Tsuki (Namie Amuro song)

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"Tsuki"
A woman in a white dress.
CD only edition.
Single by Namie Amuro
from the album Ballada
Released January 29, 2014 (2014-01-29)
(see release history)
Format CD Single, digital download
Recorded 2013
Genre Pop music, electronic dance music
Length 3:39
Label Avex Trax, Dimension Point
Namie Amuro singles chronology
"Contrail"
(2013)		 "Tsuki"
(2014)		 "Brighter Day"
(2014)

"Tsuki" (stylized in Japanese as "TSUKI", "Moon") is a song by Japanese recording artist Namie Amuro, released as the theme song of the film Dakishimetai: Shinjitsu no Monogatari. Released as a three-track single in January 2014, the single contains the B-sides "Neonlight Lipstick" and "Ballerina". "Neonlight Lipstick" and "Ballerina" were released in October 2013 as part of theme songs for commercial endorsement deals, and "Tsuki" was released on January 29, 2014 by Amuro's label Dimension Point through Avex Trax. It received mixed reviews from music critics; many commended "Tsuki" and "Ballerina"'s production and composition, while some criticized "Neonlight Lipstick" for these reasons. Charted as a single on the Japanese Oricon Singles Chart, it reached number three and the title track single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). All tracks from "Tsuki" received an accompanying music video and charted on the Japan Hot 100 chart.

Background and composition

Prior to the release of "Tsuki", the single's B-sides were given digital releases in 2013. The first track was "Neonlight Lipstick", which was released digitally on October 16, 2013 and as part of a commercial for Japanese beauty Kosee. The second track was "Ballerina", which was released digitally on October 23, 2013 as part of a special collaboration with Gucci and Vogue Japan which Amuro featured in for the November 2013 issue, and a Rekochoku TV commercial theme song.[1] Cover artworks for each song were released; "Neonlight Lipstick" has Amuro holding a glass apple with red lipstick, while "Ballerina" has a portrait from Amuro's Vogue session.[2][3]

Amuro confirmed the release of "Tsuki" on her website and was subsequently released physically in both CD and DVD formats in Japan and digitally worldwide on January 29, 2014.[4][5] The DVD version came with a limited edition poster of the cover artwork.[5] The CD features all three tracks, along with their instrumental versions.[5] The DVD features all three videos of the songs.[5] Musically, "Tsuki" is a pop ballad while the latter two are heavy electronic dance songs with "Ballerina" being sampled by American DJ Wolfgang Gartner's song "Fire Power".[6][7][8][9] The title track was released as the lead single from the EP and as part of Amuro's debut ballad compilation album Ballada (2014).[10]

Reception

"Tsuki" received positive reviews from most limited music critics. Random J from his own online blog reviewed each individual song. For "Tsuki", he felt he song had "grown" on him and compared the track to the songs from Japanese recording artist Hikaru Utada's album Deep River (2002) and Heart Station (2008), stating "Typical Winter ballads seem to have gone out of the window for many J-Pop artists as of late and I've been missing them dearly, so it's nice that Namie went all throwback with this song."[11] He gave "Neonlight Lipstick" a mixed review, criticizing the songs "loose" production and Amuro's voice being processed by autotune. He felt the lack of authenticity and structure of the songs production "causes the music and her vocals to just bleed into an electronic drone" and labelled it "forgettable".[6] For "Ballerina", he commended the songs production and compared it to the work of Daft Punk and Abba. He commented "And just as Namie has managed to prove with her last 2 albums, she is able to take electro and rather surprisingly reign the whole damn thing in, in both Engrish and Japanese. This song should have been on Feel without a shadow of a doubt."[7]

While reviewing Ballada, CDJournal.com commended "Tsuki" for its "crystal clear R&B" sound and "majestic" production. They labelled the track a "warm and sad ballad song".[12] Reviewing "Tsuki", another review by CDJournal.com was conducted. They labelled "Neonlight Lipstick" a "wild" song and felt the melody and vocals were "energetic" and "mysterious".[13] For "Ballerina", they compared the song to contemporary electronic dance music and avant-garde music while labelling it "highly exciting and addictive".[13]

