Ongaku Cafe (The 2000s): Color – Black~A night for you~ (July 2008)

With their talent and their awesome ability to harmonize and really work well together, what I miss the most is that variation of musical styles. The group does a spectacular job with their vocals and harmonizing may it be in a capella, upbeat tracks or their slow jams but producers really need to come up with variation with the music. 

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GROUP: Color

ALBUM: Black ~A night for you~

LABEL: Rhythm Zone

DURATION: 44:50

RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2008

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1. mic check intro
2. Night for you
3. Midnight call
4. X-GIRL
5. BUDDY feat. J Soul Brothers
6. Call My Name
7. night interlude
8. Just a Little Bit
9. What aobut us Pt. 2
10. S.S.D. feat. TO-C (Warp-generation)
11. ain’t so easy
12. share wit’ me
13. 24karats -type C- feat. DOBERMAN INC. (bonus track)

DVD: Region 2, DURATION: 11 minutes

1. Midnight call (Music Video)
2. Just a Little Bit (Music Video)
3. ain’t so easy (Music Video

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Reviewed back in July 2008

The Japanese quarter Color has gone through changes within the last two years.  Originally a side project group of EXILE’s ATSUSHI, ATSUSHI and several of the members of the group left to pursue other interests.

For ATSUSHI, EXILE had become such a big hit with countless #1 albums and CD singles and the guys were literally busy.  So, busy that that he and even others who had their own side projects had to focus on EXILE.

With one of my favorite albums of 2005-2006 being COLOR’s “RED Love is All Around”, I wasn’t sure what to expect when the group re-announced that they would regroup in 2007 and come out with a new CD single.

The quartet known for their smooth vocals are back with their second color-based album for 2008 with “BLACK ~A night for you~ continuing with the same R&B style but there are a good number of awesome tracks on this album despite there being no CD singles release from this album.

The album has a total of 13 tracks, the first two tracks “mic check intro” and “Night for you” are simply short 1-minute tracks with the first being music based and the second showcasing the quartets a capella.  The first three vocal tracks “Midnight Call”, “X-GIRL” and “BUDDY” are all upbeat track that showcases the group’s harmony.  Not quick dance tracks but smooth tempo but upbeat tracks.  The majority of the tracks on the album are upbeat “smooth” tracks and the main EXILE-ish dance track on this album is actually a cover of EXILE’s “24karats -type C-” featuring hip-hop group DOBERMAN, INC.

There are a few other collaborations on this album with the track “BUDDY” with another EXILE-startup group J. Soul Brothers and “S.S.D.” with a collaboration with hip hop artist TO-C from Warp-Generation.

But where the group truly shines on “BLACK” is their ballads.  Songs like “Call My Name” demonstrate the groups ability to harmonize but effectively touch your soul with beautiful melodies and they follow it up perfectly with a sexy track titled “Just a Little Bit” that pretty exemplifies this group’s talent for smooth R&B tracks with fantastic vocals.

As for the DVD, the 11-minute DVD features three music videos.  The first is “Midnight Call”.  One thing I’ve noticed compared to music videos from the past, their videos have gotten a jumpstart possibly with a higher budget or better crew because the production quality for “Midight Call” is pretty good.  The group is featured singing in a bar-like setting and a woman awaits a phone call from her boyfriend.

The next two videos are quite interesting as they star EXILE’s MATSU and MAKIDAI.  My favorite song from the “BLACK” album “Just a Little Bit” features MATSU who is a guy that is looking back at his old relationship with his ex-girlfriend and pretty much how he messed up.  He goes into a club and see’s COLOR singing the the ballad and gets him thinking.  He remembers being at the club and being with his girlfriend and having a lot of fun.  You are shown shots of how he wanted to take part in a dance competition in the United States.  His girlfriend surprises him by buying him a plane ticket to the US.  But in one night, he gets in an argument with his girlfriend and it’s so bad that he rips the plane ticket and the two eventually break up.

It’s been awhile since  they have broken up but as he listens to the song, as he sits at the bar, he’s surprised to see his ex-girlfriend come to the club and possibly, maybe he can make ammends and get back with her.   But as he looks at her, he notices that she is wearing an engagement ring.  He drives her home and sees her come home to her fiance.  She comes back to the cab to give him something before they say goodbye and when he opens the envelope, it’s the plane ticket that he ripped up on the night that he broke up.  She had picked up all the pieces and taped it all together.  A very good music video.

The video for “ain’t so easy” features EXILE’s MAKIDAI and it’s the first time I’ve seen dancing on their music videos.  But the video features MAKIDAI depressed and just throwing cards and his coat around.  And laying in a spa tub and drinking himself away.  Video uses several special effects with cards flipping, dice being rolled and Makidai throwing a card like a boomerang.

As for the CD insert booklet, you get the lyrics, production credits and solo shots of each of the guys.  A promotional flyer for upcoming Rhythm Zone releases is included.

Overall, “BLACK ~A night for you~” is a good album and there are a few solid tracks.  I definitely would like to see some more musical variation with their upbeat tracks because sometimes when listening, many are too similar to each other.  On this album, anyway.

But there are some really cool jams on this album overall.  “Just a Little Bit” is an awesome heartwrenching slow jam and “Call My Name” is anothe track that I’ve listened to a million times.  With their talent and their awesome ability to harmonize and really work well together, what I miss the most is that variation of musical styles.

With the original “COLOR” especially on the “Red” album, you got that variation.  With “BLACK”… too many of their upbeat tracks sound too similar to each other and that I think that is what makes this album so average when it could have been much better.

Again, the group does a spectacular job with their vocals and harmonizing may it be in a capella, upbeat tracks or their slow jams but producers really need to come up with variation with the music.  The group is set to release a new album in Feb. 2009 titled “White ~Lovers on Canvas~” and I look forward to see how they change things up for that album.

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