Stealing Shin-chan's blogpost off the official AAA blog tonight because its picture is just too adorable and heart-warming for words. :)

(=бmб)
2011年11月13日
(sometimes I really wonder what the "faces" in Shinjiro's blog titles are supposed to be...)

こんばんみ〜！！
(His cute version of "こんばんは" again. I'm not sure if this is just Kansai-ben, though.)

今京都にいますよ〜！！

ちょっと休みをもらいまして、実家に帰省中！！

最近実家に仕事のついでに、ちょっとだけ寄るくらいしかできひんかったから、久々の休日帰省☆

正月も帰れないかもしれないので、家族に会いたくて！！

で、今日は、甥っ子の『りお』を連れて、遊園地に行ってきました！！

りおと手を繋いでたら、お姉が後ろから写真を撮ってたので、それを載せます（笑）

可愛いでしょ？？
(Yes, very cute indeed. Almost every picture of him and his nephew is so cute that I could die. Good job on snapping the pic, onee-san!!  (^-^)b )

じゃまた東京帰って仕事がんばりますか〜(^O^)

投稿者:與真司郎

And also! I remembered seeing this AAA song suddenly earlier today, and decided to have a listen... I've actually never heard it before. My excuse is that it was on the "Daiji na Koto (ダイジナコト)" single, and because I don't buy singles, I never really looked at the tracklisting of that disc. After which, this song, "Sayonara no Yukue (さよならの行方)", was not included in the "Buzz Communication" album which "Daiji na Koto" was on.


File uploaded by: Ayano-Etsuko on 4shared.com

I now love this song for so many reasons.

Firstly, it's a boys-led song - I am a little biased towards the boys; what, you hadn't noticed?? - and I love that each of the boys gets solo lines. The girls' voices sit very prettily on top of the boys' during the chorus; I like how the harmonies for this song have a very full sound.

00:24 - SHINJIRO AND CHIAKI. OMG. My two favourite voices together. Most of AAA's main vocalists tend to the higher register (although Nishi has some serious range), so I like that Shinjiro and Chiaki's voices are a bit different. Their voices somehow have a more... mellow quality than the other members.

Ever since the part of "Deai no Chikara (出逢いの力)" that they sang together in 4th Anniversary, I've been convinced that Shinjiro and Chiaki need a duet. But seeing as Shinjiro isn't a main vocalist, that kinda thing probably won't be Avex's priority for the group. Which is kinda sad. I have no idea if it says anything about the state of J-pop nowadays, what with the inundation of the JE groups, but I find that the husky quality of Shinjiro's voice is something rather unique; a lot of male vocalists in popular groups have similar-sounding mid-to-high range vocals.

01:31 (and 03:17): I'm pretty sure I hear the girls in the background, but this part sounds mainly Naoya-Shinjiro to me. I love this voice-pairing as well. (^-^) I don't know a whole lot about music, but when Naoya and Shinjiro sing together, it always seems to harmonise perfectly. Both voices are still very distinct, yet they just blend at the same time. It's like their voices are naturally a fifth apart or something; it's just so effortless. Shinjiro's lower vocals here add substance to the melody of Naoya's voice and the girls' voices add texture. I so love this.

By this point, I've noticed that the arrangement for this song seems to be thus, with the exception of solo lines: Nishi & Shuta, Naoya & Shinjiro, with the girls on the chorus line... and Hidaka alone for his rap, as seems to be the trend nowadays. I hope he's not getting too left out of the instrumentation; come on, I'm sure that even if he's meant to be the rapper of the group, it doesn't mean he can't sing. Hidaka does sing on their earlier songs.

04:24 - 04:28: Nishi + sustained long, higher notes = Awesomeness.

04:29: Nishi and Naoya, our two male main vocalists showing their stuff. I especially love the way their voices blend at 04:39, just as Hidaka's rap kicks in, very well-placed,.

05:50: Shinjiro on solo. His voice is beautiful on low notes, which is how it starts out here. And then it slowly moves higher; I LOVE the way Shinjiro pitches his voice up at the end. It's like when he sings the last chorus line for "Believe Own Way", but in this song it's even BETTER. The way he does it here gives me goosebumps. In a good kind of way. Something about the quality of his voice somehow gives it more... substance when he does this, as compared to the other guys. For my preferences, Nishi's voice is the next which has that similar kind of full-sounding quality, but it's just really not the same as Shinjiro's.

And if you've actually managed to get through all that gushing about just one song, I congratulate you and thank you for bearing with me. :D