8 Uppers: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox album <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Albums -->

| Name name = 8 Uppers

| Type type = studio

| Artist artist = [[Kanjani Eight]]

| Cover cover = Wiki-8uppers.jpg

| Captionalt = Limited Edition Cover=

| Releasedcaption = {{StartLimited date|2010|10|20}}Edition Cover

| Recorded released = 2009-{{Start date|2010|10|20}}

| Lengthvenue =

| Nextproducer album =

| next_year = Cover =2011

| misc | Lower caption = Regular{{Extra Editionalbum Covercover

| Name name = 8 Uppers

| Type type = studio

| Single 1 single1 = [[Kyū Jō Show!!]]

| Single 2 single2 = [[Wonderful World!!]]

| Single 3 single3 = [[Life (Me no Mae no MukōMukou e)]]

}}

The music style of ''8 Uppers'' is, again, different from their previous albums. This time the album adopts a more generic, yet, mature feel as the songs were written to accompany the feature film of the same title. The album opens up with the movie's theme song, "Oriental Surfer", and continues its coinciding theme to the events of the movie with two more instrumental breaks, "Back Off" and "Realize". The album ends with the single, "[[Kyū Jō Show!!]]". The member solos featured on the regular edition of the album were also written for the "Prologue of Patchi", a series of music videos that serve as character introductions, which were featured on the "[[Wonderful World!!]]" and "[[Life (Me no Mae no MukōMukou e)]]" singles. In many ways, the album can also be looked as ana soundtrack to the movie.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

Yasuda, in the same interview, also added that " [...] Ska and Melodic Hardcore is Eight's weapon, I thought while writing it. ".<ref>Wink Up, Page 11, November 2010</ref>. When talking about working with Ken Yokoyama of Crazy Ken Band, many of the group's members showed slight apprehension to the aggressive, soulful, tone of the song. Yokoyama remarked with, " This has to be the hardest song. [...] I didn't believe I could sing it, but that Subaru would be great at it. When I first heard Ken's demo, I thought it was impossible [...] " .<ref>Wink Up, Page 8, November 2010</ref>.

The first single released from the album was "[[Kyū Jō Show!!]]", a rockabilly-inspired tune that quickly followed up after the release of their junior album, ''[[Puzzle (Kanjani Eight album)|Puzzle]]''. The single did well, charting at #1 on the Oricon and Billboard Japan Hot 100 on its debut.<ref>{{cite webmagazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/japan2009-hot11-100#/charts21/japan-hot-100?chartDate=2009-11-21|title=Billboard Japan Hot 100, Week of November 21, 2009|accessdatemagazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |access-date=6 May 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110605060830/https://www.billboard.com/charts/japan-hot-100| archive-date= 5 June 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/search/result.php?kbn=js&types=rnk&year=2009&month=11&week=3&submit4.x=18&submit4.y=17|title=Oricon Domestic Singles Weekly Ranking, 3rd Week of November 2009|language=Japaneseja|accessdateaccess-date=6 May 2011}}</ref> A few months after, in May 2010, the second single for the album was released, titled "[[Wonderful World!!]]". Wonderful World is a playful, feel good, a-typical [[Japanese pop]] tune with the members [[rap]]ping over it. The song did well, again, charting at #1 on the week of its debut.<ref>{{cite webmagazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/japan2010-hot07-100#/charts17/japan-hot-100?chartDate=2010-07-17|title=Billboard Japan Hot 100, Week of July 17, 2010|accessdatemagazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |access-date=6 May 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110605060830/https://www.billboard.com/charts/japan-hot-100| archive-date= 5 June 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/search/result.php?kbn=js&types=rnk&year=2010&month=7&week=2&submit4.x=43&submit4.y=18|title=Oricon Domestic Singles Weekly Ranking, 2nd Week of July 2010|language=Japaneseja|accessdateaccess-date=6 May 2011}}</ref> ''Wonderful World!!{{'}}''s accompanied DVDs on the limited edition set the stage for what was going to be the new album, releasing a DVD clip of four side stories entitled, ''Prologue of Patchi'', which consisted of the members solos.

Wonderful World!! was quickly followed by the album's third single, "[[Life (Me no Mae no MukōMukou e)]]" in August 2010. The song is pop-rock tune that was the featured theme song for the Japanese television drama, ''GM: Odore Doctor'', which the group's drummer, Tadayoshi Ohkura starred in.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tbs.co.jp/GM-odore/cast/|title=TBS 日曜劇場　 「GM　 ー踊れドクター Official Home Page, Cast|language=Japaneseja|accessdateaccess-date=6 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tbs.co.jp/GM-odore/staff/|title=TBS 日曜劇場　 「GM　 ー踊れドクター Official Home Page, Staff|language=Japaneseja|accessdateaccess-date=6 May 2011}}</ref> The conclusion to "Prologue of Patchi" was included on the limited edition release of this single and included a trailer for the movie, 8 Uppers, at the end with information for fans to visit the [https://web.archive.org/web/20101018190441/https://www.club8.jp/ album's website].

Promotion for ''8 Uppers'' began with the release of "[[Wonderful World!!]]" and continued with "[[Life (Me no Mae no MukōMukou e)]]" with the included DVDs on the limited editions. The announcement of the interactive website, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101018190441/https://www.club8.jp/ club eight] on the "Life (Me no Mae no MukōMukou e)" single was also added promotion for the movie. The group used "Animal Magic" as the lead single for the album in September and October 2010, emphasizing the fact that Ken Yokoyama of [[Crazy Ken Band]] wrote the song for them. A music video was released for the song and they performed it on the October 1st, 2010 episode of [[Music Station]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/music/contents/m_lineup/1032/index2.html|title=テレビ朝日 Music Station 出演者ラインナップ 2010年10月1日|language=Japaneseja|accessdateaccess-date=6 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101004161316/https://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/music/contents/m_lineup/1032/index2.html|archive-date=4 October 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>. Subsequently, on October 11, 2010, the featured movie was in theaters for one day at Toho Cinemas nationwide leading up to the release of the album.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.8uppers.com/|title=8 Uppers' official site|access-date=2010-10-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101010121553/https://www.8uppers.com/|archive-date=2010-10-10|url-status=dead}}{{verify source|date=May 2011}}</ref>.