:
1 – Comin’ Back
Strings, dreamy synths, and ethereal piano melodies paint the wide soundscape in which “Comin’ Back” stretches its wings. The instrumental for this track counts a lot of different elements from various music genres.
There are rock elements in those muffled guitar riffs in the background alongside the deep live drums in the chorus.
Then you have the electronica side of the song, with the verses counting with a dubstep-influenced beat and synths painting the soundscape. The buildup to the guitar solo in the bridge is led by electronica, making quite an interesting mix.
The chorus is where you can find the rock elements in full bloom, packing quite the punch on top of its heavily bass-driven sound.
Another interesting detail in this song is the strings playing in the background, adding a bit of clarity to the instrumental that is bassy to its core.
On the vocal end, Yuma Uchida delivers a performance that mixes rap with clean singing in the verses and, when reaching the chorus, he amps up his power output, delivering a riveting performance carrying a lot of power while having a gentleness in his tone.
2 – スタートライン
“Start Line” changes pick up where “Comin’ Back” left off but cranks up the tempo and youthful vibes.
The verses follow a comfortable mid-tempo snare-driven beat – with some cool toms and ride work -, giving off an adventurous vibe on top of Uchida’s energetic vocals. A lot of tension is built in the pre-chorus, leading to an explosive chorus.
The chorus screams to you as shredding electric guitar riffs, a bouncy bassline, and intense drums lead the charge with a colorful explosion of emotion. This is the kind of song that you just want to pick your guitar and play along to.
It’s a blast to listen to, the kind of song you’d want to be listening to when going on a trip, screaming the lyrics on top of your lungs.
It feels that good.
On the vocals end, you find Yuma Uchida in complete control over his performance, leading the way as a youthful pop-punk frontman.
3 – 初恋
A delicate piano melody slowly leads the way for “Hatsukoi”, stripped-down R&B-inspired ballad.
Smoothly and carefully, acoustic guitars and strings make their way into this ethereal soundscape. They take the listener by hand to the emotional chorus in which Yuma Uchida taps into his falsetto and head voice to deliver a bittersweet performance that will touch you.
The gentleness in his higher range shines through in this song. Single-handedly carrying this song. I dare say he didn’t need any backing track to leave a mark because his performance is really good – as noticeable in the first verse.
One of his best ballads.
Final considerations
Yuma Uchida brought rock music back to the table however never forgetting that EDM and R&B edge to his sound in the single “Comin’ Back”.
I feel like this is a massive upgrade over “SHAKE! SHAKE! SHAKE!”, single that had plenty of ups and downs in quality and consistency.
In “Comin’ Back” you have 3 songs that fit perfectly well together and work even better standalone.
The title track is exciting and, for music production geeks, quite the interesting layered track to analyze. There are a lot of influences in there, with rock, EDM (and various elements within the rich music genre that is EDM), and pop. In a way, this is the type of song that Mamoru Miyano (also signed to KING RECORDS) would perform around 2014 – 2015.
It has that kind of nostalgic mix of rock with pop and EDM that KING RECORDS knows works like a charm for its talents.
The title track is filled with small details in the background. From those lower-pitch vocals to the minimalistic synth stabs, extra percussion, and fills. There’s a lot to uncover in that song, making it quite an enjoyable track with a high replay value.
“Start Line” cranked up the rock sound in this single, putting on the spotlight a youthful song that follows a “journey” theme that is refreshing to find in Uchida’s repertoire.
For a second, I thought that I was listening to his performances as frontman of Impish Crow (in the DIG-ROCK franchise) seeing how the sound and vocal direction are almost a carbon copy in this song. Fun from start to finish, this is a song that made me pick up my guitar and jam along.
Wrapping up this release is the bittersweet ballad “Hatsukoi”. Yuma Uchida has shown time and time again that he absolutely nails ballads.
His emotional range, that gentleness, and warmth in his mid-tones are perfect to set the mood for the song, leading to heartwrenching performances.
And this is yet another performance of his in which you’ll be rendered speechless by the sheer quality in his performance.
Of course, let’s not forget about the instrumental, as this ballad has a mix of acoustic and R&B that give it a bit of depth and increase, in a way, the emotional tone of the track.
Rock, R&B, and Ballads are the 3 music genres in which he excels as a performer. Yes, I also enjoy his takes on dance-pop like in “Image” (the title track) but these are the genres that best suit his vocal range (that we know so far, remember, Uchida may have a trump in his vocal range that he hasn’t shown his fans so far).
His complete comfort in all 3 music genres results in 3 songs that will make you smile, feel nostalgia, and want to do something crazy just for fun. You’ll find yourself engaged from start to finish as you listen to this single as there are no bland or out-of-place parts.
To top it all off, all songs flow seamlessly between them, making this a CD that has a good replay value.
All in all, “Comin’ Back” is a return to grace and high-quality music by Yuma Uchida. Hopefully, this momentum carries over to upcoming CD releases.
Comin’ Back is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
