Arashi -- STORY

I tend to dislike Johnny’s Entertainment groups before even trying listening to them. But I like Arashi (嵐) quite a bit, thanks to a good friend of mine who insisted that I had to check some of their songs a couple of years ago. As we can assume of an aidoru group with more than 10 years of career, they have a very big discography and I’m far from being a big fan of it, even though I can surely select some nice songs here and there. One of them is “STORY”, a b-side from the regular edition of the “Hatenai Sora” (果てない空) single, released as Arashi’s 34^th single in November 2010.

I have a very nice thesis that when Arashi do disco, they can’t go wrong. With “STORY” this proves to be right as the song is a disco pop tune with some addictive disco strings and a poppy dance beat that resembles a bit of “Step by Step” by Arashi’s “Western older brothers”, the boy band called New Kids on the Block (1990). “STORY” may be your typical disco song, but the Arashi boys are good in the genre, which takes them out of their “corny ballad performers” personas. Anyway, I can say that this song is a winner for me.

You can listen to the very catchy “Step by Step” by the New Kids on the Block below.

The “Hatenai Sora” single reached #1 on the weekly Oricon charts, selling 656,343 in 2010. It also became the #6 single of the year. Overall the single ended selling 693,499. The lyrics were written by Ogawa Takashi (小川貴史) and the music was composed by Kosuke Ohba. As for the arrangement, it was made by Taku Yoshioka (吉岡たく).