akko

My Little LoverBACK IN 1995, MY LITTLE LOVER EXPLODED INTO THE LIMELIGHT WITH THEIR HIT CD

SINGLE “MAN & WOMAN” AND IN THE NEXT DECADE GIVING MUSIC LISTENERS THEIR BRAND OF FRESH, CATCHY AND ENJOYABLE STYLE OF MUSIC. MUSIC THAT CONTINUED WITH HIT

AFTER HIT WITH SONGS SUCH AS “HELLO, AGAIN ~MUKASHI KARA ARU BASHO~”, “ALICE”, “NOW & THEN” AND MANY MORE HIT SONGS THROUGH 2004. TWO YEARS LATER, MY LITTLE

LOVER RETURNS ON A NEW LABEL AND WITH A NEW ALBUM. BY DENNIS A. AMITH & HIROSHI TAGAWA

J!-ENT | MARCH 2007

Photography by KAZUNALI TAJIMA (MILD INC.)

IMAGE COURTESY OF AVEX ENTERTAINMENT, INC.

The Return of

WHAT’S HOT IN MUSIC

WHAT’S HOT IN MUSIC - MY LITTLE LOVER

MARCH 07 | J!-ENT 2

y Little Lover is back!The chart topping group known for hits such as “Man & Woman”, “Hel-

lo, Again ~Mukashi kara aru basho~” and “Destiny” is back with a new CD single and album. On Nov. 2006, My Little Lover made their comeback after a two-year hiatus with their CD single “Ri bbon”. The single was then followed by an album release in Dec. with “akko” (two release versions which featured a normal release and a 2-disc ver-sion which included the best request songs album selected by My Little Lover fans). The release of “akko” also marks a new beginning for the group. In Fall 2005, akko wanted to restart My Little Lover but because hus-band/producer/composer Kobayashi Takeshi had a busy schedule (with the startup of AP Bank), Kobayashi asked friend, famous record producer and President of the Avex Trax label, Max Matsuura to handle My Little Lover’s upcoming album. My Little Lover joined the Avex Trax record label and it would be lead singer/songwriter Akko’s first solo project. Despite the move to a new label, many fans may be wondering if the group may stray away from the music they are known for, especially with-out Kobayashi. But the truth is that “akko” features music that embraces the old and the new for the group. My Little Lover has been on the forefront of bands who have taken risks and experimented with their music which many Japanese bands really don’t do. It’s one of the amazing aspects of My Little Lover’s longevity and popularity is because they are able to give listeners something new with each album and their latest album is no different. Each track on “akko” is so differ-ent and fresh but at the same time managing to embrace the My Little Lover sound. To understand My Little Lover’s

music, it is best to go back to 1995 with their debut CD single “Man & Woman”. The group featured songwriter and lead vocalist (and also a noted musi-cian) akko, guitarist and composer Fujii Kenji and producer, musician and composer Kobayashi Takeshi. During a time where Japanese mainstream music was dominated by Japanese pop music, My Little Lover came onto the scene perform-ing a number of catchy songs which featured professional musicians on trumpet, trombone, saxophone, bass and strings. One would describe their music back then as cafe style music fused with pop with the usage of horns. As well as vocals so unique to akko that makes her distinguishable among other female vocalists. Also, to add to the enjoyability of My Little Lover was Kobayashi Takesh known for composing music for Southern All Stars vocalist Ku-wata Keisuke’s solo songs, Koizumi

Kyoko and also the producer for the multi-award winning rock band Mr. Children. It didn’t take the band too long to dominate the charts especially with the chart topping hit “Hello, Again ~Mukashi kara aru basho” (used for the 1995 drama “Owaranai Natsu”). Not too long after, it was the re-lease of their first album “Evergreen” which receieved rave reviews in Japan and also from fans all over the world. Adding to their exposure world wide, My Little Lover was one of the first Japanese bands in the 1990’s to utilize Internet technology through their website “MY LITTLE LOV-ER Web Wonderland” which offered behind-the-scene videos of the mak-ing of “Evergreen” in Los Angeles. This eventually led to their hit song “ALICE” in 1996. And the hits continued to roll in that same year with “NOW & THEN ~ Wushinawareta Toki wo Motomete~” (used for the NTV drama “Natural Ai no Yukue”) and “YES~free flower”.

