TUBE-- Owaranai Natsu ni（終わらない夏に）

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Heck of a time to talk about summery band TUBE a mere few days before Christmas of all times, but, well, I do like to exercise my whimsy from time to time.

Anyways, I was lucky enough to listen to TUBE's 14th album from June 1994 "Owaranai Natsu ni" (In The Endless Summer), and according to its statistics, the TUBE Oricon steamroller was alive and well, but later on that.

All of the tracks were written by vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）and composed by guitarist Michiya Haruhata（春畑道哉）, and one of those tracks happens to be "Natsu wo Dakishimete" (夏を抱きしめて) which was written up by Noelle Tham over a couple of years ago.

"Kizudarake no Hero"（傷だらけのHero...Scarred Hero） is your typical uptempo TUBE spectacular, and as the title states, it's about getting up and continuing the battle even though the differences between you and a pile of pulp are lessening. Nothing like TUBE to get the blood pumping! Chances are that although a TUBE song may never be placed as a campaign tune for a Marvel flick, "Kizudarake no Hero" rather describes the feeling from any of the "Avengers" movies.

"Soredemo Koi wa Suteki"（それでも恋は素敵...Love Is Still Wonderful） is a happy-happy-joy-joy number comparing the various trials and tribulations of love but with the final judgement being that the emotion is still more than welcome. The interesting point is that besides the fact that this almost sounds like something Princess Princess would perform, Maeda and Haruhata have inserted a bit of jazziness into the usual TUBE musical beach party with the solo guitar shredding.

For my final contribution of the article here, it was pretty surprising to hear "Secret". It looks like TUBE pulled one out of the City Pop playbook here. Just from the instrumentation and the arrangement, the band went from the beach and back into downtown Tokyo of the early 1980s. And it sounds just as smooth, as Maeda sings about a couple of lovers exercising their tryst once a week. I do like the horns...reminds me of the music of Anri（杏里）back in the day.

"Owaranai Natsu ni" was another hit for the band as it struck No. 1 on Oricon for two weeks straight, and became a million-seller. It became the 15th-ranked album of 1994.