Japanese CD + DVD (Angel)

[Surpinto]

And it has now been released as a single on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tian-shinokureta-qi-ji-single/id1054646699

Notice the copyright holder is Libera Records....interesting

First Impression: Very Song of Life-ish but in a good way

[henrylonghorn]

And it has now been released as a single on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tian-shinokureta-qi-ji-single/id1054646699

Notice the copyright holder is Libera Records....interesting

First Impression: Very Song of Life-ish but in a good way

Thanks for the link! I'm guessing "Libera Records" is Libera's for-profit business in Japan?

[alcesalcesobservator]

It's not so Song-of-Life-ish in this clip. I really like how smiley Mark UR is. Am I the only one who thinks the current batch of boys is in general a bit (or a lot) more poker faced than the 2008-2010 batch?

Yeah, I think you meant Alex G.

They appear more lively in this video than in the Washington DVD, but I agree with your observation. In general they do seem to have become more disciplined and professional, rather than smiley and happy, on stage. But I'm a rather recent fan, so I'd like to see what everybody else says about this.

Oops, my bad. They have the same haircut.

[JimmyRiddle]

I've just downloaded from Itunes (begrudgingly again this is the only opportunity to hear Libera's newly released music, not googleplay or amazon, but hey oh that's the way it's working at the moment)...

I really like this Angel presentation, it's 5min 25 secs long and to be fair the only part that nearly steers you down Song of Life's "we shall never be alone" path is the 30 odd seconds we've seen from the USJ commercial. Other than that it's quite a lot different to SoL and I think it even has some latin interwoven in there, but I'll need to see where I can pick up the lyrics to make sure. I like the intro with the aahaa's and of course Isaac's voice is perfect for the song. I only hear Tubular bells at the start though. I can see this song doing well in the downloads, especially of course in the country that really does roll out the red carpet for them; Japan.

Speaking of which I've collected a few pics from social media (mainly thanks to following Yuki, Lauren) from today's in-store release of Libera's new mini-album;














That ladies and gentlemen as well as the 3 concerts, including a special USJ perfomance at the park itself and god knows how many fan greetings, is why Libera are spending a busy week before Christmas in Japan.

[Yorkie]

Thanks Jimmy, great work from our resident media watchdog as ever! I agree about the song, when you hear the whole thing it is not like SoL at all. As a 'Christmas' song I prefer it to Santa; it has more of a Libera quality to it but is unseasonal enough to work at any time of year.

It's available on UK and US iTunes too so you might as well buy it all you Libera fans - there's a chance they might make money of these new releases if the cash isn't being swallowed up by Warner or EMI....

[dani]

I like it , the chorus is very SOL to my hearing but it's still a decent new track . Hopefully if this is the new way forward with song releases via iTunes then more songs can get released as over heads are so small .

[Surpinto]

Wow, Jimmy, it's incredible how much more promoted they are in places like Japan compared to even their home country! Thank you for sharing.

It's available on UK and US iTunes too so you might as well buy it all you Libera fans - there's a chance they might make money of these new releases if the cash isn't being swallowed up by Warner or EMI....

I bet that the majority is being gobbled up by Libera-Records/Wisteria Project as they hold the phonogram copyright. But I also bet that they are the ones paying for the promotion of the song and maybe even have a hand in the Japanese concerts; we can assume this given the filming that took place by Libera-Records at USJ.

So it's a fair deal.

[JimmyRiddle]

Single download now showing on Amazon US; UK; DE, FR

...somebody's been naughty and posted the recorded video on a well known video distributing website.

[alcesalcesobservator]

It's nice. Between "Angel" and "Santa" I'm a bit torn as to which I like best.

[chris17]

Thanks for posting the video! I've already downloaded it from iTunes, which was a nice surprise, as I thought it might only be released in Japan. Overall, I liked the music more than I thought I would, and I especially loved the Latin bits. However, I feel like parts of the English lyrics were a little bit lacking. For most of Libera's songs, the lyrics can basically stand on their own - they'd be worthwhile without the music, even. Some parts of Angel were like that, but others (for me) were not - like "Can you be my angel now" (which, based on the previous lyrics, seems like an unnecessary/silly question) or "You are my guardian angel of mine" with its distracting redundancy of my/mine.

I don't want to sound too critical, though. From a musical standpoint, I liked it quite a bit.

[TullyBascombe]

I hope at some point these two songs find their place on a broader release CD. I like to play Libera in my car, but I only have a CD player.

[alcesalcesobservator]

Thanks for posting the video! I've already downloaded it from iTunes, which was a nice surprise, as I thought it might only be released in Japan. Overall, I liked the music more than I thought I would, and I especially loved the Latin bits. However, I feel like parts of the English lyrics were a little bit lacking. For most of Libera's songs, the lyrics can basically stand on their own - they'd be worthwhile without the music, even. Some parts of Angel were like that, but others (for me) were not - like "Can you be my angel now" (which, based on the previous lyrics, seems like an unnecessary/silly question) or "You are my guardian angel of mine" with its distracting redundancy of my/mine.

I don't want to sound too critical, though. From a musical standpoint, I liked it quite a bit.

Not to jump on the proverbial band wagon, but I noticed the same thing, only I didn't know how to express it so eloquently. Maybe the lyrics are better when translated into Japanese?

[Surpinto]

CD arrived today. Very nice packaging and quick delivery.



They included an odd folder that only opens on two sides. I am not certain of its purpose or reason for inclusion. Is this a Japanese thing? It was slightly bent in transit. Edit: FDL at Twitter informed me that the folder is a gift from HMV for those who pre-ordered. Cool!



The Audio

The first four tracks of the CD are exactly what is on the iTunes single Angel plus the songs on the The Holiday EP so no more needs to be said about that. However the last track is an orchestral version of "Angel" and is pretty nice. They replaced the vocals with musical instruments. It's a nice novelty for sure but you're not missing out on anything purely Libera if you do not hear it as there is no singing.

The Video

The DVD has two video tracks: Libera in Universal Studios Japan and the Angel music video.

Since the content of music video is already known to us what is of interest is the recording they did of the boys enjoying the theme park . It's not too long, only a little over 7 minutes. They are recorded getting off the bus, walking around the park (including several scenes we have seen photographs of posted this summer), enjoying an action show while getting splashed with water , and getting ready for the performance. It's very nice and shows them enjoying themselves - definitely nice to see considering how hard they work. Language was no barrier as nothing of importance is in Japanese aside from Taichi speaking to the camera crew briefly; though I think we catch just the two second tail end of whatever he is saying.

Technology considerations

For those not in Region 2 countries some of your DVD players will play the DVD outright. I have an old desktop computer with 2 optical drives. One of the optical drives physically ejected the DVD immediately upon scanning it while the other played it just fine. If this is an issue for you, you can change the DVD region of the drive by going through device manager, clicking the drive in question, and changing the DVD region manually. MAC and Linux should be similar. You can do this a maximum of 4 to 5 times. So changing it to region 2 and then changing it back to region 1 to play your regular stuff would be two total changes. But who cares? Libera's worth it

Since I was able to get everything to work without using ripping software I cannot speak to those that may choose to go that route as I never experimented or researched the matter as I was planning to.

[alcesalcesobservator]

Thanks, Surpinto, for your tech-savy review!

[john45]

I feel like parts of the English lyrics were a little bit lacking ..... "You are my guardian angel of mine" with its distracting redundancy of my/mine.

Punctuation makes all the difference.

Try this:"You are my guardian, angel of mine."