Photography by KAZUNALI TAJIMA (MILD INC.)IMAGE COURTESY OF AVEX ENTERTAINMENT, INC.

M

MY LITTLE LOVER - WHAT’S HOT IN MUSIC

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CD SINGLES (not pictured): 1. Man & Woman (May 1995) 2. Shiroi Kite (July 1995) 3. Hello, Again ~Mukashi kara aru baso~ (Aug. 1995) 4. ALICE (April 1996) 5. NOW AND THEN ~Wushi-nawareta Toki wo Motomete~ (Oct. 1996) 6. YES ~free flower~ (Dec. 1996) 7. ANIMAL LIFE (June 1997) 8. Shuffle (Aug. 1997) 9. Private eyes (Nov. 1997) 10. Sora no Shite de (Jan. 1998) 11. DESTINY (May 1998) 12. CRAZY LOVE (July 1998) 13. Shooting Star (FEB. 2001) 14. Higasa ~Japanese Beauty~ (April 2001) 15. Survival (Sept. 2002) 16. “Sinkyoku no Hitsuyo”/”Kaze to Sora no Kirim” (April 2004) and Ri bbon” (Pictured, top row, right, Nov. 2006)

ALBUMS (starting with first row, L-R): 11.”akko + request ni yoru best” (Dec. 2006), 1 . ever-green (Dec. 1995) 2. PRESENTS (Aug. 1998) 3. NEW ADVENTURE (Sept. 1998) 4. THE WATERS (Dec. 1998) 5. Topics (May 2001) 6. singles (Dec. 2001) 7. organic (Dec. 2002) 8. FANTASY (Jan. 2004) 9. Self Collection ~15 currents~ (April 2004) 10. “akko” (Dec. 2006)

MARCH 07 | J!-ENT 4

WHAT’S HOT IN MUSIC - MY LITTLE LOVER The group went on a short hiatus as Akko and Kobayashi were married and Akko gave birth to their first child. The group returned in 1997 with the hit “ANIMAL LIFE” which they returned as “MY LITTLE LOVER featuring AKKO” for the CD single which featured a music video reminiscent of Robert Palmer’s “Ad-dicted to Love” but in this case, akko and several models in an all girl rock band sport-ing red wigs and a blue overcoat They released another upbeat song titled “Shuffle” later in the year, but the group would then start to experiment with their music. “Private Eyes” was a departure from previous releases, getting away from the horns and moving towards an electronic sound, incorporating break beats and fea-turing a new remix of their hit song “Yes ~Free Flower~” which would eventually lead to more experimentation in the future. In 1998, My Little Love released the CD single “Sora no Shita de” (Under the Sky) and their second, highly-anticipated album titled “Presents” (which included their hit songs from 1996-1997). The group then released “DESTINY” (which was used on the FUJI TV drama “With Love”) in the Spring and “CRAZY LOVE” was released in the Summer. With three CD single releases and an album, the group had more surprises with two more albums released in the Fall and Winter of 1998. In September, “NEW ADVENTURE” which included their hits songs from the same year was released. In December, My Little Lover treated their fans with an experimental album titled “THE WATERS” which featured vari-ous versions of their song “Stardust” and a hidden track song titled “Sign of Thursday” (the title of their first video release and was a live concert video). As plentiful of music that fans received in 1998, the group then went on an extend-ed hiatus as Kobayashi and akko moved to New York in 1999. My Little Lover would not return un-til Feb. 2001 with their 13th CD single “Shooting Star” (the theme song to the NTV drama “Face~Mishiranu Koibito” and followed by their next single “Higasa ~Japa-nese Beauty”. The group would release their fifth album “Topics” in May 2001 and their sixth album

