[Koda Kumi] The 148th Thread - [Driving Hit's 4]

[kaled kalil]

I don't think it's weird that Mr. Blistah co-wrote and co-composed No Man's Land, the original demo didn't had the rap part (I'm not 100% sure but Kumi said that they changed a lot the song, so probably that is the different part).

Because the whole scandal thing I've never really liked Moon Crying, it is a beautiful ballad and it has a deep meaning (I agree with Ayu_Love), but I don't know why I don't like that much, I only like the Taiwan Live version...

BTW today is the 10th Anniversary of affection!

[TeamAyu2004]

So i think its sad such a good remix CD didn't sell very well...
Does anyone know the final sales of Driving Hits 4?
I would like to compare... I wonder if we will get a 5th one?

[NintendoHTF1242]

Originally Posted by kaled kalil

I don't think it's weird that Mr. Blistah co-wrote and co-composed No Man's Land, the original demo didn't had the rap part (I'm not 100% sure but Kumi said that they changed a lot the song, so probably that is the different part).

I just think it's weird because I'm so used to only hearing him do Arabian songs with Kuu, it's just weird seeing his talents being used in a rock song. But 'tis a fabulous rock song!

[setsuka]

yay my second fave Kuu album <3

we will probably get one for every Kuu album I guess, low sales are still sales for avex

[ALfromHELLSING]

Originally Posted by kaled kalil

TRICK is a dark album imo because it's not the way Kumi wanted, she wanted to do a music video for each song but her label did not allowed to do this.
Even some songs don't seem finished, like Bling Bling Bling, so I think the album had a rushed release.

wow I didn't know that, I guess I just didn't read that interview.

Originally Posted by NintendoHTF1242

You're So Beautiful is my favorite song to listen to when I'm sad because Kuu's optimistic lyrics and beautiful voice + the gorgeous music lifts up my mood so fast.

I ****ing love this song. one of my favorite Kumi's songs. and yest it does lift up my mood too.

Can We Go Back has pretty dark lyrics, knowing that originally song was about break up. I was surprised that she came up with this kind of lyrics for her version.

We’ve already become accustomed to losing
We held no fear when we were still children
Nothing will become of our lives if we fight lost battles

btw does anyone know if UNIVERSE tour blu ray is 720p or 1080p? I'm gonna get anyway, but if it's 1080p I might actually get it faster.

[Minttulatte]

10th anniversary for affection? Omg~ I love that album though I didn't really care about it when I first heard it but these days I think it's one of the best lyrical work of Kuu's ever done.

Originally Posted by Ayu_Love

I remember her saying in a magazine interview at that time that she was considering doing a music video or each song for TRICK, but she chose not to in the end because she wanted people to just listen to the songs, by themselves. And think about the songs while they listened to them.

She also said once that looking at herself, through her albums and looking at her album covers at that time, (through 2008 and 2009) she noticed that most of her work was very dark and grey, and didn't have any colour like her older works. I think she said her sadness at that time (because of the scandal) that's how it come out in her work. And she said she had lost the confidence to really 'try' after it, and it took her a long time, til 2010 (where her work got more colourful again) until she was ready to start 'running forward' again, as she put it. She also said that's why she dyed her hair from blonde to black at that time, cause of the sadness she was feeling.

I think she said these things in Koda Reki. I remember reading something like this from it because it made me cry. After that I've always thought that this is the main reason why I couldn't really feel TRICK when I listened to it. I also remember getting pretty bored with her music in 2009 and I was a bit worried of the direction of my fandom those days. Those days I didn't really understand it but now I do. It was because she didn't feel her own music that much.

And when she felt so sad and lost motivation, I think it really shows. Her music in 2009 isn't that good tbh. I do love her releases back then but I know that I never listened to those as much as I did listen to TABOO alone for example. Or every 2010 and 2011 single release. Poor Kuu. I'm happy she made a fierce comeback with Can We Go Back in 2010, which is the song she decided she can't stay in the state she was after the scandal (she said this in Koda Reki).

