Channel-Ai Community Blog - JPop reviews, articles

Title: Good-bye days Artist: YUI for Amane Kaoru Release Date: June 14, 2006 Debut Ranking: #3 Language: Japanese Package Weight: 100 g Publisher: Sony Music Records Other Information: Single

YUI is a Japanese pop artist who writes and plays the guitar to her own songs. She debuted in December of 2004 with the single “It’s happy line”, although it wasnt until her 4th single “LIFE“,which was used for the ending theme for the popular anime Bleach, that she became a household name. Although she is still fairly new to the J-Pop scene, her popularity seems to be rising and rising with every single she releases and it will only be a matter of time before she can reach the #1 spot on the Oricon charts.

Her new single “Good-bye days” will be used as the theme song for the movie “Taiyou no Uta”, in which YUI plays the role of Kaoru Amane, the protagonist of the movie. Kaoru suffers from a disease called “Xeroderma pigmentosum” which causes her to be easily burned and scarred by sunlight. The only motivation that she has in her life is the passion to sing. Every night when the sun goes down she ventures outside with a guitar in her hands to share her music at a square in front of a train station. She returns to her home every night at 4:00am just before the sun rises. One day, while looking out her bedroom window, she spots a high school student surfing and from that point on she decides to watch him and his friends every morning before she goes to sleep. Soon enough she eventually meets with him.

Taiyou no Uta official site

1. Good-bye days

“Good-bye days” from the intro sounds as though it will be a comforting song, and that’s exactly what it is. The intro starts up with the gentle melody of YUI’s acoustic guitar. After that, YUI starts with the soft and slow lyrics of the the first verse, her calming voice really does sound brilliant and unique. My favorite part of the song would be the third verse: YUI really pushes her voice so much in this verse and it really sounds amazing. I just get chills when I hear this part of the song.

iPod version (27.2 MB)

The PV is good, it shows you clips from the movie so it gives you a little chance to see some of her acting. A downside of the PV would be that her lip-syncing in some parts doesn’t match the words of the song. It’s not really noticeable, but if you do notice it can be a little annoying. But the song itself is an amazing piece of work, one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time, and a real breath of fresh air to the J-Pop scene.

Rating:

2. Skyline

The next song on this single is “Skyline”. Its a little different than “Good-bye days” and it’s definitely more up-beat than the A-side. The song progresses with a fast and cheery beat ,which doesn’t suit her voice as well as her ballads do in my opinion, but she still does a wonderful job with this song. Her English could use a little bit of improvement, the line “I want to fly away” just sounds a little strange, but it doesn’t bring down the song or anything, it just sounds a little strange :P. All in all this song is pretty catchy and a good addition to this single.

Rating:

3. It’s happy line

The thrid song in the single is called “It’s happy line”, this is a spiced up version of her debut single under the same name. I’ve always liked the original version and this version adds a little bit more of an edge to the original. It works pretty well as it adds some back-in vocals to mix the song up a little. The new version really does justice to the old and makes me like this song even more.

Rating:

Conclusion
I really loved this single, all the songs are amazing and hugely enjoyable. Though I really wasnt satisfied with its debut spot in the oricon charts (I feel as though it really should have got a higher position than 3rd), but with the current Johnny’s situation, it really can’t be helped. But over the last couple of weeks its remained in the top five of the charts and doesn’t show any signs of moving just yet.

Overall Rating:

1. Good-bye days
2. Skyline
3. It’s happy line

Purchase this item: YesAsia US | YesAsia Global