A bit of summer from U-KISS.
Seven-member boy group U-KISS debuted in Japan last year, but the success they are enjoying in the country of the cherry blossoms can be envied by some groups which have been active there for much longer. Dear My Friend is the group’s third Japanese single in 2012 and was released on July 25th.
Since the single was released in the middle of summer, its atmosphere and character emulate the season; one can clearly hear the summer sun in the title track Dear My Friend, as well as in the B-side Beautiful.
Dear My Friend starts off with a soft piano intro which is present throughout the song but beneath the dominating electronic sounds. The song was chosen as an ending theme for the anime “Arashi no Yoru ni Himitsu no Tomodachi“ and it’s easy to see why: it’s simple, nicely sung and has rousing lyrics.
Written by member AJ, the song Beautiful is more lively, faster and even more electronic than the A-side . There are many rap parts in the track and all of them are sung in perfect Japanese, just like the remaining lyrics, which can make listeners believe they are actually listening to a Japanese band. The word ‘beautiful’ appears in the song so frequently that it gets stuck in one’s head, and the summer feeling makes one want to stroll down the beach on the single’s cover.
Dear My Friend is not an experimental single, nor is it a particularly outstanding single in the group’s discography, though that probably was not the band’s goal. However, the two songs on the single will surely make listeners want to turn up the volume while cruising in the car on a sunny summer day. The two songs are fun, have life and energy pouring from them, and what else do you need in summer?
