Sometimes I blame myself for covering so many 2014 songs on Kayo Kyoku Plus recently, but it’s been a nice year for some aidoru outputs out there. The classy TOKYO GIRLS’ STYLE (東京女子流), for example, just dropped their fourth full lenght album in June with a killer promotional song, the soulful “Killing Me Softly” (I admit that, at first, I thought it could be a Roberta Flack cover. I’m glad it isn’t, and that’s not because I don’t like Roberta’s song, as I actually do, but just because I wanted TGS to do something new, and not cover an old classic).
“Killing Me Softly” is a very interesting song in TGS’s history, basically because it’s been unveiled that the song is what everyone know as “TGS00”. What that means? It was the first song composed for the girls, back in 2010, before their official debut. Nevertheless, feeling that the girls were not ready to record “Killing Me Softly” at the beginning of their careers, the staff decided to keep the song until they felt TGS was ready to record it. The time has finally come, and the song is great! In fact, it’s one of my favorite songs from these girls.
Although not revolutionary by any means, “Killing Me Softly” is a song inspired by 70s R&B, funk and disco. The strings are great and, combined with the vocals, evokes a bit of tenderness. In the end, it’s the typical TOKYO GIRLS’ STYLE formula, but I’m not complaining at all.
As a side note, the video for “Killing Me Softly” is gorgeous (mainly because of the color patterns chosen), but it wasn’t uploaded on Avex's official YouTube channel, unlike TGS’s past singles/promotional songs, which is a pity. Also, we all know how Avex is strict about letting people upload their content...
“Killing Me Softly” was included in TOKYO GIRLS STYLE’s “Killing Me Softly” album. The album reached #23 on the Oricon charts, selling 5,872 copies. As for the song, it was written by Chihiro Kurosu (黒須チヒロ), composed by Satomi Kawasaki (川崎里実) and arranged by Hiroshi Matsui (松井寛).
Hi, Marcos. Thanks for uploading another Tokyo Girls Style...still liking "Partition Love". There's that feeling of disco with Latin guitar that I often heard a decade back with folks like bird and MISIA. Rather glad that the powers-that-be decided to hold back and wait until the unit was more seasoned to tackle this one.
ReplyDeleteHi, J-Canuck.
DeleteI'm glad you're enjoyinh TOKYO GIRLS' STYLE. I must confess that although I follow them since 2010, it wasn't until this last album, "Killing Me Softly", which also includes "Partition Love", that I realised how great they are. I'm probably buying this album together with Especia's "GUSTO" as soon as possible.
I may actually think about buying those albums as well in the not too distant future.
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