TRIPLANE – Natsu ga Owareba / Kokoro Hakobu (a J!-ENT World Groove CD Single Review)

August 4, 2008 by Dennis Amith 

“Another solid CD single from TRIPLANE”

BAND: TRIPLANE

CD SINGLE: Natsu ga Owareba / Kokoro Hakobu

LABEL: Tearbridge Records

CATALOG #: NFCD-27102/B

DURATION: 13:34

RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2008

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

1. 夏が終われば
2. ココロハコブ～TV Ver.～
3. モノローグ～アコーステックVer.～

DVD: Region 2, 4:3, Duration: 9 minutes

1. 夏が終われば (Music Clip)
2. ココロハコブ (Live Clip)

I know in my last reviews, I kept driving the comparisons between TRIPLANE and Mr. Children and how lead vocalist Ebata “Samurai” Hyoue sounds almost exactly like Mr. Children vocalist Sakurai Kazutoshi.

But for this review, instead of dwelling on the comparisons of the two bands, I’ll focus on this CD single.

This double A-side CD single is the band’s 7th CD single and features “Natsu ga Owareba” (End of Summer) which is a song that is reminiscent in lyrics to the Brian Adams “Summer of ’69″ song which dwells on the past and looking back at the Summer experiences and “Kokoro Hakoba” (Love Move) which is the ending theme for the Sentai TV series “Tomica Hero Rescue Force”. Both songs written by vocalist/guitarist Ebata Hyoue.

The song similar to their hit “Monologue” features a mid-tempo rock song featuring strings by Masatsugu Shinozaki Strings. The song is beautiful and simply another track that showcases Ebata Hyoue’s love for Mr. Children and utilizing strings in his songs.

“Kokoro Hakobu” featured ending theme for the TV series “Tomica Hero Rescue Force”

The second track is “Kokoro Hakobu” (TV version) which is another mid-tempo rock song which is featured on the band’s second album “Kokoro Haretara”.

The third track is an acoustic version of “Monologue” (the band’s sixth CD single) featuring primarily piano and strings by Cieko Kinbara Strings. Despite being released back in Nov. 2007, I still can’t get enough of this song.

As for the DVD, the DVD features the music clip for “Natsu ga Owareba” and a live concert performance of “Kokoro Hakobu”.

The music video for “Natsu ga Owareba” is actually quite interesting and at first I thought it was just one of the lamest videos I have ever seen but turned out to be a pretty good music video.

The music video starts off with a underpass with a black crossing guard. He then starts singing the song and starts dancing to it ala B-boy style for the first half of the song. Fortunately, the music video shifts to sometime during the 1980′s (as indicated by the large boom box) and two guys dancing and a black teenager and his Japanese girlfriend.

The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that a Black teenager is featured in a Japanese music video as a main character and not solely as a talent’s background dancer. But by looking at the teenage couple, there is sadness in their face and all four take a photo together.

Fast forward probably two decades later and you realize the crossing guard was that teenager reminiscing of his youth dancing with his buddies and thinking about his girlfriend. As the song “Natsu ga Owareba” is about memories of the end of Summer, the man then takes the photo from his youth and places it in the area on the ground with flowers.

If anything, the music video started out pretty lame and silly but for any adult who has had awesome experiences during the Summer with their friends and occasionally reminisces of the past, the images of this music video especially during its latter half, is something that we can understand and feel. A time that we enjoyed, we now remember and say goodbye too.

The second clip is a live performance of “Kokoro Hakobu”. This would be my first time to watch TRIPLANE since they are never featured on their music videos it seems. And also curious to see if the live mannerisms of Ebata Hyoue are similar to Mr. Children’s Sakurai Kazutoshi. But all in all, great to see the band perform live.

As for the CD insert, you get your standard lyrics and production credits. Outside of the CD, you get this wrap around cover with the “Tomica Hero Rescue Force” image. Also, included is a four page info. on TRIPLANE’s nationwide concert tour all over Japan, bio. for the group and discography.

I really love TRIPLANE’s music. Not because I’m a hardcore Mr. Children fan and their music is reminiscent of the awesome Mr. Children 1993-1995 years but I have to really appreciate the songwriting and the musical arrangement for his songs.

Both “Natsu ga Owareba” and “Kokoro Hakobu” are very cool songs and although, I find it a bit weird to see the latter song used in a children’s sentai show, nevertheless, I hope it exposes more people to their music.

The music video for “Natsu ga Owareba” (and I like to emphasize the second half, because the first half was just a bit lame), was definitely one of those music videos that resonates pretty deeply for those who tend to think about the past, especially past love and the summer time. But the addition of a live performance was a great addition to the DVD as well as an acoustic version of “Monologue” on the CD single.

If there was one thing that I wish was included were the instrumentals for the songs because for songs such as TRIPLANE’s music, they are the type that you want to sing along too.

All in all, another solid and beautiful CD single from TRIPLANE! Recommended!

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