Air band Golden Bomber released their fourth original album, "Mou Kouhaku ni Dashite Kurenai," on December 28, 2019. The title, meaning "They won't let us on Kouhaku anymore," and artwork for the album were released shortly after the announcement of the lineup for the 2019 Kouhaku Uta Gassen (Japan's national end of the year music TV special), where Golden Bomber had performed previously, but were again this year not included in the lineup despite having a viral hit song to commemorate the new Japanese imperial age.
Below are links to the English translations of each song, as well the translated liner notes from frontman and creator Kiryuin Shou. I have also included my own commentary where I felt that some contextual information was needed to better understand the song or liner notes. Translation links also have video of the song, when available from an official source.
1. 令和 (Reiwa)
Notes from Lurkette: In 2019, one of the most significant moments for Japan was the abdication of the Heisei Emperor Akihito and the announcement of the new imperial era and coronation of the new Reiwa Emperor Naruhito. Japan generally uses imperial eras to denote birth years and cultural moments, so the coming of a new era signifies a cultural and generational shift to many people. This song was actually written in its entirety before the name of the new era was announced, and it was recorded with the current era, Heisei, as a placeholder for the name of the new era, with the goal being to release and promote a song celebrating the new era faster than anyone else. Most of the music video was filmed in advance, but on the day of the announcement of the new era, all of the Golden Bomber members gathered in a studio so that Kiryuin could re-record the new name into the song and they could film additional footage for the music video of them actually saying the name of the era and song. The other 3 members of the group were each dressed and made up as a different Japanese public figure, because it was not clear who was going to make the announcement and they wanted to include a scene of that in the video. The whole thing was an insanely well-thought out gimmick, and the resulting success of the single hopefully made up for how much went into this little song. You can see some footage of the group on the very eventful day when the name was announced here.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: When I first started on this song, I simply thought it would be funny to put out a song called "My Neck Hurts" with the cover photo being me with my hand on my neck, and then I added different things to that concept in my head. From there, the contents of the lyrics quickly developed into an idea I had, "The parts of your body that hurt after going too hard at a concert," and I thought that that was definitely hilarious so I made the song and it is indeed hilarious.
Notes from Lurkette: The initial concept of the song revolved around Kiryuin noticing that so many male entertainers, idols, and anime characters tend to pose for photos with their hand on their necks as if they're in pain. He built a whole song out of it linking it to going to concerts and, well, it is very funny, he's not wrong.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: The theme song for the NHK Drama 10 "Tokusatsu Ga Ga Ga." I got the call for creating the theme song when I was thinking that I wanted to start doing something new, so I swore that I would make a perfect, great song for this! I embraced that fighting spirit to create this for them. Tokusatsu Ga Ga Ga really was funny.
Notes from Lurkette: The show that this song was written for is the story of an otaku girl, or a girl who is obsessive over hobbies considered unusual, who has to hide her hobbies from society in order to fit in. The song is a play on words, as the Ga Ga Ga in the show title refers to the English word "gaga," or to be crazy about something, plus an extra ga for effect, and the song interprets these ga's to be the Japanese word ga, meaning "but." The song goes through the inner struggles of someone who has a hobby that really means a lot to them, but they're afraid of saying that it does because of how the world might receive them.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: A song born according to a silly sort of request from LINE. It seems like they saw how Reiwa was made and decided to extend an offer to me, saying that they wanted a funny song that could be played as background music for LINE Talk, which is really the greatest, most difficult thing I have ever been asked for, thank you!
Notes from Lurkette: The music video is really integral to understanding the lyrics of the song. Between euphemisms for body parts as food and the visual illustrations of what's going on in the lyrics, it really is 10x more fun to see it rather than just hear it.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: I was only thinking about doing a performance where I could say "stage right, stage right~!" to the audience and point everyone over there and then do the same for stage left, so I put different things together in my head again until eventually a concept started to form and soon enough it became a very peculiar sort of song. KOTOKO, who participated in this song, added her voice, which really is the best.
Notes from Lurkette: Another otaku sort of song, this time about fanboys and fangirls who make their way out to concerts over and over again just to see if they can get a brief moment of interaction with their idols. The choreography for this song has been noted by the other members to be the most laborious and taxing because they're doing a two-step the whole time, but drummer Darvish Kenji, fitness fiend and Ninja warrior fanatic, has taken the moves to be a personal test of stamina every time he does them.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: I had a relapse of heartsickness and for a while I couldn't make songs, but then the chorus of this song finally started playing in my head. I frantically reeled it in to set it up and give it shape, and in that process I really felt how much making music is essential for me to keep living.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: This is a song that let me think that even though I'm now in my mid-30s, I really haven't changed, and that I have some sad moments which are reflected in this melody.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: I mean it when I say this is a song with sections that I definitely could not have made (lol) I decided to make it a single when I was listening to the demo and felt like chords in the "Tatsuo" part of the chorus were really spectacular.