"Tsuki" charted as a single on the Oricon Singles Chart and peaked at number three.[14] "Tsuki" stayed in the singles charts for fourteen weeks, becoming Amuro's longest charting single since her 2011 single "Sit! Stay! Wait! Down!" / "Love Story" with twenty weeks.[14] The single sold over 67,000 units in Japan, her highest selling single since "Go Round" / "Yeah-Oh!".[15][upper-alpha 1] The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for exceeding 250,000 digital sales.[16] "Tsuki", "Neonlight Lipstick" and "Ballerina" charted individually on the Japan Hot 100 at three, sixteen and twenty-five respectively.[17][18][19]

Music videos

File:Namie Amuro Ballerina video.png
Still from the music video "Ballerina" showing Amuro sitting down on an armchair. A collaboration with Gucci and Vogue Japan, the idea was to explore the CGI production.[7]

All three songs received a music video to be promoted. "Tsuki" was shot in Iceland. According to Amuro, she shot the video in Iceland because she felt the scenery reflected the theme of "resuscitation of life". The video starts with Amuro in a yard of snow, and gradually evaporates to show a field of green meadow.[20] Random J reviewed the video, criticising Amuro for "not doing anything". He stated "Namie has shot a video for her twinkly throwback Winter jam "Tsuki" and she isn't doing a damn thing in it. Namie doesn't even bother to lip sync to the lyrics for the first 20 seconds. THAT is how little she cares about trying to get this video shot."[11] A teaser of the video premiered on her YouTube channel on January 14, 2014.[21]

"Neonlight Lipstick" was shot on set of the commercial for Kosee lipstick and has Amuro play the role of Snow White. There are scenes of Amuro walking around a snow-covered maze, dancing on top of a book (provided by GCI) and inside a coffin in a meadow. Random J had reviewed the video, commenting that while the song "is wholly forgettable, the video makes it more tolerable. The rich aesthetic and the pacing did enough of a job that I wasn't sat moaning about how there should have been more dancing. Although the dancing this video did feature could have been better. It didn't look as though there was an actual routine."[7] A teaser of the video premiered on her YouTube channel on November 25, 2013.[22]

"Ballerina" was shot on set for the Vogue commercial. A teaser video was published by both Vogue and Gucci on their websites.[1] The music video features Amuro walking around in clothes designed by Gucci, along with different shots of her floating in water and sitting on a chair. Amuro does not sing throughout the video and is heavily processed by GCI.[1] Random J reviewed the video, commenting "The production is insane and relentless [...] Namie had better show me some work when she performs this song live on her Feel tour, but she probably won't. She definitely won't. She'll just fuck the whole thing and be sat in a chair as her backing dancers go in during all of the stuttered bass drops."[7] A teaser of the video premiered on her YouTube channel on October 11, 2013.[23]

Live performances

The music video for "Ballerina" was screened at Gucci Aoyama.[24] "Ballerina" and "Neonlight Lipstick" were included in Amuro's concert tour Namie Amuro Feel Tour 2013 and all three tracks were included in her Namie Amuro Live Style 2014 Tour.[25][26]

Track listing

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the singles's liner notes.[9]

Charts

Notes

  1. ↑ Sales provided by Oricon database and are rounded to the nearest thousand copies.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "安室奈美恵 x Vogue Japan x Gucci" on YouTube
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ "安室奈美恵 / 「TSUKI」" on YouTube
  22. ↑ "安室奈美恵 / 「Neonlight Lipstick」" on YouTube
  23. ↑ "安室奈美恵 / 「Ballerina」" on YouTube
  24. ↑ "Namie Amuro - Ballerina(FNO2013)" on YouTube
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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