Thoughts on Endless Game

[spsn]

Supposed to make the post yesterday but was too tired and stress out due to business review today and now even more stress out afterwards and I got kicked off from office today because probably my boss feel sorry for me, or NOT LOL... So, what it has to do with Arashi's new single Endless Game? Well, this time I literally use this single to escape from the horrid reality lurking in my office until next month... at least... and I only will be able to do my capping therapy probably after this Friday *sobs sobs* but until then, Endless Game single will help me in keeping my sanity and not losing myself into the madness...

Why I said I can use Endless Game from reality? This is what I find the magic of this single, in my opinion. The key to this is that you have to listen the single tracks in order in combination of LE and RE version, I use this order: Endless Game --> Intergalactic --> Magic Hour --> Monokuro (Monochrome). Shuffling this single will be a taboo and should not even occur to your mind at all. So imagine that you're an Alice, walking around on your neighborhood and suddenly you slip into an endless dark tunnel and arrive at...


Endless Game ~ Suddenly Alice drops into a fluffy grass but her surrounding is the high walled bushes... A MAZE! She'll have to find the way out, there're so many possible routes to the exit, but which one? She has no choice but to follow through each route and find out where those routes will lead her to... the exit? I wish the PV was something like this instead of... Arashi standing, looking cool with what I called recycled jackets (where's the yellow jacket for Nino?) with almost 90% exact same pose as Your Eyes, but the song, the beat makes up for it. Love the staccato beats and especially the bridge part and off course, Nino's solo part. This song is yet another dark song from Arashi. They've been featuring dark and cool image since Face Down. A sign of trying to grow up from the standard cheery pastel rainbow color songs? Though I love Arashi's rainbow sparkle and glittery songs, I also love the dark and cool side of Arashi. But I still want my maze theme PV though ;)

Intergalactic ~ Finally Alice finds an exit route, but the relief is only temporary. She's now seated on a seat in a... UFO! Where will be she taken to? Ohno, the Alien Captain's voice can be heard, 'We're departing!' To where? The UFO passed by an Andromeda, a Supernova (yeah, anything with space must include a supernova in Arashi dictionary XD), into the intergalactic. It'll be a long journey, so what we're going to do while on the journey? Server Aiba-chan will ensure that you have a good time on the journey by providing splendid tea party and magical music spinned by our DJ MJ, and you'll see a lazy cat Nino just sitting around waiting for you to pet him, but make sure that he doesn't bite you and the server Sho-chan is busy attending to Aiba-chan's instruction. On a fun side, this is a very fresh song coming from Arashi, in my opinion. It's a totally abusive song too, in terms of abusing Engrish and auto-tune. But all these abuse are forgiven on the thought of it's a song that V6 might sing! Or, SMAP might sing (I mean, look at Battery, this song does not so far off from it!)! What does that mean? Arashi is growing up! Yey! A slightly more mature catchy techno pop song!

Magic Hour ~ Well, every journey must have a destination. And turns up that UFO's destination is a Rainbow planet! It's full of rainbow sparkles, glitters and everybody on the planet are happy and 'singing forever'. Left and right are candy land and chocolate river are in front of you. Captain Ohno, again, act as your tour guide driving you around in a mini candy car while you see Sakuraiba trying very hard selling their mabo tofu merchandise, DJ MJ acting as the public music provider (you know, those public announcement jingles) while our Nino cat, will be always at the corner of your eyes whenever you go, as creepy as it sounds, he's adorable though, really LOL. This song is to remind you that Arashi is still an idol, a national idol at that. It's so poppish, laid back but magical because if you stop the journey here, all those magic will be poof, gone and you'll feel empty! Literally a pang of emptiness in your heart.