Notes from Lurkette: The beginning of this video details how this song came about. Darvish, who does not play drums but has shown interest in the past in singing and making music, approached Kiryuin in the restroom after a shoot to awkwardly give him a copy of the demo of this song and what would end up as the B-side for the single release. Darvish wrote the words and melody for the song with help from the real Tatsuo, Golden Bomber's workhorse producer, who also appears in the music video (that is not his actual wife, though), and Darvish and Kiryuin swapped places in the band for this song. Don't worry, though: the album has a bonus track featuring Kiryuin as the vocalist, if you wanted to know what that would sound like.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: This is the title above all else; whenever I think of phrases that would be funny song titles I write them down on a note in my phone. Reading these notes now, there is one title that I don't think I'll use but I'd like to introduce to you after reading it back, and it is this: "If that's the case, I wish I had been born as a tick."
Notes from Lurkette: While it's not uncommon for idols and visual kei artists, especially, to be protective of their faces when they're not wearing makeup, it is a well-known fact that Kiryuin is not great to look at it and he knows it. Guitarist Kyan Yutaka and bassist Utahiroba Jun are also not particularly good-looking without makeup, but Kiryuin needs help and so pictures of him without any makeup are extremely rare. He wears sunglasses and masks all the time in his private life and will censor his face if he feels his ugliness has been revealed. Darvish wears the most makeup to conceal his face but this is because he is extremely attractive and the other members thought it would be funny to have the one good-looking member in the group have most of his face hidden.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: A song I made a while back for a video for White Day. I figured that since the song in full is uploaded on the video site and people could just a burn it to a CD-R if they wanted to enjoy it on its own, I didn't have to do a full release of it, but since a large number of fans were adamant that they wanted it on CD, I included it here~
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: The song that played during skits for our 2018 national tour "Robohip." It's a mystery why I wrote such a cool song for this. It's randomly cool. For no reason.
Notes from Lurkette: Every tour with Golden Bomber is themed around a certain plot that Kiryuin thinks up, and lately he's been prone to writing his own music for interludes during the show. Robohip happens to have a particularly cool song but it has no right to be as good as it is, honestly.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: The newest version of "The Visual Kei-type Song." I'm still a pop person at heart and always have been, so this is not a genre I'm particularly good at making songs in... Why did I end up looking into why it's so extreme...? (sweats)
Notes from Lurkette: The concept of moshing, headbanging, or general movement during concerts in Japanese is generally distilled down to the word "abare," or to rage. He uses as many words as he possibly can that contain the kanji used in abare for the lyrics to generally make it a song with little purpose other than to rage to it.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: When this song first came into my head it was a ballad. Then one day when I woke up and I started singing this fast tempo in my heart. I thought, "Huh, faster suits it better." The mysterious heart of a singer is always fickle ❤
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: When I think about what sort of reasons there are for why I'd stop caring about someone I like, I always arrive at the conclusion that there probably isn't any answer other than, "I'm actually a man." Still, even if that were the case, it's possible that still wouldn't be enough reason for me to stop caring about them.
Liner notes from Kiryuin Shou: The song I composed last of all the songs on the album, if the time period were different, the lyrics might have been about love. I was fed up with being heartsick and when I started to try to put my feelings of wanting to say farewell to that heartbreak to lyrics, it was by far the most difficult time I have ever had; I'm sorry to McDonald's for all the days I stayed there too long working on it. It was actually very healing to give shape to how I was feeling inside, and I think with this song I might have ended up at a place that was like kinetic therapy. I hope that I can create music that heals someone else next.
L-R: Utahiroba Jun (B), Kiryuin Shou (V), Kyan Yutaka (G), Darvish Kenji (D)
This was truly a labor of love for a great new album from one of my favorite bands so i really hope that someone, anyone, gets something out of it. Thanks to everyone for tolerating all my lyrics threads in the last week or so. I hope you enjoy reading a little bit about my boys.
Also casual promo for the Japanese translations section. I can't promise I will always respond quickly, but with the current global situation and spending lots of time at home... I have a pretty brief turnaround these days. I'm also willing to discuss translating articles or blogs or other things by ~special request~, so please drop a line if you'd like anything like that from me.
Also casual promo for the Japanese translations section. I can't promise I will always respond quickly, but with the current global situation and spending lots of time at home... I have a pretty brief turnaround these days. I'm also willing to discuss translating articles or blogs or other things by ~special request~, so please drop a line if you'd like anything like that from me.