which was a singles collection titled “singles” in December which in-cluded the cover of popular Chara hit “Ai no Uta ~Swallowtail But-terfly”. Along with a CD release of “singles”, on the same day their first video clip collection was released on DVD titled “My Little Lover clips”. Living in America and witness-ing 9/11, the group returned back to Japan in 2002. In July 2002, long time mem-ber Fujii Kenji left the group and in September (a year after 9/11), the group released their CD single “Survival” and in December, a new album released titled “Organic”. This time featuring unplugged ver-sions of hit songs such as “Destiny”, “Shiroi Kite”, “Hello, Again ~ Mu-kashi kara aru basho~” and more. In 2003, My Little Lover didn’t release any CD singles or albums but focused on their live perfor-

mances which include a perfor-mance at “Dream Power - John Lennon Super Live 2003” and their first nationwide tour. The group returned in January of 2004 with their first original album titled “FANTASY” (their eighth al-bum) since “Topics” (released back in 2001). In April 2004, My Little Lover celebrated their 10th Anniver-sary with the CD single release of “Kaze to Sora no Kilim” (theme song for the film “Shinkoku no Himitsu”) and a 10th Anniversary Album tiled “Self Collection ~15 currents~” which featured a few of their hit singles post-1997, c/w songs and more. This leads to 2006 in which My Little Lover would continue but more of a solo act featuring akko and a switch to the Avex Trax la-bel. Leading to the groups 17th CD single titled “ri bbon” written by

COVER ART OF “AKKO”COURTESY OF AVEX ENTERTAINMENT

J!-ENT | MARCH 07 5

MY LITTLE LOVER - WHAT’S HOT IN MUSIC akko but yet a song that is reminiscent of My Little Lover’s original style. In December, My Little Lover re-leased their 10th album titled “akko”. This time featuring a diversity of songs with different styles showcasing the band’s embracing of music. Although, “akko” has been coined a solo project for akko, Kobayashi was involved as keyboardist for a few tracks. A normal version and a special ver-sion of the album was released. The special version is a 2-CD version that includes a best request album which fans voted on songs that showcase the bands music within the last decade. The album features eleven tracks such as “Chance” (which is an im-age song for the TV series “The 4400”), “recall”, “traveling with na-ture”, “yokan”, “Showtime”, “Tsuki to Puramodel”, “ri bbon”, “Mayoi Neko”, “Bucket”, “Inspiration” (album ver-sion, used for the GyaO computer

broadcast drama series “Manhattan Diaries”) and “Itoshi Mainichi”. The special version of “akko” that includes the bes requested songs se-lected by the fans include the follow-ing hits: “Yes ~free flower~”, “ANI-MAL LIFE”, “Melody”, “ALICE”, “DESTINY”, “Shiroi Kite”, “ever-green”, “Man and Woman”, “12-gatsu no tenshitachi”, “Sinkyoku no Hit-suyo” and “Hello, Again ~Mukashi kara aru basho~” The songs on “akko” were written by akko and each track has a differ-ent sound. Managing to incorporate the original My Little Lover sound and incorporating some experimental music as well. My Little Lover continues to be an amazing group that continually releases great music with so much di-versity that it’s always a surprise to see what is coming up next. With My Little Lover’s awesome music keeping in balance with akko’s

beautiful vocals and akko or Kobayas-hi’s cool lyrics, there’s no question why their music continues to attract fans worldwide over a decade later. If you have ever wanted to experi-ence My Little Lover’s music for the first time or wanted to discover some-thing different, with the new release of “akko” (especially the double CD version), go for it! You might find yourself becoming a “lover” of their music.

For more information on My Little Lover, visit their website at:

www.mylittlelover.jp

DENNIS A. AMITH is the founder/owner of J!-ENT and is an entertainment-writer-at-large for J!-ENT.

HIROSHI TAGAWA is the Chief of Operations for J!-ENT ( JAPAN).

J!-ENT interviews

MY LITTLE LOVER

BY HIROSHI TAGAWA and DENNIS A. AMITH

あふれるOVERFLOW

7

MARCH 07 | J!-ENT 8

Since we are huge fans of My Little Lover (especially big fans of Kobayashi Takeshi’s work) dating back to their debut, it caught us by surprise when we found out that My Little Lover’s latest re-lease would be a solo project featuring AKKO and that the project would bring AKKO to the Avex Trax record label. With the release of “ribbon” in November and the album “Akko” in December, My Little Lover will release their new CD single “Afureru” (overflow) on March 7th (CD+DVD: AVCD-31192/B and normal CD: AVCD-31193) featuring the c/w track “Koi no Day Job”. The new CD single marks the return of Kobayashi Takeshi to My Little Lover (he was only involved in the last album as key-boardist for a few songs) who does the music and the arranging for “Afureru” and both songs written by Akko. We hope you enjoy our special J!-ENT interview with My Little Lover’s Akko.

