Global Communication: GLAY News in English

"Self Liner Notes Special 2005: Album & Single Selection Best 30"
"WHAT's IN ," 1.15.2006

We've covered the '05 music scene and the many lingering memories of big albums. We’re giving you a look back on this year in our usual way – commentary on 30 albums and singles chosen by our editors, by the artists who made them. There's more than you've heard about these songs before; have fun!

eg - Out of those thirty, I've translated the two that were GLAY related.

GLAY:

"- Ballad Best Singles - WHITE ROAD"
UNLIMITED RECORDS
TOCT-25590, released 1.19.2005

!!! This is the "best of" album crowning GLAY's 10th anniversary commemorative plans. It's composed of softer songs, so it's easy to appreciate the beauty of the lyrics and melodies, which you can still hear despite the year that's passed since its release. The final song, "Tsuzure Ori ~so far and yet so close~" appears only on this album.

1) White Road
"We were able to narrow this one down out of many songs. It was selected because we thought, 'This is what a GLAY winter number really is.'" (Jiro)

2) Way of Difference
"In this song, the balance of the band set off the song itself. I think it’s a song where you can see the form of the new GLAY ballads." (Teru)

3) SOUL LOVE
"This one represents 'GLAY ballads.' This is true of the composition of their piece, and it also had a popular PV." (Hisashi)

4) BELOVED
"The words 'Nevertheless, people still walk on' are words that keep me going, even now." (Takuro)

5) SPECIAL THANKS
"Although it's a medium tempo song, it has a lot of power in it. You can't play it gently." (Jiro)

6) Blue Jean
"Although a summer song, why does it go straight to the heart like that when GLAY plays it?" (Teru) "From the beginning, I wrote the passing of a summer day." (laugh) (Takuro)

7) Aitai Kimochi
"This is kind of a sad song, because I don't hear or play it very often." (bitter smile) "But when I heard it again for the first time, I thought, 'Man, that's a great approach.'" (Hisashi)

8) a Boy ~Zutto Wasurenai~
"This was my first time playing a 12-string guitar for GLAY on such a large scale. I kind of liked the atmosphere of the instrument." (Hisashi)

9) HOWEVER
"This was our first approach to reggae, but I haven't really heard much reggae, so I played this song wondering if it had 16 beats." (Jiro)

10) Zutto Futari De...
"I had some trouble with the lyrics. At first I could sort of write them, but after four lines I couldn't write any more and so I went back to Hakodate." (Takuro)

11) BE WITH YOU
"'BELOVED,' 'HOWEVER,' and 'BE WITH YOU' aren't big pillars of our music, but I sang this one better than 'HOWEVER!' This is a feeling a get no matter how many times I sing this song." (Teru)

12) Winter,again
"This was right after I bought an Epiphone Casino (guitar). It's a dry song, like it's possessed the soul of John Lennon." (Takuro)

13) Toki no Shizuku
"I think we did this song in GLAY's ninth year, and it's the song that made me think that I'd built a good career in GLAY." (Jiro)

14) Tsuzure Ori ~so far and yet so close~
"It's a song about something you can't lose but you drew away from anyway, in a voice that the light still hasn't touched." (Takuro.)

THE PREDATORS:

"Hunting!!!!"
THREE MOUNTAIN RECORDS
TMRD-0001, RELEASED 7.6.05

!!! Vocal and guitar is Sawano Yamanaka from the pillows, Jiro from GLAY is on bass, and drums are by Shinpei Nakayama from Straightener. "Hunting!!!!" is the debut mini-album of this three-piece mini rock 'n' roll band. Sweet poison. Painful candy. These songs give you that impression. The balance between attack and pop is exceptional.

1) Bakuon Drop
"This is the song we wrote all at once the night we went from Jiro saying 'I'd love to play with you guys any time,' to, 'Hey, let's go for next year!' The keyword for THE PREDATORS was 'pop Nirvana,' so our sense of it was...what was it?? Basically, I like it." (Sawao Yamanaka)

2) Recall me
"When you talk about Nirvana, it's this kind of song, isn't it? It's a song where the four chords and the repeating words change slowly. We kept after it the whole way through!" (Sawao)

3) Dizzy Life
"We wrote this song with the plan, 'We want to make pop Nirvana, no matter what!' Out of all the songs I wrote, this was the most like Western music at completion, and from the beginning Sawao praised it as a 'good song.' Nothing made me happier." (Jiro)

4) Sleepy Dragon
"This is a song I wrote in the green room during [GLAY's] dome tour. I imagined it as a song with the explosive power of a shout from Kurt Cobain. We were able to power it up more through band arrangement, and it was even better than I imagined." (Jiro)

5) Mustang Hippie
"This is another song we wrote with a sense toward Nirvana. The lyrics were good, but there was a second where I thought, 'Shouldn't I play this with the pillows?!'" (laugh) (Sawao)

6) Lizard Man
"When I wrote this song I though, 'This sounds GLAY-ish,' but once we changed the players, it of course took on the color of THE PREDATORS." (Nakayama) "Shinpei’s eight beats had a good feeling to them, and we imagined it as a song to play in an outdoor live." (Jiro)

7) Last Hunting
"At first the plan was to put six songs on the album, and after rhythm recording was finished, we thought, 'Let's put these in order,' but there was a bit of a pause in the timing, so we improvised a song then tried it in a session. We recorded it without even rehearsing. And so it was born! Totally band-esque!" (Sawao)