I think 'Moon Crying''s lyrics are about the scandal too. Or at least how it made her feel at that time. Whenever I read the lyrics, I always feel like she is talking to her fans, and how she realized (or thought) she had upset them and the people she loved from what she had said. I remember her also saying something like she felt incredibly guilty that she had upset all of her fans who loved her, and she wanted to make it upto them. Such as:

I didn’t mean to put that expression on your face
Even though I loved you
I made you feel sad
And there were tears that day

She keeps referring to 'that day', which I believe is about the scandal. That's how I always feel when I listen to Moon Crying. Koda always says about walking down the road together to her fans, like her walking down the road with the people she loves and her fans, an in MC she says:

I am on the road
I used to walk with you
Walking beneath the moon
While singing a sad melody

I think that during that time, where she was alone after she had put herself into solitude, and virtually she had almost lost her career due to that day, She almost lost everything, and I honestly think that is what Moon Crying is about, whenever I listen to it that's how I feel. But that could just be my interpretation of it.

Nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks this way. I was worried that I was but it's better this way haha. XD I think that whenever she sings this song on live her sadness is really overflowing because it really makes me cry every time I see her perform. It must be the reason why she cries too. She must have many painful memories of this song. I'm happy that she keeps singing it at times because I'm a huge fan of Moon Crying. ^_^

[Corvina]

Originally Posted by Alucard from Hellsing

Can We Go Back has pretty dark lyrics, knowing that originally song was about break up. I was surprised that she came up with this kind of lyrics for her version.

We’ve already become accustomed to losing
We held no fear when we were still children
Nothing will become of our lives if we fight lost battles

Yeah, Can We Go Back has some great (darker) lyrics and it's one of the reasons why I love this song so much!
She also refers to her older works with meantioning the butterflies coming back ("Can we go back to the way we used to be?
The butterflies will return right now"), overcoming the hard times with the scandal for good and all- at least that's how I interpret it, having in my mind what she said about it in Koda Reki.
One of her most personal songs.
Outside Fishbowl (and Inside Fishbowl to some extent) has great ones as well; love the symbols she's using there.

Spoiler:

"Please! Just let me yell
Until my voice withers away

[...]

I want to leave the fishbowl, growing old
I don’t want to be hindered
Because I am meant to fly
It won’t end like this
I wanna fly, I wanna fly

On the night when the sun sleeps
And loses its glow...
I’m gonna try!"

Ayu_Love, I never thought about Moon Crying like that! Though she did connect it herself with the scandal.
And isn't there that message at the start of the DVD of the single before Moon Crying?

[KuuXAyu-fan]

Appears someone from Digz is making a new song for Kumi!

@Digz_Kudo おはよーw 昨日はいろいろとあったな。会議詰めだった。EXILE、東方神起、倖田來未、少女時代、fx、my name、赤西君、まだまだたくさん(>_<) さてどこから行きますかね。今年もヒット曲たくさんリリース出来たらイイな。少しでも多くの人に届けられる ように、まずは楽しもう。
約13時間前 151人がﾘﾂｲｰﾄ

@Digz_Kudo @kinotrumpet くぅちゃんは今年も変わらずにかっこいいのやる予定で制作してますよ(*^^*)
約2時間前

And she's working also:



Credits: kinot @ baidu + Kaled @ JPC

New summer single??!

[ayu_ready?]

OMFG I miss her so much that every grain of new info is like a "KABOOM" for me!
maybe a 'post-pregnancy' ballad release? seems the most likely for me
she looks great & trendy, even being pregnant. great Kuu. that's why I luv her - always looking so 'on top'

[Princess_Of_Roses]

She kinda looks like that Jeannie MaI girl from the stlye network in that picture just with blonde hair maybe she is getting her birthday live things organized becuase later on during pregnancy and after the baby is born she wont have time !!

[isthisLOL?]

