Fujii Kaze performs “Mo-Eh-Yo” on his national tour + news on the new album

Fujii Kaze finally managed to embark upon and complete his long awaited national tour, where he performed his 2021 single “Mo-Eh-Yo”. We got live vocals. We got some head whipping. We got a bit of choreo. We got a keytar solo. Kaze was showing people that the showmanship is PRESENT.

COVID has thrown, and continues to throw a lot of shit into disarray. But the impact it’s had on singles releases and promo in Japan had been interesting to say the least, because it’s forced artists and labels to be more reactive, which means the singles are releasing digitally before there is even a music video, and that it’s lengthening the time of which the singles are promoted.

I think wholeheartedly that “Mo-Eh-Yo” released earlier than was planned, with the song receiving its debut during Kaze’s livestream gig in September, which we wouldn’t have gotten had it not been for the pandemic. Because of “Mo-Eh-Yo” having a promotional tie in with Google’s Pixel 6, we never got the music video until the marketing for the phone kicked off, which was in late October / early November. And now here’s Kaze further promoting the song with the release of a live performance. It’s very unorthodox for J-pop, but I like it. If only albums got these extended promo cycles. Although with digital releases of albums hitting weeks before physical potentially becoming a thing, we could see this happening already.

Kaze had teased in an Instagram post in January that a second album was coming, and he did not lie. Kaze’s follow up to his debut Help Ever Hurt Never will drop on March 23rd release date, and is titled Love All Serve All. I’ve liked all of the singles we’ve gotten post Help Ever Hurt Never, and they all share a similar kind of vibe which is probably indicative of how the album will sound. The only anomaly sonically is “Hedemo Ne-Yo”, which sounds like an offcut from Help Ever Hurt Never, compared to “Seishun Sick”, “Tabiji”, “Kirari” and “Mo-Eh-Yo”. As I post this, the tracklist hasn’t yet been faxed out. So we don’t know if all of these songs will feature on the album, but it’s really fucking likely that they will. Although I do think the jury is out on “Hedemo Ne-Yo”.

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🎤 Live show review: "Free" Live 2021: Kaze's refusal to pretend that life isn't strange right now
💿 Album reviews: Help Ever Hurt Never | Help Ever Hurt Cover