kudo_maharizu wrote:Any ideas when they shot HARU dancing around the city? Saw the OCBC Tower (?back street of Circular Road?), Ord Bridge in front of Liang Court and the Alkaff Bridge!

Maybe they shooting this when they were at C3AFA Singapore 2019 (2019/11/29 - 2019/12/1)?

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I borrowed a lot from J-Melo's translation since they did a pretty good job + I'm trying to work on translations for the other album songs.

thoseguiltyeyes wrote:

Don Dio wrote:Just checked iTunes US, and it will be available tomorrow.  It has "Tsuki" listed as the last album track.  I hope this means it will be available for download when ordering the full digital album.  I'm already getting the vinyl release and can't justify buying a CD from Japan just for one track.

Looks like you missed it, but we recently figured out that the actual CD-only track is "YOU GO GIRL!" and not "Tsuki."

"YOU GO GIRL!" will remain a physical CD-only track and will NOT be available anywhere digitally.

You're right.  I completely forgot.  Oh well.  I'll have to go without that song for a while.

The song is better than I expected, I like the little edge they thrown in it. It is like KFTD version of Brand New Wave, but better. (Was never a fan of BNW)
As for video, its a lot of fun. I like the atmosphere and its a different style from their usual stuff.

So I got my copies a few hours ago (the magazine and T-shirt + DVD editions). I got very unlucky since I had to pay $45 for taxes and customs. Hope I won't have to pay that for the rest of my copies (amazon japan hasn't shipped my CDs)
and these are my first impressions:


The Edition with the t-shirt and the music videos has really good quality, I would've have preferred a blu-ray over a classic DVD but maybe that's asking too much  . The magazine feels really good in hand and even if I coudn't read it at all, the photos look pretty cool, all the girls look beautiful. 


About the songs (only the new ones):


Laundry Laundry. I like it, but it feels very repetitive. Also I don't want to sound negative, but I think Tomo stays on a comfort zone with her vocals on this song. I know I shouldn't be comparing because the songs are very different, but Can Beer is way better. I loved the fact that Tomo added an acoustic guitar.


Neon Town Escape. Haru did a great on the song, it's so interesing, the saxophone and trumpets sound so good! The ending is so good, I love this song.


Ceramic Blue. A classic SCANDAL song, the guitars and chorus is really good. The ending is a little bit weird.


Kinenbi. My favorite one so far! The melody and choruses are perfect and catchy. Haru's voice transitition to falsetto (not sure if this how it's called) on the chorus gives me life.


Tsuki. Great ballad, so emotional. Haru really puts emotion on her vocals. I'm curious about how they'll perform this song on live shows  (along with tonight) since the song has lots of effects. 


YOU! GO GIRL! . I was sooo surprised at the beggining of the song (in a good way). But then  it turns into a classic SCANDAL sound. It has some parts that reminds me of HALCALI (where they sing very fast) . Tomo and Mami sing in some parts but I really needed Tomo to sing a verse on her own, the song really fits her voice. The song is long, more than 5 minutes. It's really cool, I think the song could've been called Girlslim part 2.


IMO, Kiss from the darkness is a very solid album. It's really good. I'll listen to the whole album more times so I can appreciate it better.

The "Tonight" video's pretty cool, as I think all of the videos are from this album - they're cooler than anything they did under Sony. I will say that Haruna's dance moves in it weirdly remind me of the "movements" in Netflix series The OA, though - anyone who's seen that probably knows what I mean. It reminds me more of that than anything else. I would actually think it was cooler if she took inspiration from that.

The more songs I hear from this album (my CD's are shipping now, so I haven't heard all songs yet), the more I like the music but I feel like there is way too much electronic vocal manipulation going on in almost all the songs. They don't all use AutoTune to the stylized level of "Saishuheiki Kimi", but they almost all do at least somewhat, and then "Tonight" definitely has Haruna's voice sped up. It's hard to always tell if they want you to hear it or not; I am not really sure if it's meant to sound natural and just doesn't, or if it's for effect like it definitely is in Saisuheiki Kimi. I think that uncertainty is making me a little uncomfortable while I listen. Like, am I supposed to be fooled? But either way, it's a little too much. It almost sounds like an electronic album, like something Yasutaka Nakata would produce. But he is clearly always doing it with the intent of it being heard.

I still like everything I've heard overall, and it's still possible that the songs I haven't heard will balance things out. I'm sure I'm nitpicking a little and anyone who's seen me post before knows vocal stuff is probably the thing I'm most sensitive to.

Anyway, I can't wait to get my CD's (and eventually vinyl).

I can't listen to the new songs on Spotify (France), only the singles are available. When the album will be released worldwide (without VPN) on Spotify?

izzy wrote:I can't listen to the new songs on Spotify (France), only the singles are available. When the album will be released worldwide (without VPN) on Spotify?

I don’t know about Spotify. I buy iTunes and Google Music and it indicated the release in February 13, 2020

Meph1766 wrote:

izzy wrote:I can't listen to the new songs on Spotify (France), only the singles are available. When the album will be released worldwide (without VPN) on Spotify?

I don’t know about Spotify. I buy iTunes and Google Music and it indicated the release in February 13, 2020

Thank you for the answer. 
I'm surprised that Spotify is so late to release the album. 

On Scandal's YouTube channel, there is a playlist with all the songs from #KFTD so at least I was able to listen to Ceramic Blue and Tsuki this morning.

