CD
1) Overture ~Music Colosseum~
2) EXPLODE
3) VersuS
4) Ii ne !!
5) Let's Go !!
6) SEVEN WISHES
7) Yasashii Ame (Kitayama Hiromitsu) {CD Only Track}
8) One Kiss
9) Sha la la☆Summer Time
10) Camellia (Tamamori Yuta) {CD Only Track}
11) Baby Love (CD Only Track)
12) Kiss shi Chau zo
13) Life is Beautiful ~Taisetsuna Anata e~ (Fujigaya Taisuke) {CD Only Track}
14) Kimi no Iru Sekai
15) Bang ! Bang ! BURN !
16) r.a.c.e.
17) Tonight
18) Dream on
CD + DVD A
CD + DVD B
Both CD + DVD's tracklist
1) Overture ~Music Colosseum~
2) EXPLODE
3) VersuS
4) Ii ne !!
5) Let's Go !!
6) SEVEN WISHES
7) One Kiss
8) Sha la la☆Summer Time
9) Kiss shi Chau zo
10) Kimi no Iru Sekai
11) Bang! Bang! BURN!
12) r.a.c.e.
13) Tonight
14) Dream on
The group's last album release was last June's I SCREAM . In MUSIC COLOSSEUM , the latest new album has 14 songs while 4 bonus tracks are exclusively found in the CD only version (3 solos sung by Kitayama Hiromitsu , Fujigaya Taisuke & Tamamori Yuta + 1 group track) .
MUSIC COLOSSEUM includes single songs Sha la la☆Summer Time , Tonight , Kimi no Iru Sekai , SEVEN WISHES (the last 3 from their 1st triple A-side single INTER) .
The meaning behind MUSIC COLOSSEUM , "7 brave heroes taking on a challenge to their own way of 'MUSIC' ." The album's concept sees each of the group's 7 members as music warriors who are fighting to find their own way . For this , each member was responsible for the creation of a song on the album including coming up with lyrics , arrangement & vocals with help from their staff .
Several new short version songs are included in the DVD tracklist of MUSIC COLOSSEUM CD + DVD B version (as part of a Bokura no Music Colosseum special movie) but they're not included in the CD itself as follows :
- Ore no Aji (Yokoo Wataru's solo)
- PURE LOVE (Senga Kento's solo)
- Wotakudattatte It's Alright ! ~Gaiden~ (Miyata Toshiya's solo)
- Sexy Peach (Fujigaya Taisuke's solo)
- Josshii Matsumura no SCREAM (Nikaido Takashi's solo)
- Chara ku NIGHT? (Kitayama Hiromitsu's solo) ; melody is sampled from Snack SHOW wa (B-side in 18th single Sha la la☆Summer Time) which was sung by Kitayama , Yokoo & Miyata
- Touch (Fujigaya Taisuke & Tamamori Yuta) ; B-side in Sha la la☆Summer Time
I will review MUSIC COLOSSEUM based on the CD only tracklist of the album .
Kicking things off in MUSIC COLOSSEUM is Overture ~Music Colosseum~ . Unlike the group's past album opening tracks , this's so far the longest opening no. and also it has a fair bit of singing that Kis-My-Ft2 does .
EXPLODE is the 1st new group album track & it's technically the only new song that gets a video . The video plot is a continuation from Tonight (1st A-side in 18th single INTER) & in this case , the video has a wild + strong theme .
While I enjoy EXPLODE as it's quite an aggressive punchy driven no. , this time round , I feel this song don't deserve to get a video to a certain extent as there're other new album tracks that I feel it should have video(s) made instead which for this , I will talk about them later on .
VersuS & Ii ne !! are the next 2 new group album tracks . Both songs are upbeat songs but what set both of them apart are the melodies as VersuS has an interesting saxophone melody while Ii ne !! is just a fun fast paced track with no frills .
The next new group track Let's Go !! was used as the theme song for the Japanese dubbed version of The Lego Batman Movie that was released in Japan's cinemas on 1st April & this's the 1st time Kis-My-Ft2 provides a song to be used in a Hollywood movie .
In this case , Let's Go !! was specially created for the movie & it centres around the theme that everyone from children to adults can be a super hero to someone . According to Kis-My-Ft2 , it has a catchy melody & lyrics that make you want to sing together .
A video was made for Let's Go !! which's included/part of the Bokura no Music Colosseum special movie .
SEVEN WISHES is the 3rd A-side of Kis-My-Ft2's 18th single INTER . This was used in the ads of JR Kyushu's Atarashii 7tsu no Nagasaki e KISS MY NAGASAKI & this song had no video made despite being an A-side in INTER .
Yasashii Ame is the 1st of 4 bonus tracks included in the CD only version of MUSIC COLOSSEUM & this's sung by the group leader , Kitayama Hiromitsu .
Kitayama's past solos in Kis-My-Ft2's past studio albums were consistently quite good & the emotional driven ballad Yasashii Ame is no exception . I'm frankly surprised that during the current ongoing Kis-My-Ft2 LIVE TOUR 2017 MUSIC COLOSSEUM , Kitayama didn't performed Yasashii Ame & likewise with the other 3 bonus tracks .
