Liokt wrote:

peachclub wrote:But it's quite disappointing to see it has the lowest weekly sales among all the albums released till now, since it's my favorite album along with their first album Best Scandal.

Well, prior to the release of HONEY, they released just one physical single ("Take Me Out"), and that was almost one year and a half ago. Also, there is just one tie-in song on HONEY ("Koisuru Universe", for that candy company). So, considering that these two facts never happened before in their discography (please someone correct me if I'm wrong), along with the fact that HONEY is their shortest album ever, I do think the first week sales were pretty consistent (pretty close to YELLOW's, 29k, which had two physical single releases, three tie-in songs, 13 tracks). I mean, they got #3 after all (YELLOW ranked #2). And, if there is something like compensation, you should also consider that they're getting more attention abroad; just see the records for HONEY digital sales on iTunes all over the world. I think it's their first album to achieve those records internationally, right?

Ooh that's right, I was just viewing it in the number of physical copies sold in Japan, didn't really consider the fact that they only had one physical singe, it is the shortest album of them, and most importantly their international achievements! That explains the comparably lower sales of this great album.

Let's do also keep in mind that Oricon doesn't count a lot of sales: CDJapan's, digital along with the physical's one, sales outside music shops (like during events or outside concert halls). Oricon is just domestic sales within Japan, there's a lot missing.

And talking about it, HONEY ranked #3 in the Oricon digital weekly chart with 1,787 while Billboard Japan states that HONEY has sold 24,301 since Feb 14th. These are still impressive numbers for an 2018 release.

Well there's one place where all sales must be counted and that's Sony/Epic. Do they ever release the sales data they have?
BTW Platform Syndrome seems to be performing OK on YouTube. Too bad since the Vevo description doesn't mention the album, it doesn't spread HONEY awareness

More people, particularly young listeners, are streaming these days than buying physical content.  It doesn't surprise me if sales do not seem not so high at the moment (adding in the other factors already mentioned on how these numbers are calculated).  I am sure it will pick up as more new and old fans listen on the streaming services, plus YouTube and other video sites. 

I have always felt that the initial sales of an album is more of a reflection of the last release than the current.  When fans love whatever you last put out, they come quicker to the new release. It's been a while since "Yellow," and I don't think it wowed the general public as much as what came before it.

More on topic-- I listened to the album this morning at the gym, and it is the perfect length for a workout.  "Oh No" is also a great tune (and motivator) when do lunges, one of my least favorite exercises.

To any SH members who are keen on playing songs from HONEY, the band score book is now available for pre-order at AMAZON JP. The book will be out on March 23, 2018.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4636953460/

Yes! Took long enough. I was starting to think it wasn't gonna come out and I'd be stuck buying like six more issues of Go Go Guitar/GiGS just for the scores...

I already listened to the entire album and I have a different take in it. All credits to Jade for translating the lyrics for us to further understand what are the songs all about. So, here are my thoughts on the album along with a quick review of my four personal favorites:

Midnight City has a nice mix of grunge, funk rock, a little bit of progressive rock, and I should say lyrics about loneliness. A lot of people may disagree with me but, that's my interpretation.

Short Short is dark yet romantic dream pop song. Haruna, who is a natural contralto, hit the high notes really well by using head tones. The song reminds me of almost everything by The Cranberries, Cocteau Twins, and the later recordings of Spiderbait. 

The ballad Mado wo Aketara is considered to be the strongest track in the album. Its quiet storm inspired melody (ex.: Janet Jackson's classic "Let's Wait Awhile") filled with vintage synthesizer riffs and dark lyrics making it so fresh. Mado wo Aketara may have been the deepest and darkest song SCANDAL has ever recorded. A person who may be suffering from deep depression can easily relate to it. I commend Tomomi for writing such a serious song that can easily touch listeners' hearts. 

Electric Girl is a fun track to listen. It is like a direct sequel to Midnight City in my opinion.

I find most of the tracks for the album are INTIMATE, DARK and OCCASIONALLY DEPRESSING, a complete contrast to the happier and more random Yellow. However, the entire album has way too compressed recordings compared to their last two studio albums. But, not as badly mixed as Standard. I am a little bit disappointed because ten tracks is not enough for a remarkable concept album.

2nd week sales according to Oricon: #13 in the weekly Oricon with 3,185 copies (total sales: 26,091)
2nd week sales according to Billboard Japan: #11 in the weekly Top Album sales chart with 3,462 (total sales: 27,763)

https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/w/2018-03-05/p/2/
http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=top_albums

MamiNoodles wrote:
Midnight City has a nice mix of grunge, funk rock, a little bit of progressive rock, and I should say lyrics about loneliness. A lot of people may disagree with me but, that's my interpretation.

All your comments are valuable. I suggest listening again to Tokyo Skyscraper with this one. It's another city song with RINA lyrics. Go through the lyrics line by line. SH translations are great but a translator has to make choices and a good lyric always has complex meaning. (And a lot of SCANDAL lyrics are very good IMHO)

After some days of listening the album  more than 5 times daily, I can conclude that my favorite tracks on the album are:

OVER. it's been a while since SCANDAL didn't make me fall in love with a song so deep. This rock song reminds me of  "Image" but better. The solo is really good here.

Short Short. When I listened for the first time, I immediatly fell in love with the chorus, the vocals on this songs shows how Haruna can offer diversity on SCANDAL songs. This chorus brings nostalgia to me, it's so good. It reminds me of "LOVE ME DO"

Mado wo Aketara. I love how deep and dark this song is. I love how you can hear Tomomi on "baby touch my heart". I feel identified with some of the lyrics in this song. So good.

