''Moriagaro'' (stylized as MORIAGARO) (, "Let's Get Down") is the tenth studio album by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai, released on July 17, 2013, by

EMI Records Japan EMI Records Japan was a Japanese record label which operated as a sublabel of Universal Music Japan. Established in April 2013, it was the successor of its previous entity as a company, EMI Music Japan. The sublabel's headquarters was located a ...

. Musically, ''Moriagaro'' expands on the dance-pop sound found on Ai's previous studio album, ''

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

'' (2012), with R&B and hip hop sensibilities. Alongside long-time collaborator Uta, Ai worked with various American producers. On November 20, 2013, the album was reissued as '' Motto Moriagaro''.

Writing and production

The album was written by Ai, collaborating with American and Japanese producers. Ai collaborated with four singers: American R&B singers

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract wi ...

, Lloyd and

Bridget Kelly Bridget Kelly (born April 8, 1986) is an American singer and songwriter from New York City. Kelly, an Contemporary R&B, R&B recording artist, has written songs for Kelly Clarkson. In 2008, she secured a recording contract with American rapper a ...

, as well as Malaysian Australian R&B singer

Che'Nelle Cheryline Ernestine Lim, known by her stage name Che'Nelle, is a Malaysian-Australian singer-songwriter. She gained popularity in Japan with the release of her debut studio album, '' Things Happen for a Reason'' (2007). Early life Cheryline Er ...

, who has based her career in Japan since 2011. Five of the songs are sung in Japanese, and three entirely in English. "Moriagaro," "Don't Turn Me Off" and "Gotta Get Mine" are sung in a mix of English and Japanese. Album recording took place mostly in Tokyo, as well as in

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. History Most historical writings about West Hollywood be ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and New York City. Ai worked mostly with Japanese producer Uta (who she has worked with since '' Viva Ai'' (2009)) on the songs "Hanabi," "My Place," "Sogood" and "Voice." This is the first time that Ai only worked with a single Japanese producer on an album. Ai worked with five American producers on the remaining songs. Fifty 1 Fifty produced three songs, "For You," "Top of the World" and " After the Storm." De-Capo Music Group worked on "Moriagaro," C3prod on "Dear Mama" and Wonda Music on "Gotta Get Mine." Ai worked together with producer D.Clax and The Exclusives on the song "My Baby."

Promotion and release

The first single released from the album was "

Voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

" in February 2013. The song was used as the theme song for the drama '' Yakō Kanransha'', starring

Kyōka Suzuki is a Japanese actress. Life and career Suzuki appeared in Shinji Aoyama's '' Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name'' and Yōichi Sai's ''Blood and Bones''. She won the Best Actress award at the 1998 Yokohama Film Festival for her role in '' Wel ...

and

Yuriko Ishida is a Japanese actress and essayist from Nagoya. She was the Japanese voice of the title character San from the 1997 animated film ''Princess Mononoke''. She is the older sister of Hikari Ishida, also an actress. Filmography Films *''Gokudo no O ...

. The single became a big hit, being certified by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include prom ...

as a gold single a month after release. It is currently her fourth most sold physical single since her debut. It is also her last release under the then-independent

EMI Music Japan , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. Wh ...

. Ai followed up the single with two digital singles. The first was "Mama e," used in a Lotte chocolate commercial campaign for

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in Mar ...

, and "After the Storm," used as the theme for the Japanese release of the Hong Kong martial arts film '' The Grandmaster''. Three other songs were used for TV commercials. "Sogood" was used for

KFC KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's se ...

Japan commercials, "For You" for

Kubota is a Japanese multinational corporation based in Osaka. It was established in 1890. The corporation produces many products including tractors and other agricultural machinery, Heavy equipment, construction equipment, engines, vending machines, P ...

commercials, and "My Place" for Japan Rail in promotion of the

Kyushu Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed railway network. It is an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen from Honshu connecting the city of Fukuoka (Hakata Station) in the north of Japan's Kyushu Island to the city of Kagoshima (Kagoshima-Chuo Sta ...

. "Gotta Get Mine" was also used as the July opening theme for the

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.Chōryūha. "Top of the World" was later used as the opening theme for the TBS drama ''

Higanjima is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōji Matsumoto. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Young Magazine'' from 2002 to 2010, with its chapters collected in 33 ''tankōbon'' volumes. A ...

'' in October 2013. Music videos were produced for the album songs "Gotta Get Mine," "Hanabi," "My Place," and "Sogood."

Tours

Ai's ''Moriagaro Tour'' began in October in

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, Japan, and included 33 dates. The final concert was held on December 18, 2013, at the

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Budokan was a popular venue for Japanese professional wres ...

in Tokyo.

Track listing

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Moriagaro'' and Tidal.Notes * Tracks 1, 3–4, 8, and 10–12 are stylized in

all capitals In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

. * Track 6 is titled in Japanese * Track 7 is stylized in all lower case.

Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from ''Moriagaros liner notes booklet. Performance credits *Ai – vocals,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

*Che'nelle – vocals (#9) *Jeremih – vocals (#1) *Bridget Kelly – vocals (#8) *Lloyd – vocals (#5) *Swiss Chris – drums (#8) Visuals and imagery *Ambush – costume cooperation *Justin Davis – costume cooperation *Noriko Goto – stylist *Ayako Hishinuma – prop creator ('Moriagaro Bling Bling') *Manabu Honchu – design *Justin & Valley – logo design *Akio Kawabata – package coordination *Yasunari Kikuma – photographer *Akemi Ono – hair, make-up *Toshiya Ono – art direction *Shuma Saito – package coordination *Silver Face – prop creator ('Moriagaro Knuckle Rings') *Shigeaki Watanabe – prop creator ('Moriagaro Cap') *Wut Berlin – costume cooperation *X-Closet – costume cooperation *Eiji Yoshimura – design Technical and production *Ai – producer (#1, #3–4, #6–7, #9–10) *Arden 'Keys' Altino – co-producer (#8) *Ben-E – producer (#6) *Jo Blaq – mixing, vocal recording (#12) *C3prod – producer (#6) *Tom Coyne – album mastering *D.Clax – producer (#5) *De-Capo Music Group – producer (#1) *DOI – mixing (#1–7, #9–11) *Akene 'The Champ' Dunkley – co-producer (#8) *Jerry 'Wonda' Duplessis – producer (#8) *Fifty 1 Fifty – producer (#9–10, #12) *Keisuke Fujimaki – vocal recording (#4) *Seiji Itabashi – assisting (#8, #11) *Carlos 'Los' Jenkins – vocal recording (#12) *Neeraj Khajanchi – additional vocal recording (#8), vocal recording (#11) *T. Kura – vocal editing (#2) *Sean 'Pen' McMillion – engineering (#5), vocal producer for Lloyd (#5) *Michico – vocal producer (#2) *Yoshinori Morita – vocal recording (#1, #6–7, #9) *Taiji Okuda – Japanese production (#5), recording (#2–3, #10) *Mario Parra – Che'nelle's vocal recording (#9) *Lance Powell – assisting (#8) *Andrew Robertson – assisting (#8) *Mark Roger – vocal recording (#1) *Serge 'Sergical' Tsai – recording (#8) *Uta – producer (#2–4, #7, #11) *Satoshi Yoneda – vocal editing (#2)

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Sales

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Ai (singer) albums 2010s Japanese-language albums EMI Records albums Universal Music Group albums Universal Music Japan albums Albums produced by Ai (singer)