Koi Uta / PROGRESS was Tackey & Tsubasa’s 10th single. It was released June 4, 2008. It sold 68,973 copies in it’s first week, 85,215 overall and reached #2 on the charts. Koi Uta was used as the ending theme for the dorama “Osen“.
Tracklist
1. Koi Uta
2. Progress
3. Yakusoku -Last- (Regular Edition)
4. GLORY DAYS (Regular Edition)
Being my first Tackey & Tsubasa single, I wasn’t quite sure what genre of music to expect(though being from Johnny’s, I had a distinct idea of what it could be). Koi Uta begins with some old sounding piano chords and acoustic guitar. The first verse begins with very little instrumental backing. Each member gets their turn at a verse(which are pretty simple) until the chorus arrives. The chorus brings in some string instruments and beats, but is still pretty modest in the instruments, maintaining the songs calm and mid/slow tempo sound. The instrumental was my favorite thing form this song.
PROGRESS is kind of the opposite of the first a-side. It begins with a strong brass line accompanied by rock instruments and a constant drum beat. It sounds quite fun and begins immediately with the chorus, which is pretty fun in itself. I once again really liked the instrumental in this song. The verses are pretty short until they reach the chorus. I preferred this a-side over the other.
The first b-side, Yakusoku -Last-, has a pretty jazzy feel to it with a chill type mood. I was expecting some type of ballad based from the song’s title, but I was relieved upon hearing it. Again, I enjoyed the instruments.
GLORY DAYS begins with some chanting, than appear the piano and brass instruments. “HEY!” is heard constantly during the song but doesn’t get that annoying, kinda. This is a pretty typical b-side.
What most impressed me about Koi Uta / PROGRESS was the instruments and how they were arranged within the songs. Beyond that, the songs weren’t anything particularly note worthy. It’s hard to give a Johnny’s release less than a four rating due to the high amount of tracks that one finds in their releases, but in this case, they could have been better. Being my first listen from them, I was not impressed.
♦Single Rating♦