Just randomly reading into this lyric discussion..why are the butterflies considered her older works? Whenever I think of butterflies my first association is a symbol for the human soul since that's what it's mainly used for in art.

[setsuka]

I hope she releases a summer single!, ngl

even a digital single just to keep the tradition!

[Gustavopc]

I hope she does release something, summer without Kuu maxi singles isn't summer
She could release a summer single like MOON, with the main song being a ballad and just a few PVs... Maybe she's already recorded a dance video while her belly was not evident or when it was possible for her to "move freely"

[happiholic★]

Originally Posted by Gustavopc

I hope she does release something, summer without Kuu maxi singles isn't summer
She could release a summer single like MOON, with the main song being a ballad and just a few PVs... Maybe she's already recorded a dance video while her belly was not evident or when it was possible for her to "move freely"

You're so right!

[love in music]

i wonder what the possibility is of getting another sexy song this summer
not really in the mood for kuu ballads, esp in the summer.

[kotora]

Originally Posted by KuuXAyu-fan

Appears someone from Digz is making a new song for Kumi!



And she's working also:



Credits: kinot @ baidu + Kaled @ JPC

New summer single??!

To me, she doesn't fit the super rich red lips at all..

[emi♡]

I want a Lick Me <3

A quality cute song with all the sexual undertones Not like a Melting or something.

Man this summer is going to be weird if ayu or koda don't release seasonal stuff.

[happiholic★]

I want another Good☆day. I love that song.

[ayu_ready?]

I want FREAKY or BUT, buuut...
impossible I guess
i'm like 99.9 sure it's gonna be a ballad.no matter if released in summer or later

[Corvina]

Originally Posted by isthisLOL?

Just randomly reading into this lyric discussion..why are the butterflies considered her older works? Whenever I think of butterflies my first association is a symbol for the human soul since that's what it's mainly used for in art.

It's a bit long, so under the spoiler. XD

Spoiler:

First - it's just my personal interpretation.
Butterflies are some kind of personal symbol for Kuu, she uses them a lot,the only tattoo she has is a butterfly e.g.
Also Butterfly was the song which got her big in 2005. real emotion/1000 no kotoba and Cutie Honey before were hits as well, but Butterfly was the start of her peak; it was song of the year 2005, she got her first award ever for it.
And it was her first hit song she did "on her own", not being chosen by a producer or being asked to do it like for Cutie Honey, a cover song.

Kuu says Can We Go Back is about her weakness in the time of the scandal, about the fear to go on.
Together with the lines after the butterflies, it makes more sense:

"The butterflies will return right now
We’re allowed to throw everything away, right?
Giving up on what we used to be is easy
This isn’t how it’s supposed to be"

So for me she is refering to the time of her first big success, where she found herself and the confidence to be like she wants to be. People started to accept her and her image. She called the years before her "winter years". After the scandal 2008 and 2009 she didn't feel well again, lost, like in those years before her ero-kakkoi image, before she knew what she wanted to portray with her singing career.

Can We Go Back was the point for her to change her attitude again.
It's also in the first verse of the song:

"When I try to think things over
I feel like I’m lost in a maze
It’s like if I can’t see the exit anymore
All this is killing me"

So the butterflies returning in the beginning are the strength and confidence returning to her which she first had with her ero-kakkoi success imo.
She also used the butterfly hanging upside down for the tour live of Can We Go Back, probably as a symbol to get her life in the right direction again, the butterfly being herself.

All those quotes of her I'm using (and still much more insight) can be found in Koda Reki, tenshi_no_hane translated it here.
I guess my interpretation probably makes more sense reading it.
I still have the feeling there's so much more to say to make my point clear, haha.

Long post, I hope you at least get the core of what I'm trying to say.


Hm, of course Kuu is still working, she still has time till birth and she's in the stable period right now.
Choosing songs, preparing the birthday live....
Maybe that new song is a ballad for winter? We won't know.
But nice to see and hear something again.