J!-ENT: HOW DID MY LITTLE LOVER FORM AS A BAND ORIGINALLY?AKKO: Kobayashi was trying to make a unit whose main vocal would be a woman. And Fujii, a guitarist was already decided. Kobayashi chose me fortunately from some candi-dates. Then before the release of 1st album, “EVERGREEN”, Kobayashi joined in MLL as a unit member.

J!-ENT: HOW DID THE GROUP COME UP WITH THE NAME “MY LITTLE LOVER?”AKKO: In those days, before our debut, we were making our songs in a suite at a hotel. I found a booklet in which I read a poem written by a pregnant woman. The title of the poem was “My Little Lover”. I can’t clearly remember the poem, but it’s about taking or holding something dear and sweet. It was written in English. We loved it so much that we decided on our band name, My Little Lover.

J!-ENT: WAS THERE A CERTAIN MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE-WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER THAT YOU FELT THAT YOU WANTED TO BECOME A SINGER?AKKO: When I was young, I liked to sing songs very much. Passion toward music was much bigger than other things. I hoped and wanted to be a singer. If it was impossible, I wanted to do a job that had something to do with music.I have been playing the piano for a long time. And I gradu-ated from Kunitachi College of music (Note: A famous music college in Japan). So, I was thinking about music all the time. But I was playing rhythmic sport gymnastics for 6 years, dur-ing junior high school and high school. And I really enjoyed

and loved it. So actually, I was wondering which college togo to and what to focus on. May it be music or PE. But even when I was doing rhythmic sport gymnastics, I was interested in the music which was used in it. So, I felt I preferred musicthan gymnastics

J!-ENT I’VE READ THAT YOU LIVED IN NEW YORK DUR-ING THE TIME OF 9/11. HOW WAS THAT EXPERIENCE FOR YOU?AKKO: New York is full of vitality and everything goes fast but it slowed down on 9/11. It was very shocking to me. What I saw was the USA striking back as a counterattack, but I saw an antiwar campaign at Union Square and no one wanted a counterattack. Seeing those people who were near the damage but hoping for no counterattack and speaking of peace from Gandhi. I learned the importance of accepting everything, the big heart of those people and the strength of not to counterattack. I felt that was important for humans, so now I try to express that in my music.

J!-ENT: WHEN MY LITTLE LOVER RELEASED THE CD SINGLE “MAN AND WOMAN” AND ALSO YOUR FIRST ALBUM “EVERGREEN”, NOT ONLY DID IT BECOME A HIT IN JAPAN BUT YOU ALSO DEVELOPED A LARGE GROUP OF FANS IN AMERICA AND EUROPE. WERE YOU AWARE OF THE IMPACT OF YOUR MUSIC OUTSIDE OF JAPAN? [FOLLOW UP QUESTION]: WERE YOU AWARE THAT YOU HAD MANY FANS IN AMERICA?AKKO: When I was in NY, I was glad to see My Little Lover CD’s at Tower Record. Also, when I attended an English con-versation school, a Korean student asked me “Are you from My Little Lover?” I was surprised and felt so happy. I didn’t know I had fans outside of Japan. I might not have noticed it if I didn’t live in New York.

J!-ENT: WHAT I ENJOY ABOUT MY LITTLE LOVER IS “IN-NOVATION”. MADONNA IS KNOWN FOR EXPERIMENT-ING WITH DIFFERENT STYLES OF MUSIC AND IS CRED-ITED FOR INNOVATION. THE SAME WITH MY LITTLE LOVER WHICH HAS EXPERIMENTED WITH DIFFERENT STYLES OF MUSIC AND FANS ALSO COMMENT OF MY LITTLE LOVER’S “INNOVATION” AND “EXPERIMENTA-TION”. MANY BANDS IN JAPAN STAY WITH A CERTAIN STYLE, MY LITTLE LOVER IS ABLE TO DO DIFFERENT THINGS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?AKKO: We are a very free unit. Kobayashi always gives us many ideas and my voice is a little different and strange so that we could make different types of world, music. I enjoyed

