''2nd W'' is the second album by the
Hello! Project
is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but ...
duo
W and their first album recorded and released after its members,
Ai Kago
is a Japanese actress and singer. In 2000, Kago debuted as a 4th generation member of the idol girl group Morning Musume. During her time in the group, she was also part of Mini-Moni and other Hello! Project sub-groups. In 2004, Kago depart ...
and
Nozomi Tsuji, "graduated" from
Morning Musume
, formerly and commonly known as and colloquially referred to as , is a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most to ...
in August 2004.
Unlike their first album, ''
Duo U&U'', which was all cover material, ''2nd W'' contains a mix of originals (composed by mentor and Hello! Project founder
Tsunku
, known professionally as , is a Japanese singer, record producer, and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the rock band Sharam Q.
As a songwriter, Tsunku is the primary producer for Morning Musume and other Hello! Project acts, such as Co ...
) and covers of classic
Shōwa period
Shōwa most commonly refers to:
* Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa
** Shōwa era (昭和), the era of Hirohito from 1926 to 1989
* Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufactu ...
female pop duo songs. Three of the songs, the Tsunku originals "Ai Ii na!" and "Robo Kiss" and a cover of
The Peanuts's "Koi No Fuga", were released as singles in the months prior to the album; the latter selection was also the single released in advance of the album.
Many of the songs on the album, both originals and covers, center around the topic of becoming, or about to no longer be, the age of seventeen. At the time of the album's release, Ai Kago had turned 17 a month prior, while Nozomi Tsuji would turn 18 that June.
Another track, "Da-bu-ru-yuu Joshi Koutou Gakkou Kouka", is the mock-theme song for the fictional "Dabaruyuu Girls Senior School" (The
nonsense word
In linguistics, a nonce word—also called an occasionalism—is any word (lexeme), or any sequence of sounds or letters, created for a single occasion or utterance but not otherwise understood or recognized as a word in a given languag ...
"Dabaruyuu" being a corruption of the duo's name) and ties in with the album cover concept depicting Kago and Tsuji at a school ceremony.
The duo would release one more single while retaining their earlier cute image, "
Ai no Imi wo Oshiete!". Their following single, "
Miss Love Tantei", would see the pair utilizing a more mature look and sound. The first press of the album comes with three photo cards and comes in special packaging.
Track listing
# – 1:11
# – 4:05
# – 3:35
# – 3:48
# – 3:49
# – 5:21
# – 3:03
# 18 ~My Happy Birthday Comes!~ – 4:17
# – 2:19 (
The Peanuts)
# INTERLUDE – 0:24
# – 3:10 (
Junko Sakurada)
# – 3:28
# – 4:18
Musical Personnel
*
Ai Kago
is a Japanese actress and singer. In 2000, Kago debuted as a 4th generation member of the idol girl group Morning Musume. During her time in the group, she was also part of Mini-Moni and other Hello! Project sub-groups. In 2004, Kago depart ...
– vocals (lead, harmony and background)
*
Nozomi Tsuji – vocals (lead, harmony and background)
*
Tsunku
, known professionally as , is a Japanese singer, record producer, and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the rock band Sharam Q.
As a songwriter, Tsunku is the primary producer for Morning Musume and other Hello! Project acts, such as Co ...
– additional backing vocals (Tracks 1, 5)
*Nao Tanaka – Keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 1), string arrangement (Track 3)
*Shoichiro Hirata – Keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Tracks 2, 11)
*Manao Doi – guitar (Track 2)
*Hiroaki Takeuchi – backing vocals (Track 2)
*Yohey Tuskasaki –
scratching
Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and Turntablism, turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a phonograph, turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to ...
(Tracks 2, 9)
*Yuichi Takahashi – guitar, keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Tracks 3, 4, 7)
*Sting Miyamoto – bass (Tracks 4, 13)
*
Atsuko Inaba – additional backing vocals (Tracks 4, 8)
*Hideyuki "Daichi" Suzuki – guitar, keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 5)
*Ume – guitar (Track 5)
*Akira – keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming, additional backing vocals (Track 6)
*Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus – male chorus (Track 7)
*Yoshiaki Nakamura – narration (Track 7)
*Miki Tominaga – narration (Track 7)
*Shunsuke Suzuki – guitar, keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Tracks 8, 12)
*Hideyuki Komatsu – bass (Track 8)
*Hiroshi Iida – percussion (Track 8)
*Yoshinari Takegami – saxophone (Track 8)
*Masanori Suzuki – trumpet (Track 8)
*Wakaba Kawai – trombone (Track 8)
*Koji Makaino – keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 9)
*Hideki Oguro – tympani (Track 9)
*Yasuhiko Tachibana – upright bass (Track 12)
*Keiichiro Uemura – drums (Track 12)
*Yoshihiko Katori – vibraphone (Track 12)
*Makoto Hirahara – additional backing vocals (Track 12)
*Cher Watanabe – keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 13)
*Yasuo Asai – guitars (Track 13)
*Armin "Takeshi" Linzbichler – drums (Track 13)
External links
UP-FRONT WORKS W discography entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:2nd W
W (group) albums
Zetima albums
2005 albums