Pretty cool of them to put the entire album on the Youtube Channel.
Sad that I can't listen to You Go Girl! without getting the physical CD.

Anyway, first impression is that it's not as good as Honey to me, but very good overall, Tonight is a great opening song, Kinenbi sounds like something that would fit well on Yellow. Tsuki and Ceramic Blue are pretty great, although IMO the best songs from the album are the ones that were previously released. Fuzzy and AMDKJ are easily my favorites here. 

Of course, after listening to it a bunch more times that can all change.

Listened 5 or 6 times. And for me, this album is much better than Honey. It seems more various and interesting. Now I can definitely say that I am glad that band left Sony and do what they want. Although I am not quite happy with a lot use of autotune, it could have been less.
I always liked their rock songs more, and I was sure that AMDKJ would be my favorite song. But it turned out that this is not so. Tsuki was even better than I expected in the preview. And this is the best song from album for me. But, I haven't listened to You Go Girl ! yet, so that's not final decision.

Many complain about the use of AutoTune, but I don't find it a serious problem.
The songs that we still had to listen are wonderful, far Tonight exceeded my expectations  .smile.
The album is interesting to listen in order from beginning to end. You can see the work of each one, which I think a long time ago was not seen so clearly!!

The album has a better production I think but I think Honey is better, Kiss from the darkness doesn't have a real identity and doesn't feel like an album. I already heard every song of the album. I will make soon a comment hear where I will talk about every song of the album and the album itself.

I love Neon Town Escape. My expectations were high on this one because of Chiaki Sato and Haru, and i'm glad they were fulfilled.

The album is finally available on Spotify! 

It's a little weird to listen to an album where you already know 7 of 11 songs before the release.

I like the new album, most of the songs are great... but it's not as perfect as Honey because many songs on KFTD are very different from their previous albums and I will need more time to fully appreciate or understand some tracks

I will write a full review later...

Absolutely kickass record! Compared to Honey, my favourite tracks were released as singles this time, compared to Honey, where my favourited were "Over", "Electric Girl" and "Midnight City". But I loved Neon Town Escape and Ceramic Blue so much! KFTD has both powerhouse hard rock themes, comforting music like Ceramic Blue and Matabaki, beautiful ballads and some experiments. It has everything and this is awesome. Scandal never disappoints!

Oricon rankings:

-Oricon rank on 2/10 (debut): ＃6
-Oricon rank on 2/11: ＃3 with 4,516 copies sold
-Oricon rank on 2/12: ＃3 with 3,398 copies sold

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According to ROOFTOP's Instagram, the album's mastering was done by Grammy award-winning mastering engineer Randy Merrill (has worked for Beck, Harry Styles, etc.).

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Can't specifically give a link to this, but I found out through a friend that CHINO of the breakdance group ROCK STEADY CREW JAPAN in 90s was the one who choreographed HARU's dance in the "Tonight" music video.


#kissfromthedarkness

Sven28 wrote:The album has a better production I think but I think Honey is better, Kiss from the darkness doesn't have a real identity and doesn't feel like an album. I already heard every song of the album. I will make soon a comment hear where I will talk about every song of the album and the album itself.

That's exactly my "problem" with KFTD; it lacks a central theme. All songs stand for themselves. Sure, other albums also have different songs but you could always say "Hey, if you look at the whole album, they fit together."

The "Tonight" PV looks very weird. The dancing looks like she's drunk or stoned... I don't like that. But that's just one problem. Why is the PV only featuring Haruna? That's the main reason I can't stand that PV. My memory may be malfunctioning but does anyone remember another PV where one of the girls had a solo apperance?

This band has always challenged us to follow them as they challenge themselves. 
Looking back, each album, each tour has marked a stage in their development...
What's the theme that holds this album together? How about "Let a hundred flowers bloom"

About no theme, in one of the radio interviews Scandal mentioned it was all put together with the songs they wanted to include after the creation of the "her" record label.

wildthing wrote:About no theme, in one of the radio interviews Scandal mentioned it was all put together with the songs they wanted to include after the creation of the "her" record label.

It would be suprising if they didn't have something in mind for the new album but art (be it painting, music and so on) is always subjective. So it's only my opinion that the album does not have a central theme. Everyone who enjoys the album as a whole, that's great! It's not that I dislike everything about the album but I had more fun with older cds.

I agree, I don't know if it's planned or coincidence (probably a bit of both) but some albums sound better if you're listening the songs in order. Always enjoyed the sequence "Image -> Your Song -> love in action -> Departure" on Hello World, for instance. The songs kinda complement each other.

In KFTD each song stand on their own. The album is pretty good, it just feels more like a "BEST OF" collection.

Despite the fact that KFTD doesn't have a central theme, the songs it contains are one of the strongest in their entire career, so I don't mind. A great musical experience. Waiting for my CD to check out the exlusive song ^^

Isn't that an advantage? If album are similar to the best of collection, it means that all songs are very good. If you like songs, why you must think that the album is not so good, because no theme. A lot of work has been done on each song to show how much more Scandal can still show us. What we never heard before.

And it seemed to me that strong difference in the sound of the songs doesn't makes album weaker, because of this, album doesn't have a common theme. I don't care. I think It makes it even stronger, more interesting and better than the previous ones. At least I wouldn't like to hear Honey version 2.0.