Monokuro (Monochrome) ~ Sunset arrives and night starts to take over, at the corner of Rainbow planet, there's a small door. Where does that lead to? Alice open the door and suddenly she's on the street of 1920's New York. There's an open bar at the corner of the alley and you'll see Sakuraiba toasting champagne while Ohno, the captain, suddenly become a singer, while Nino the cat suddenly on the piano playing the swing tune to match Ohno's performance. Where's DJ MJ? Oh, he's hitting on the passerby pretty girl to enjoy the evening. All happening in the glamour of 1920s, you know, with all the frocks etc. Not enough imagination? Just take the setting of The Great Gatsby and replace all characters with Arashi LOL! Love the beat of this song, it's a swing number that you probably can do a tap dance performance on *hint to Ohno: make all members learn tap dance*.



The songs ends and you're back to reality! Was it a dream? Ask Arashi!

Overall, with this single, I think Arashi just gave us another single with coupling tracks that we'll listen over and over again and adore them at the same time. Now I have higher expectation over Arashi's future singles and I hope they keep up this good work.

Comments

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

I am going to skip actual post till I get my copy through ... because ...

I saw that the Hong Kong version is out soon but not till next month so I may get that instead. I opted to get the regular edition. Years ago I wrote an Ohno fic called "Monochrome" so I am a little curious to see what they are like. I do recall that the b-side songs to the regular edition of Happiness were wonderfully beautiful songs (both Still and Snowflake are favourites of mine) so maybe these will surprise us and be pretty good if not great as well. ^__^

I do love the cover. Them boys are rocking them suits. *swoon* - I know I am shallow and far too easily pleased. ~)^

Will comment later when I have the music to hand. This is one single that I will not download ... I want to hear it for myself!

[spsn.livejournal.com]

heheeee, but RE doesnt have magic hour no? u may want to check that song out, its seriously magical, at least to me lol
the cover? yes arashi looks cool, pretty to be exact, me like but me dont like that they stand the same pose like your eyes cover, only in different order n different color haaaaa, n even the suits are almost the same style too.... k better stop lol, not arashi's fault, blame lazy producer haaaaa
do listen the song in order ne

[qonyta.livejournal.com]

actually i imagined endless game PV like how you described it here but with them in the MAZE and they chasing around with each other or one of them will be like alice and the other members will try to attract the alice arashi to follow :D

but yeah we got the same PV with same poses only with different outfit less rainbow colored clothes :D

i love the coupling songs esp intergalactic and monochrome and i listen it this shingle non stop since 2 days ago :D

[spsn.livejournal.com]

haaa, i forget about arashi when alice is in the maze, we can have lazy cat nino popping teasing alice n tricking her by showing the wrong route, or we have jun appears to hit on alice with his smoldering look, that will be a few chapters of fanfic alone hihiiii
exactly! same pv diff color, they think ppl forget about your eyes as its from last year.... tsk tsk...
intergalactic is a good choice to boost your energy in he morning haaaa

[animecook.livejournal.com]

you have a really active imagination ^^
I liked most of this single but my favorite is of course Endless Game. Second fave is Monochrome followed by Magic hour.
I didn't like Intergalactic much because of the auto-tune (can't stand it) but it is a catchy song nonetheless.

[spsn.livejournal.com]

i just have that kind of image for this single LOL... and I love singles that can give me that kind of impression and something for me to write about hahaha....
if you ask me the ichiban from this single, I'd choose Magic Hour. I'm still a sucker for rainbow pills even though dark Arashi are very edible. I don't like Intergalactic at first listening coz of the obvious reason, auto-tune, but it's catchy song, and it's kinda get to you after repeated listening hahaha...

[bouncer78.livejournal.com]

Hahaha..I lol-ed hard reading your descriptive imagination for each songs esp this part ----> 'anything with space must include a supernova in Arashi dictionary' lol XD

And guess what, the songs' order in my playlist are exactly like yours, truly coincidence. It's easier for me to imagine them as I read your description.

Owh, sorry for butting in. Found your LJ by coincidence when I googled Arashi's Intergalactic. I think I saw you a lot in nekobot LJ and her listening_storm comm though.

Nice review ^__^

[spsn.livejournal.com]

deshou? those images just pop out as I listen to this single, that's why this time the word to describe Endless Game single is... magical XD

and the MS performance is a major bonus, much much much better than the PV. Love the stage esp the floor... kakkoii dance steps and the 'wani wani wani wani' LOL...