IT HAS BEEN ON OF OUR DREAM INTERVIEWS TO ONE DAY INTERVIEW MY LITTLE LOVER. IN FEBRUARY 2007, WE WERE GIVEN THAT OPPORTUNITY TO INTERVIEW MY LITTLE LOVER’S AKKO AT AVEX HEADQUARTERS IN TOKYO FOR HER FIRST ENGLISH INTERVIEW.

MARCH 07 | J!-ENT 10

it very much. Not recently but basically Japanese are conserva-tive, so listeners like to listen to a certain world-view on aband. And they are waiting for it all the time. My Little Lover anticipated it but we betrayed it intentionally. Especially the gap between “Animal Life” and “Private Eyes” was very big and was the best I think. Especially you could see the gap through the music video (promotion video) of “Animal Life”and “Private Eyes”. In “Animal Life”, we made an all-female band wearing pink hairpieces and wearing the same costume, on the other hand in “Private Eyes”, we show the view of the techno world in Morocco. We could show several view of the world by encountering great art directors.

J!-ENT: LET’S NOW MOVE TO THE PRESENT AND TALK ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM “akko”. IT HAS BEEN OVER 2 YEARS SINCE THE LAST ALBUM RELEASE, A MOVE TO A NEW LABEL AND ALSO YOUR FIRST SOLO PROJECT. HOW WAS THAT EXPERIENCE?AKKO: At the beginning, I felt uneasy because all environ-ments changed. Kobayashi was not there, I had to write all lyrics and so on. But once I started to work, everything was interesting to me and I paused to realize how glad I was tobe with new staff at the studio. And the new idea that I really would like to do came up. I sometimes had a talk with Ko-bayashi and he played keyboard for the album but basically I was in control of everything and this time, everything was my responsibility. I really wanted to make a nice album and Ithink I could make it.

J!-ENT: Can you tell us your process of making music, espe-cially writing the lyricsAKKO: Now I have two children so I can’t go away from daily life. Therefore I always keep my antenna on. In other words, I always keep my heart open. To do so, something new comes into me naturally and suddenly. For example the idea and lyrics of the song “traveling with nature” came into me when Iwent hiking with my children in Hayama. I was talking about the meaning of insects; even small insects on why they live, food chain, everything is somehow connecting. At that time, some though came up to me and I wrote the song “traveling with nature”.

J!-ENT: IN THE TRACK “SHOWTIME” I NOTICED YOU COL-LABORATED WITH SINGER/SONGWRITER DAVID MEAD AND PRODUCER (MUSICIAN) BRAD JONES. THAT WAS A VERY COOL COLLABORATION AND THE SONG IS VERY AWESOME. HOW DID THAT COLLABORATION COME ABOUT? AKKO: I am a big fan of David Mead and I went to his live performance when I lived in NY and I asked him to make a song for My Little Lover. He accepted it with good grace and also Brad Jones arranged it too. A trial song was David’s voice, so I was very excited. I asked him to listen to my songs and from that inspiration I wanted him to make a song.

J!-ENT: IN EVERY J!-ENT INTERVIEW, WE GIVE THREE FANS A CHANCE TO ASK A QUESTION TO THEIR FAVORITE BAND. LET’S START OFF WITH OUR FIRST QUESTION.

“HI EVERYONE! I LOVE YOUR MUSIC AND I REALLY EN-JOY THE NEW ALBUM. I ENJOY EVERY SONG BUT MY FA-VORITE SONG ON THE ALBUM IS “RI BBON” BUT I LOVE THE SONG... “MAYOI NEKO”. I KEEP LISTENING TO IT OVER AND OVER AND I WAS WONDERING HOW THAT

SONG CAME ABOUT? - CYNTHIA D. LOS ANGELES, CAAKKO: I think this song, “mayoi-neko” is a good accent in the album. Regarding Mayoi-neko, there is a fat cat near my house. When I go out, I see him very often and I got some image and feeling from him. I usually make my song, lyrics at once and then fix it later.

“HI AKKO! HELLO MR. KOBAYASHI! I ENJOY LISTENING TO YOUR NEW ALBUMS AND MY FAVORITE TRACKS ON “AKKO” ARE “traveling with nature” and “SHOWTIME”. I ENJOY THE EXPERIMENTATION ON THIS ALBUM AND ALSO LIKE THE ALBUM “THE WATERS”. ANY CHANCE FOR ANOTHER EXPERIMENTAL ALBUM OR A REMIX ALBUM IN THE NEAR FUTURE? - FROM DAN H.., HONO-LOLU, HAWAII AKKO: I have no idea how to make a remix album because I think remix album never defeats an original album. So, I think I want to spend my time to make a new original album.

“HI AKKO! KOBAYASHI-SAN! WE LOVE YOU IN AMERI-CA! I HAVE BEEN A BIG FAN OF YOUR MUSIC SINCE THE CD SINGLE “HELLO, AGAIN” AND I’M SO EXCITED TO BUY YOUR NEW ALBUM “AKKO”. MY FAVORITE SONGS SO FAR ARE “TSUKI TO PURAMODEL”, “RI BBON”, “BUCK-ET”, “INSPIRATION” and... ACTUALLY I ENJOY ALL THE SONGS!!! BUT I WAS WONDERING WHICH SONG IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG ON THE ALBUM AND WHY? - SUSAN E., SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIAAKKO: It’s a difficult question but if I choose one now I choose “traveling with nature” because I love both lyrics and the music so much.

J!-ENT: IN MARCH, YOU WILL BE RELEASING YOUR NEW CD SINGLE “AFURERU”. CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THIS CD SINGLE.AKKO: Regarding this new CD single, Kobayashi produced it and you will see his world in this song. The word “AFURERU” (note: Means to overflow with emotion, joy, and sadness etc.)is repeated many times. And in this repetitive part I could ex-

The cover of My Little Lover’s new CD single “Afureru” (CD+DVD version). Image courtesy of Avex Entertainment, Inc.

J ! - E N T ’ S D E N N I S A . A M I T H & H I R O S H I TA G AWA I N T E R V I E W S M A XI N T E R V I E W AVA I L A B L E N O W O N J ! - E N T

press the strength of holding and accept-ing everything such as joy and sadness, etc. I would like everyone to listen to this new song.

J!-ENT: THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE A SINGER. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?AKKO: Music shows one’s heart directly so I want young people to learn music and enjoy. Do not forget this. Many people concentrate only to learn or to play but without fun and joy they can’t make good music. The most important thing is to relax, to take it easy and to enjoy music.

J!-ENT: LET’S GET TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU. IF WE WERE TO LOOK INTO YOUR CD OR MP3 PLAYER, WHAT ARTIST WOULD YOU BE LISTEN-ING TO?AKKO: “Indiana” by David Mead.

J!-ENT: IF YOU HAVE ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE MY LITTLE LOVER, WHAT WORD WOULD THAT BE AND WHY?AKKO: Essential goods because it’s my dearest music unit.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE Random Ninjas

A J!-ENT INTERVIEW BY EDWIN MACARAEG & DENNIS A. AMITHFEBRUARY 2007

www.j-entonline.com

J!-ENT: IN EVERY INTERVIEW WE HAVE A WORD PLAY WHERE I GIVE YOU FIVE WORDS, YOU GIVE ME YOUR DEFINITION OF THOSE WORDS.

1. EVERGREENAKKO: The sky in California because the recording of “Evergreen” was done in California.

2. SUCCESSAKKO: To have the power to accept.

3. HAPPINESSAKKO: Smile

4. CHILDRENAKKO: Interesting creatures

5. AP BANKAKKO: Ecology

J!-ENT: MANY OF YOUR FANS OUT-SIDE OF JAPAN WOULD LOVE TO SEE MY LITTLE LOVER PERFORM IN THEIR COUNTRY. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT PERFORMING IN ANOTHER COUNTRY?AKKO: That would be wonderful if I can

play in foreign countries. But since I have to take care of my children, I want to go in the future. I heard there are many nice live house, so I want to play there.

J!-ENT: WHAT FINAL WORDS WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEAVE WITH YOUR FANS?AKKO: I want to make more songs and want to do more collaborations with more artists in the US. And I want to grow up and enlarge my view of the world. I am very happy to hear that so many people listen to my songs outside of Japan, under the far away sky. Enjoy everything with everyone is my energy. I want to go forward with every fans and every staff with joy.

DENNIS A. AMITH is the founder/owner of J!-ENT and is an entertainment-writer-at-large.

HIROSHI TAGAWA is J!-ENT Chief of Operations in Japan

For more information on My Little Lover, visit their official website at: www.mylittlelover.co.jp

MARCH 07 | J!-ENT 12

ARE YOU READY FOR THE Random Ninjas

KIYOKIBA SHUNSUKEJ!-ENT’S WYNNE IP SPOTLIGHTS THE CAREER OF FORMER EXILE MEMBER & ROCK SINGER

NOW ON J!-ENT

www.j-entonline.com

grooveworldJ!-ENT

my little loverafureruAvex TraxAVCD-31192/B (CD+DVD), AVCD-31193 (CD only) | DURATION: 21:13RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2007

1. Afureru2. Koi no Day Job3. Afureru (Instrumental)4. Koi no Day Job (Instrumental)

DVD:Duration: 5:35, 4:3, Region 21. Afureru

A J!-ENT MUSIC REVIEW

My Little Lover returns with a new CD single “Afureru” which marks the return of My Little Lover band member (and Akko’s husband) Kobayashi Takeshi after being somewhat absent on the last CD single and album (note: he did play keyboards on a few tracks on Akko). Akko continues to be the songwriter for both tracks on the “Afureru” CD single. “Afureru” is another beautiful track that can be put into the same category of similar hits like “DESTINY”. It has that sound that My Little Lover is known for and if you are a fan of their work, you will love this song. When we interviewed Akko regarding “Afureru” this is what she had to say:

Regarding this new CD single, Kobayashi produced it and you will see his world in this song. The word “Afureru” (note: Means to overflow with emotion, joy, and sadness etc.) is repeated many times. And in this repetitive part I could express the strength of holding and accepting every-thing such as joy and sadness, etc. I would like everyone to listen to this new song.

It’s a very beautiful song and even the music video on the DVD reflects the title featuring a few women who are shown in tears and then crying and Akko singing the song. The second track on the CD single is “Koi no Day Job” and amazingly another song that takes you back to the style of My Little Lover’s music when they debut, which I love. Despit Kobayashi being absent from this track, it has the acoustic guitar playing and musical style of one of their early CD singles “Shiroi Kite” (sans the horns). All in all, “Afureru” is a solid CD single from My Little Lover. Both tracks are very cool and reminiscent of the style of MLL past. And if you enjoyed their songs back then, you will definitely enjoy this.

— DENNIS A. AMITH

<Overflowing with EmotionsMy Little Lover returns with a new Kobayashi produced CD single

HELLO, AGAIN...THE DEBUT AND MUST-HAVE ALBUM FOR MY LITTLE LOVER FANS

MY LITTLE LOVERevergreenToy’s Factory

TFCC-88070RELEASE DATE: December 5, 199510 tracks total

When My Little Lover first debuted, I have to admit that many of us who were fans of Mr. Children and Southern All Stars were curious about producer and musican, Kobayashi Takeshi’s latest ven-ture. Granted, it didn’t take us long to warm to the band because their first CD single “Man & Woman” was a big hit. And then song after song released was just great, including the coupling songs with the CD singles. Now when “Hello, Again” was re-leased, not only did the song stay on top of the charts, the song many music fans,

My Little Lover fans. “Evergreen” is the bands first album which fea-tures hits such as “Man & Woman”, “My Painting”, “Shiroi Kite” and “Hello, Again ~ Mukashi kara aru basho~”. Including the awesome coupling songs such as “Magic Time” and “Delicacy”. If you discovered My Little Lover just recently, if you haven’t already purchased it, we highly rec-ommend checking out their album “evergreen” or even their latest album “akko” (2-CD version) which features songs from “evergreen”.

MARCH 07 | J!-ENT 14