YA 0.5
From Clumsy Media
"YA 0.5" is the fourth studio album release by Japanese recording artist Yuga Akiyama. It is scheduled for release on TBA, by Clumsy Media, served as the second part release of his come back to the commercial successful first studio album "YA 2.0" (2009). It is considered the second half of a two-piece project, with the first being the third studio album "YA 0.0" (2013) which together is repackaged into the fifth overall album "YA 3.0"(2014). The record incorporates neo soul styles with elements of R&B and soul music; its lyrics discuss themes of coming of age along with its difficulties, transformation of a man and teenage romance. As executive producer, Akiyama enlisted award winning production team Moving Ghost to work alongside Miss Low, Mini Bus, Smooth Sounds, DJ "Mike" Tempo and Wane Takahashi.
The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented its musical diversity from his previous albums as well as his music maturity since the last release, although others criticized a lack of variation within the album itself. The album debuted at number one on the Oricon charts with first-week sales of 980,000 copies, becoming Akiyama's third consecutive number one album on the chart and the second best-selling debut week of his solo career behind "YA 1.0" (2007).
Three singles have been released from the album, each actin as promotional singles. Its lead single "ミルクセーキ恋人" (Milkshake Couple) peaked all music charts in Japan within two hours of release, and its follow up single "ブラッドオレンジ" (Blood Orange) experienced the same result.
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Background
In September 2009, Akiyama released his first studio album YA 2.0. Critically and commercially acclaimed, the album combined several singles he released over the years from 2007, all of which peaked the Japanese music charts, including three new tracks. After wrapping up a nationwide concert tour in support of the album, Akiyama took a break from his music career to focus on school committments. For as long as five years he remained absent from the music industry without any music release or appearances.
Development
Mid 2011, Akiyama's company approached him with ideas and concepts on new music. In particular his manager had a lot of worries about the amount of support still left if his hiatus is too long, "in Japan artists release singles every two months on average, or even less, so the fact I wanted to wait until I complete high school to release music again really worried the management team". They proposed a promotion based on an application or releasing a new song every month but with no promotion until they have enough materials for a full album, most likely to be once every a year. Akiyama, however, was not interested in going back into music and instead continued to focus on his school work. Around the last few weeks of 2012, Akiyama invited his label's exceutive officials to dinner and revealed to them that he had spent the last four years inconsistently working on new materials during his spare time and 'whenever he felt like it' and all there's left is to actually go into a studio and record it. They were shocked at the revelation. Since Akiyama was already five months into graduation at the time, immediately they began recording schedules, marketing plans for how the album should be promoted and when it should be released. Ultimately, they agreed to "do this in a shorter period of time, so let's put the single out, create some hype first so it must be a spot on track and [release the album] two weeks after that – make it a short window, and because we have such a short window, we have to make a big impact."
Akiyama had unlimited time to record the whole material, but the company had trouble with keeping the album a secret as Akiyama had promised in the past he would come back once his high school committment ends. With his results, Akiyama made nation headlines at the time for making into the prestigious The University of Tokyo and therefore a lot of media attention were placed on him duing the late half of 2012. The production team eventually used codenames for the project, one of which was 'bokuman', a term Akiyama came up himself since he was soon legally become to an adult.
During an interview with a performance for MTV Unplugged, Akiyama explained the meaning behind the album's title saying, "When I left the industry to concentrate on school I was fourteen - a child in all sense. Now I'm ninteen. My sound has changed, music style, dance direction, everything has evolved. Physically I'm a man more or less now, and since these are the songs I made over the years, recording the process of a child to an adult, I wanted to summarise the overall experience in music. In essence, the journey is captured in this album so it's a new beginning for me, starting all over again."
Recording
The album was produced over a span of five years inconsistently overtime. Recording sessions began in the "last remaining days of 2012" and concluded in August 2013. The album was recorded at Clumsy Studio in Tokyo, Japan. Of Moving Ghost's participation, Akiyama said: "Ever since the first day I entered the industry they have been here; we're just so comfortable with each other – not only as musical friends but as personal friends. They treated me like an older brother. There hasn't been once where I thought whether not they should be on [the album], it was never a possibility." In particular Akiyama voiced out his gratitude to T.Max, a member of Moving Ghost who had to juggle between producing his own personal comeback return album "Raining Absence" in three years at the same time. Miss Low was invited to participate, requested to produce a song that would 'make up for the attention Akiyama lost in these years'. She initially refused, but ater Akiyama showed up at the 'doors of her homes' no less than ten times, she finally gave in.
Promotion
Touring
Reception
Critical
The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, many of whom hailed it as a significant pop release and as a comeback album that exceeded beyond "all expectations". At Oricon Reviews, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on 50 reviews. Popteen magazine called it "expertly" written and produced, and cited it as a "profound manifestation" of recent innovations in R&B.
Commerical
Tracklisting
1. 深夜に霜 (Frost at Midnight)
2. 難民のステップ (Refugee Steps)
3. 重いペン (A Heavy Pen)
4. 睡眠の痛み (Pains of Sleep)
5. 危険なユリ (Dangerous Lily)
6. 友人の3種類 (3T Friends)
7. ウイルスの誕生 (Birth of a Virus)
8. 最後のシンデレラ (Last Cinderella)
9. 点灯希望を暗く (Dim Lighted Hope )
10. 私たちの心の中の花火 (The Firework In Our Hearts)