One Kiss is the next group album track & as the title suggests , this's quite a slow paced no. .
Sha la la☆Summer Time is Kis-My-Ft2's 17th single & last year's Summer song was used in the ads of Unakowa .
The next 2 songs are bonus tracks in the CD only version of MUSIC COLOSSEUM . Camellia is a solo song sung by Tamamori Yuta while Baby Love is a group track .
Honestly , I don't think Tamamori has the best vocals in Kis-My-Ft2 but somehow his solos are not bad . Same thing goes with the mid tempo Camellia although up to now , I still like his previous solo (ALIVE) in I SCREAM as the video won me over for its artistic direction .
As for Baby Love , I find it a bit cheesy for my liking . The same thing goes with the track after it , Kiss shi Chau zo . I'm sure there's a reason why both tracks are put next to each other as they give about the same vibes but aside from that , given a choice , I would skip both tracks if possible .
Life is Beautiful ~Taisetsuna Anata e~ is the last bonus track available in the CD only version of MUSIC COLOSSEUM . This's a solo song sung by Fujigaya Taisuke .
Aside from this , Life is Beautiful ~Taisetsuna Anata e~ is also the only song in the album that has personal input as the lyrics were written by Fujigaya himself .
In general , I feel that each of the members can sing quite well but Fujigaya is 1 of the better ones & this's evident in this great piano driven ballad Life is Beautiful ~Taisetsuna Anata e~ .
To me , Kitayama & Fujigaya can handle solos on their own with no issues but together as a duo , they're definitely much stronger as their past duo collaboration songs are some of my favourite tracks in the group's discography .
Kimi no Iru Sekai is the 2nd A-side of Kis-My-Ft2's 18th single INTER & this was used in the ads of Kowa's Hokkairo Nuku Nuku Toban .
The next 2 group album tracks Bang ! Bang ! BURN ! & r.a.c.e. are some of my favourite new material in MUSIC COLOSSEUM as they're both edgy sounding .
While Bang ! Bang ! BURN ! is ok , r.a.c.e. stands out more as I really like the melody of this song & this's 1 of 2 album tracks that I felt a video should have been made .
Tonight is the 1st A-side in Kis-My-Ft2's 18th single INTER . The last single song included in MUSIC COLOSSEUM , Tonight was used in the ads of Daiichi Kosho's LIVE DAM STADIUM & this's my favourite single track in the album .
Dream on is the final song to conclude MUSIC COLOSSEUM & this's a great track to wrap things up as it's such an empowering soaring no. . Surprisingly , Dream on is the closest song that can almost be considered as a ballad & this's the 2nd album track I felt a video should have been made over EXPLODE as I enjoy it a lot .
Kis-My-Ft2 is on the attack with their 6th album MUSIC COLOSSEUM which sees the Johnny's group challenging new forms of music .
I thought when Kis-My-Ft2 released I SCREAM last year , they weren't able to amp things up further but MUSIC COLOSSEUM proved me wrong in some ways or another as if you buy all versions , they really give the fans their $ worth as this by far contains the most no. of new material to date .
In addition unlike their past albums , MUSIC COLOSSEUM doesn't include any B-side from their singles which's extremely rare as that happened to their previous releases but not this time round & it's also evident that there's a considerable amount of personal input from the members as well .
However after giving MUSIC COLOSSEUM extensive listens , I feel that I don't enjoy it as much as their previous albums as for starters , some of the new songs sound like what their juniors might sing if not they're too slow for my liking .
It's a bit strange as somehow in MUSIC COLOSSEUM , it somewhat suffered the same fate as ARASHI's Are You Happy ? as for both releases , the members have a lot more personal input that went into making the albums but the result turn out less than stellar .
The difference is at least in MUSIC COLOSSEUM , there're some strong memorable album tracks (EXPLODE , r.a.c.e. , Dream on) & except for Baby Love , I like the other 3 solos bonus tracks even though I thought it's quite unfair that Busaiku didn't get any solos in the CD (even though that's somewhat made up in the CD + DVD B of MUSIC COLOSSEUM) .
Kis-My-Ft2 has no doubt release material at quite a fast pace since they debuted in 2009 & already MUSIC COLOSSEUM is their 6th album which's pretty insane . In the midst of releasing too fast , the quality of their music suffers & unfortunately that applies to MUSIC COLOSSEUM .
That said , it's all not a loss cause for MUSIC COLOSSEUM as there above mentioned tracks still make the album worth a listen but given a choice , I would rather listen to their past albums as up to now , my favourite album from them is still their 4th album KIS-MY-WORLD .
Kis-My-Ft2's 19th single PICK IT UP was released 3 days ago on 7th June & this song is not included in MUSIC COLOSSEUM + I will review it subsequently .
For now , I will not mind if Kis-My-Ft2 slow down in releasing future albums as I rather they release 1 every 2/3 years & make a great 1 as sometimes if you release a new album on a yearly basis , fans might not be able to keep up & in the process , quality will take a backseat over quality .