Junretsu -- Ai wo Kudasai ~ Don't You Cry（愛をください）

 

The vocal quartet Junretsu（純烈）has become a regular presence on the annual Kohaku Utagassen over the past few years and once again, they've been invited to join the New Year's Eve special on NHK. With "Propose"（プロポーズ） and "Junretsu no Happy Birthday"（純烈のハッピーバースデー）having been performed in the past couple of editions, I had been wondering what would Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）, Yuujiro Shirakawa（白川裕二郎）, Ryohei Odai（小田井涼平）and Shota Gogami（後上翔太）present this year at Shibuya Hall.

Well, I don't think I need to wonder anymore. This song has been popping a fair bit on shows such as "Uta Kon"（うたコン）so I figure that their February 2020 single "Ai wo Kudasai ~ Don't You Cry" (Give Me Your Love) has been given the NHK go-ahead for performance.

Plenty of gusto in this one. Written and composed by their regular songwriter Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）with arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, "Ai wo Kudasai" has brought in all of the ingredients for a Junretsu song: brio-filled Latin horns, old-style and new-style kayo, bar-friendly Mood Kayo and the reassuring voices of the guys. The music video surprisingly doesn't have the four put on the usual dancing show and they don't appear until the last minute of the song, instead focusing on their voices soothing a lonely young lady in a really nice living room set. That last scene though made me wonder whether the director was going for something like a pivotal part of "The Bachelorette". "Ai wo Kudasai" peaked at No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies.