There's been quite a lot of buzz about Kiefer Sutherland's latest show of action and political intrigue "Designated Survivor". I finally got to see it for the first time tonight and it turned out to be the fall finale. Basically, I saw it as a combination of "24" and "The West Wing". It's a tad ironic that Sutherland is actually playing the President of the US this time instead of someone protecting the President or taking him down.
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Another one of my weird segues but it's also a tad ironic to realize that TUBE actually recorded an Xmas tune. And this all happened nearly a decade ago. Yup, the Boys of Summer released a mellow 27th album just before winter back in December 2007 titled "Winter Letter". The J-Wiki article for the album states that a lot of the tracks were slow to mid-tempo tunes so it was definitely not the usual TUBE output.
The Xmas tune in question happens to be "Christmas Rose" and it doesn't really break the TUBE mold. What I mean is that it follows the usual pattern of their softer songs such as "Stories" with vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）starting off with a relaxing croon before hitting the big and proud notes at the climax. However, that's not to accuse the band of slumming here. "Christmas Rose" is a fine addition to the Xmas category of J-Pop/kayo since Maeda really can send a shiver up the spine with the way his voice swoops up at the refrain.
Bassist Hideyuki Kakuno（角野秀行）took care of the lyrics about driving through the snow to reach a loved one. It's another reason I like the song since there is something very sentimental about getting home for the Holidays. Guitarist Michiya Haruhata（春畑道哉）came up with the music and I gotta give my compliments for that riff he does at the beginning of the song.
As for the album, "Winter Letter" peaked at No. 7 on Oricon and ended up as the 204th-ranked album of 2008. Well, it was a bit more of a niche album and I think TUBE's heyday was back in the 20th century. Still, although I stopped buying TUBE albums (aside from BEST discs) in the early 1990s, I am happy to hear that Maeda could still pull off those songs with his boomer of a voice well into the 2000s.
Now for someone else known as a summery singer who came out with an even more famous Christmas ballad, check here.
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