倖田來未 – 愛を止めないで
Artist: 倖田來未 (Koda Kumi)
Single: 愛を止めないで
Release Date: 09.21.2011
As soon as Koda Kumi announces a new ballad for the fall, it’s easy to assume it will be grand, flooding with emotion and some gorgeous instrumentation! She solidified this idea with the release of 好きで、好きで、好きで。 / あなただけが last year, a triple-ballad single. The quality behind it in terms of production as well as Kumi’s performance made the songs contained in the single 3 of my all-time favorite Kumi songs! It was natural that 愛を止めないで had a lot to live up to! Considering it had to be a little bit rushed because the title track was going to be used as the theme song for the movie Second Virgin, the single seems like somewhat of a sloppy one for only including the a-side and a b-side she wrote in the beginning of the year to sing for the Japanese victims of the earthquake… no instrumentals or any sort of content relevant to the 51st single of her career. The a-side, however, is magnificent!
愛を止めないで is a ballad beyond gorgeous and it’s sort of reminiscent of Kumi’s earlier material! The instrumentals are beautiful and worthy of a skilled voice, with a great range, like Kumi’s! The chorus is also beautiful and has a catchy element quite uncommon when it comes to ballads! The strings are gorgeous and everything just works for this song. It’s quite a long ballad, though, so it may end up sounding repetitive due to its template, but it’s definitely one of Kumi’s finest nonetheless! A breath-takingly beautiful song that will definitely work fantastically for Second Virgin!
You are not alone is a cute song in just the right level. I think it would make the single sound more complete if the production for this song was slightly more similar to 愛を止めないで or maybe if the arrangement was more commensurate to that of the the a-side’s, the single would sound slightly more complete and it would lose that sloppy I-had-to-release-a-single quality. It’s catchy and fun, for some variety, but it’s a weak song after such a gorgeous ballad.
Overall, I wish Kumi would have waited a little longer to release this single, possibly making 愛を止めないで a digital single rather than a physical one, until she had enough material to make a better-rounded one, physically. She just released her 50th single last month, this would be the first one of another 50, and I don’t think she did an exemplary job. It’s still an amazing a-side, though!
Final Score:
88 / B+
倖田來未 – 愛を止めないで
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A good friend of mine went to see her in concert recently and stated that ‘You are not alone’ was presented as a ballad. I’m not for sure who or why they changed it to something more upbeat.
I would love to have heard it as a ballad :( I think the upbeat melody brought the message and quality of the song down a lot… It made it seem like a last-minute addition to the single, since I believe ballads take a little more time to produce.
You are Not Alone a-nation rip is 10000x better
but I love Ai Wo Tomeinada,especially the way it flowed and the lyrics,I wasn’t a fan of the main promo single last year Sukidex3 because the chorus was too repetitive
also You are Not Alone,I guess was tweaked to an uptempo since like Kuu’s personality and her style it makes it more uplifting and ‘genki’ so the message is more lively
also the release was kinda predetermined since it serves the theme to a major movie in which she sang the theme to the drama(Second Virgin) last year and it came yesterday,since you can hear the song in the trailers also knowing avex they would never do digital for a major seller,which would work in her case,since this single is doing EXTREMELY well online and kinda poorly physically
I love this new era,her last two singles have been awesome can’t wait for her 10th album
Wow, it really is so much better as a ballad :( It holds so much of a better vibe! The little synth she added to the live version works so well!
I understand the whole movie thing, I just feel like the sales and the single itself would have been so much better if only Kumi waited a while longer until she had solid material to release with it. “You are not alone” might have been a great song to break the mood in the single if it only had one more track in it. The single was even released digitally on iTunes US! I bought it to support Kumi with her amazing ballads :D
I also love the new era! I’m excited to see what she’s going to do with the 10th album! I hope it’s something special, considering all the luxury of the 50th single!