I think Honey is my favorite album of all time, despite being short, I think this album feels complete.

Here are third week sales. I'm guessing total CD sales will be about 30,000.

So i've been busy with work and what not but i've found the time to listen to Honey all day every day on spotify. (They get paid for each listen right?) I also got my CD japan dvd edition and JPU t shirt edition. yay! 

Platform Syndrome is kinda great, i can listen to it all day. Over and Oh No are fun to me, with Over being a little bit more rock. Take me out will be a top 3-4 scandal song for me. 

Midnight city and Electric girl might be my favorite new tracks on the album, and despite Loving Koisuru Universe when it first came out, i find myself liking it less and less relative to the other songs. Don't get me wrong i still love it, and i feel like it's the perfect song to finish the album with. 

Some of you have brought up Tomo's part in the album and i agree that it's probably nothing. She is killing it on the bass from song to song and Mado Wo Aketara. I would like to hear Tomo sing more but i'm sure we'll get some Tomo vocals over time. Short Short is probably my least favorite track on the album, but i loooooveeee Haru's vocals on it. Super jealous of everyone that will be able to see the Honey tour. Thought about flying to Hong Kong/ China to see them but i don't know how i can justify the long travel with work... Please come state side Scandal!!!!

Knoming the lyrical content of "Mado Wo Aketara" one can easily understand why Tomomi decided not to sing it.

@dchan419

I listened to "Honey" again this morning as I got ready to work, and I have an opposite feeling towards "Koisuru Universe."  It seems to get better for me with each listen, especially in the context of the album.  The opening to that song and the first verse with only Rina's drums jumps gets me dancing.

A couple other observations for me: the guitar chug that goes throughout "Short Short" reminds me a lot of KISS' "I Was Made For Loving You." I half expect the girls to break out with "Ooo ooo ooo oo oo oo" at some point in the tune.

Mami's whammy pedal sound in the main riff on "Electric Girl" always reminds me of Dragonforce.  Of course, she doesn't play nearly as fast as Sam and Herman, but she's capturing the same sound.

The drumming on "Midnight City" reminds me of early Adam Ant.  The song itself has a New Wave kind of vibe to it, and his stuff always had great punky and punchy rhythms which this song has in spades.

Speaking of punk: "Oh! No" reminds me of something The Descendents or The Adicts could have recorded if they ever had a female vocalist.

I was finally able to listen to HONEY, so I'm gonna tell my honest opinion (probably most of the people will curse me, and probably I'll get a ban.)
 So when it was announced that HONEY will have only 10 songs first thing that came to my head was that the band wanted to focus more on the quality of the songs..An indeed it was quality, well at least first 3 songs, after that everything went down, down, down, until it hit the ground so hard.. Having only 3 good songs in and entire album is pretty bad, actually is extremely bad.
I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED. I listened the album multiple times hoping to start to like it but nothing changed. I don't even know what was that bad, cause almost nothing was good (except for first 3 songs)..The sound was bad, the vocal tracking was also bad.. It feels like the album was made in a hurry and released unfinished. The quality of this album is definitely way lower than YELLOW and that was pretty bad too..
HONEY is definitely my least favorite album from SCANDAL. Saying "least favorite" is a little too gentle cause it needs to have at least half of the songs good so it can be considered "favorite"

Well, Honey is DEFINITELY not for you and was not released to please you and your listening pleasure alone. At least you even tried to say the first three were good songs when it seems you don't like any of the ten at all.  Everyone has their own preferences so it's natural that not everyone would like Honey.

Joshua10red wrote:I was finally able to listen to HONEY, so I'm gonna tell my honest opinion (probably most of the people will curse me, and probably I'll get a ban.)

Everyone has their opinions, I don't think you have to say only good things here to avoid bans... I hope   
I'm surprised though, this is the first time I read a bad review, and that is totally fine, sobre gustos no hay nada escrito

@Joshua10red
I guess you weren't a huge fan of Koisuru Universe and Futari when they came out? 8o

It would be a very boring world if everyone liked the same thing and of course you are entitled to your own opinion.
There are times when I wish SCANDAL would take their obvious musical skills in a different direction but that is up to them and not me, I am still always eager to see what they will do next.

Well, eight albums is really quite a lot (in Bowie years they'd be up to Diamond Dogs), and it's natural for not everyone to like the newer style. I actually prefer it but that's just me!

Joshua10red wrote:I was finally able to listen to HONEY, so I'm gonna tell my honest opinion (probably most of the people will curse me, and probably I'll get a ban.)

How unfortunate and sad for you that you don't like it, but of course a user will not be banned/disciplined as long as they state their opinion in a respectful manner, which you sort of did so...for the most part...........

---

3rd week of sales: ＃32 on the Billboard charts.



http://www.billboard-japan.com/charts/detail?a=top_albums&year=2018&month=03&day=12

@dondio, 

Keep in mind i said relative to the other songs, i liked it fine, i just ended up liking some of the other songs that much more. 


Not everyone has to like everything Scandal puts out, i strongly disagree that everything after take me out is not good, but to each their own.

I think the record is alright. I like Scandal a bit more on the heavy side and prefer to not just listen to Haruna sing too. Midnight City totally saves Honey, it's so catchy!

At my country Honey is realeased at the 8 of april by JPU Records

HI all,

imho Honey is at first listen the most catchy i have heard of them yet.
After a few spins i do hear some flaws though. the mix is not always that good.
I do like that it sounds a bit like a live album because of the mix.
I approve of the new style and midnight city is one of my favorites for now.
I will be playing this album a lot, that is for sure

Cheers
M