Owari no Hoshi no Love Song
Owari no Hoshi no Love Song | |
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Studio album by | |
Released | April 25, 2012 |
Genre | J-pop |
Length | 69:33 |
Label | Flaming June |
Producer | Jun Maeda |
Singles from Owari no Hoshi no Love Song | |
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Owari no Hoshi no Love Song (終わりの惑星のLove Song) is a Japanese pop music concept album produced by Jun Maeda featuring vocalist Nagi Yanagi. It was released on April 25, 2012 by Flaming June, an independent record label established by Maeda. Two of the album's thirteen tracks were previously released on the single "Killer Song" at Comiket 81 on December 29, 2011. Two different editions of the album were released: a regular CD version and a CD+DVD limited edition. Owari no Hoshi no Love Song peaked at No. 6 on the Japanese Oricon weekly albums chart.
Production
Before production began on Owari no Hoshi no Love Song, songwriter
Maeda credits Yanagi for being a single ray of hope in the middle of his depression and for giving him something to work towards. Maeda did not expect it would be easy to get her to collaborate with him, but then he saw on her personal website that she was open to offers for work, and he quickly sent Yanagi an email about working together. Yanagi had known about Maeda before they met, she herself being a fan of Key's visual novels
Composition
The album's concept is for a set of songs revolving around "worlds that are headed towards destruction". Although Maeda notes that each song is a self-contained story, he aimed for the whole album to have a single overarching story. In mid-2011, Maeda was so enthusiastic about writing the songs that it took him a little less than one month from beginning to end to write all 13 tracks.[1] Maeda spent about three days writing each song: two days for composing the music and one day for writing the lyrics. Maeda had originally wanted to write enough songs for a two-CD album, but he realized that it would take too long to record so many songs. Instead of writing lyrics that would fit with Yanagi's image as a singer, Maeda wanted to take a different approach to writing lyrics than he had done up to that point. This is one reason why he wrote "Killer Song" as a song about killing people. "Kōru Yume" (literally: "Frozen Dream") was Maeda's first attempt at writing a song as a poetry reading because he thought a song like that would be interesting in an album. Instead of writing it as a song, Maeda tried to focus on the mood expressed in the song through diary entries. For the high-tempo songs, Maeda made it a point to overall increase the beats per minute compared to songs he had written up to then.[1]
The concept for "Muteki no Soldier" (literally: "Invincible Soldier") was to write a song similar to a battle theme from a
All of the music was written exclusively by Maeda except for "Hero no Jōken" (literally: "Conditions of a Hero") which was a joint composition with his friend Taisei Nakagawa. An assortment of
Artwork
The albums' packaging, designed by Minato Kawai of PMMK, includes the song lyrics in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. Each song is given an illustration by an artist, and these illustrators are listed below with the track listing. The cover art is by GotoP, and features different art for the limited and regular editions. The limited edition shows a boy in tattered clothes sitting in a forest with his back to a tree, and a girl in a white dress is resting her head on his lap. The regular edition features the same girl as before, but she is now standing in front of a nearly all-white background looking down at some flowers. Maeda handled the art direction.[2]
Release and reception
Prior to the release of the album, the single "Killer Song" was released at Comiket 81 on December 29, 2011. Of the three songs on the single, only "Kimi no Airplane" (きみのairplane) was not later included on the album. Owari no Hoshi no Love Song was released on April 25, 2012 in two editions: a regular CD version and a CD+DVD limited edition.[3] The DVD contained music videos of the songs "Owari no Sekai Kara", "Killer Song", "Muteki no Soldier", "Last Smile" and "Hibukiyama no Mahōtsukai". The album peaked at No. 6 on Oricon's weekly albums chart and charted for five weeks.[4] Owari no Hoshi no Love Song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums and Singles chart.[5]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Jun Maeda, except where noted
No. | Title | Arrangement / Illustrator | Length |
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1. | "Owari no Sekai Kara" (終わりの世界から From the World of the End) | Shogo / Yuriko Asami | 5:58 |
2. | "Futari Dake no Ark" (ふたりだけのArk An Ark Just for Two) | Ken Itō / Nanakusa | 5:35 |
3. | "Killer Song" | Takahiro Furukawa / Zen | 4:36 |
4. | "Flower Garden" | Ken Itō / Nanakusa | 5:39 |
5. | "Muteki no Soldier" (無敵のSoldier Invincible Soldier) | Kōichirō Takahashi / Sō Hamayumiba | 5:14 |
6. | "Kōru Yume" (凍る夢 Frozen Dream) | Ken Itō / Juri Misaki | 5:11 |
7. | "Executioner no Koi" (Executionerの恋 The Executioner's Love) | Takahiro Yamada / Na-Ga | 4:51 |
8. | "Toaru Kaizokuō no Kimagure" (とある海賊王の気まぐれ The Whims of a Certain Pirate King) | Masatomo Ōta / Sō Hamayumiba | 5:10 |
9. | "Yuki no Furanai Hoshi" (雪の降らない星 A World With No Snow) | Keiji Inai / Yae | 4:57 |
10. | "Hibukiyama no Mahōtsukai" (火吹き山の魔法使い The Sorcerer of the Volcano) | Yuyoyuppe / Zen | 4:37 |
11. | "Last Smile" | Keiji Inai / Yae | 6:20 |
12. | "Hero no Jōken" (Heroの条件 Conditions of a Hero) (Joint composition with Taisei Nakagawa) | Tomohiro Nakatsuchi / Zen | 5:04 |
13. | "Kono Hoshi no Birthday Song" (この惑星のBirthday Song This World's Birthday Song) | Ryosuke Nakanishi / GotoP | 6:21 |
Total length: | 69:33 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Owari no Sekai Kara" (終わりの世界から From the World of the End) | 5:58 |
2. | "Killer Song" | 4:36 |
3. | "Muteki no Soldier" (無敵のSoldier Invincible Soldier) | 5:14 |
4. | "Last Smile" | 6:20 |
5. | "Hibukiyama no Mahōtsukai" (火吹き山の魔法使い The Sorcerer of the Volcano) | 4:37 |
Personnel
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References
- ^ a b c d e "Visualstyle vol.23" (in Japanese). Niconico. pp. 38–41.
- ^ a b Maeda, Jun (2012). Owari no Hoshi no Love Song (booklet). Osaka, Japan: Flaming June. FJMC-0002, FJMC-0003.
- ^ "『終わりの惑星のLove Song』Official Website" (in Japanese). Flaming June. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
- ^ "終わりの惑星のLove Song(期間生産限定盤)" [Owari no Hoshi no Love Song (limited edition)] (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
- ^ "Billboard Japan Top Independent Albums and Singles". Billboard (in Japanese). May 7, 2012. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
External links
- Official website (in Japanese)