17 April 2012

My top NEWS songs (minus the A-sides)

Okay, now that I have gotten a better understanding from fans who know more Japanese than I do I now I know exactly what is going on about the voting for NEWS' Best album. Each fan gets to vote for four songs, as there are four members of the group, and they will put the top songs on that second disc on the best album. It is for songs that are not the A-sides for their past singles, as those will be on the first disc.

After thinking about it for a while I have a pretty good idea for which songs I will vote for, given that they will make it possible for overseas fans to vote. So here is my list and the reasons why.

4) Dreams

I got into NEWS around the time they were releasing the DVD for their come back tour, Never Ending Wonderful Story. As part of the promotion for the DVD release they actually made a "PV" for Dreams with it, which is basically one of the concert performances of the song. During this performance Koyama Keiichiro breaks down in tears during one of his lines since he is so overcome with emotion of being back and singing a song like Dreams, as it was probably one of his greatest dreams to have the group come back one day.

That made this song really stick in my head and now that we are looking at NEWS making another comeback I cannot help but think of that performance and this song. I just do not think it would be a come back without this song attached to it somehow.

3) Alibi

A big part of why I want to vote for this song is because while it is mainly another Koyashige song, Tegoshi Yuya and Masuda Takahisa do sing the back up vocals for it, so it is kinda like a 4 member NEWS song before the group became 4 members.

Other than that Alibi is a nice fun song and it actually one of Koyashige's sweeter songs. I also love how they worked Tegoshi and Massu's names into the lyrics. Definitely a song only NEWS can have.

2) NANDE x2 DAME

Honestly it took a long time to figure out this one as there are just so many NEWS songs I would love to have a part of this list, and this is just the songs I completely adore. In the end I went with NANDE x2 DAME as it is one of my all time favorites and a really fun song. Not to mention I felt it would help balance out the ballads as well as the amount of newer songs with an older song like it.

1) FLY AGAIN

I know this song probably will not be on the top of many lists for at least the English language fandom but it tops mine because of the lyrics. Especially these lines, "Ano hi kawashita yakusoku ima demo oboete iru nara/Koe wo kikasete hoshii" which more or less translate to "If you still remember that promise we made that day/I want to hear your voice" and "Sou sa nani ga okottemo kimi ga mata tobitatsu koto/Shinji utaitsuzukeru kara" which would translate to "No matter what happens, you will fly again/I will keep singing, keep believing". Both of these really sum up my feelings about waiting for this return. For not only from the perspective of the fans but also of the guys. And I cannot imagine how powerful it would feel to have this song sung at their comeback tour, where fans will be able to hear the guys and the guys hear their fans.

And the overall message of the song, to hang in there and not give up because someday you will fly again just fits this return so well. Not to mention perhaps just the group itself as they have gone through so much, especially with the hardships of losing members, the scandals, and the hiatuses. But even after all of that NEWS is ready to fly again and I could not be happier as a fan.

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