ALEXANDROS -- Moon Song（ムーンソング）

With this article, I'm killing two birds with one stone. I am continuing on my mini-mission to provide moon-related J-Pop songs in honour of the 1969 moon landing 50 years ago, and I'm also finally putting forward a song by the rock band ALEXANDROS. This is a group that has been in existence since the early 2000s, and up to March 2014, they had been known as Champagne. I always saw those guys in promotions on TV Japan for upcoming episodes of "Music Station" from TV Asahi but because I no longer watch that program, I never got to see or hear them. With a Greek-sounding name, I was quite curious about what ALEXANDROS was about.

Currently a four-man band consisting of vocalist/guitarist Yohei Kawakami（川上洋平）, bassist Hiroyuki Isobe（磯部寛之）, guitarist Masaki Shirai（白井眞輝）and drummer Satoyasu Shomura（庄村聡泰）, they've released a total of 17 singles and 7 albums under their former and current names. I discovered this song called "Moon Song" as the opening track on their November 2016 album "EXIST!".

Written and composed by Kawakami, I like "Moon Song" for that clean (?)-sounding arrangement. I mean, the guitars and the piano sound pretty pure and clear, and I also like Kawakami's delivery including some of those English phrases. They make me wonder if he had spent an extended time overseas when he was younger. The English already provides clues but the lyrics relate the story of someone going on with a new phase of life, no longer burdened by the shackles of the past.

ALEXANDROS' 6th album hit No. 1 on Oricon and went Gold. The band has yet to make it onto the Kohaku Utagassen but perhaps that might change soon.