Past winter HITT was touring in Europe and this month he’ll be back again! And what better way to start a new European tour without a new album release? Next month HITT will release his new album called “Melancholy to Boku” and it will be sold at his concerts in Europe. And AVO had the honour of having a first look at the new album!
This is the tracklist:
1. Melancholy to boku
2. LOVE VIRUS
3. WANNA BE A ROCK STAR
4. DAIJOUBU
5. Doku Dokuro
6. BOO
7. Happiness is Forever
8. Last March
9. Yume wo Akiramenaide
The album begins with Melancholy to Boku, named after the album title. The track starts off with some pleasant sounds accompanied with an acoustic guitar, a violin, and a piano. Not soon after HITT starts singing, which I also find sounding really peaceful. The track gives me a soothing feeling, like everything will be fine no matter what happened. It’s peaceful but has a nice rhythm to it at the same time. During the refrain, HITT turns it up a notch when he sings, with some louder vocals and more variations in tone. The track also has a violin solo, which goes well with the rest of the song. It’s a great start for the album.
LOVE VIRUS, starts with electrical guitars and a catchy rhythm, and when I heard it, I immediately wanted to dance to it. HITT usually sings with himself as a double backing vocal, something that sounds a little funny, and this is used in this track too. The song makes me imagine walking through a park on a lovely day, which really fits the theme of the song: Love. The vocals seem a bit weird at times with HITT singing high notes when you expect low ones and vice versa. The ending consists of some guitar play with drums and ends rather abruptly.
The third track, WANNA BE A ROCK STAR, feels like a HITT song right off the bat. It starts with a rather hyper beat and HITT almost screaming, followed with a repetition of the text “I WANNA BE A ROCK STAR”. After the intro the song turns a little calmer and the vocals become more clear. And because of the many repetitions of the text I WANNA BE A ROCK STAR, it’s easy and almost inevitable to sing along. The track is very catchy and if HITT were to play it live, I would guarantee everyone in the venue will sing along!
DAIJOUBU, the fourth track, begins with a calm piano intro. It’s rather calm in comparison to the previous songs and feels full of emotion. This gets backed up by the piano play and the violin. Halfway through a peaceful electrical guitar joins the instrumentals and mixes in nicely with the sound of the song, giving it that slight rock feel that HITT is known for. Near the end the electrical guitar backs out again and the tracks becomes more dramatic with each passing second. The ending is beautiful though.
Then we get to the fifth track, Doku Dokuro, a track that makes me imagine being in either a casino, a café, or a carnival. There is a Jazz-like mafia vibe around this track, especially the background music makes me feel that. His vocals are calm with a couple of long notes, which sound really nice. Somewhere halfway through the track HITT hits a really long note, followed by the text DokuDokuro. Trumpets join the background and the feeling of a casino is complete. The ending has a trumpet solo which ends with HITT singing the refrain once again.
BOO, the sixth track, begins with drums and a guitar. HITT follows this up quickly with a slightly changed voice as he yells BOO BOO multiple times. There is a nice rhythm in the song, which changes halfway the track. HITT changes his vocals accordingly, singing with more power and hitting more high notes. The instrumentals tune out for a while, as an acoustic guitar takes it over for a bit, but soon enough they tune back in. HITT finishes this off with a couple more BOO BOO’s and the song ends abruptly. Very fun track!
When track seven starts, the first thing that comes into mind is happiness. And that is what you would expect too with a song that’s called Happiness is Forever. The violin makes the intro feel very peaceful. And when the vocals start leaded by the piano, the piece feels a whole. The instrumentals in this song are fairly simple, but this creates a nice and calm atmosphere. Even HITT seems to put even more emotions into his vocals for this song, letting out small imperfections that clearly come from these emotions. I really enjoyed this song. It’s sweet, beautiful, and full of emotion.
When Last March starts, the word “Carnival” comes back into my mind. It has such a typical happy carnival melody to it, I instantly got a smile on my face when I listened to it. This track too made me want to dance along. HITT’s vocals seem slightly deformed, like he’s singing through a tube. On the Halfway point of the track, the beat changes and yet again HITT changes his vocals accordingly. The Carnival melody comes back up again too. Nearing the end HITT’s vocals are deformed so much that it literally sounds like he sings through a megaphone. The track ends with the same melody it started with.
The ninth and final track of the album is called Yume wo Akiramenaide. The track begins with HITT singing the title name. It has a nice rhythm that suits HITT’s style perfectly, and the combination of the piano with the electrical guitar and the way he sings really finishes off that feeling. There are a few higher notes in the song which I find typical for HITT. The track is really upbeat and motivating. The title name gets repeated multiple times throughout and the track ends with it being sung one last time. A nice end song for the album.
I really enjoyed this album because of the large range of variety it has. There were calm and peaceful piano songs, but also nice upbeat dance tracks. HITT really shows he can adjust his vocals to both kinds of songs, varying from calm and soft to powerful and clear. This album is definitely recommended for everyone, as the variety has something for every fan. A great album!
The album will be available during the European tour, 5 Years of Love, starting 19th of September 2014.
Rating: 80/100
