Album Review: Fujii Kaze - Love All Serve All

Fujii Kaze’s second studio album, Love All Serve All is Help Ever Hurt Never 1.5 or 2.0. This may seem like a backhanded compliment, or not sound like the most exciting thing. It certainly sounds like it’s underselling the album, but it speaks to what this album is. And I can’t stress enough how this is not a bad thing. It’s actually quite remarkable how much growth Kaze displays on this album, given that there is barely 2 years between it and his first, and the flow of music was pretty steady between the two. But at some point between Help Ever Hurt Never and Love All Serve All, something in Kaze changed; because his whole approach to the music is noticeably different.

Love All Serve All is an album where Kaze makes very firm decisions about the kind of artist he wants to be, but also how he wants to be seen.

With Help Ever Hurt Never, Kaze wasn’t trying to be anything in particular. He seemed grateful to be able to make music and share it with the world in a format other than just him sat at his Yamaha keyboard in a wig on YouTube. I also get the sense that Kaze had no real goal with how he wanted the album to sound, the kind of pop star persona he wanted to be, any of it. With Love All Serve All, there is a clear sense of Kaze being very aware of how he wanted this album to sound, how he wanted to package himself, and the type of pop star he wants to be seen as. “Kirari” and “Matsuri” are the two songs on the album that I think best encapsulate Love All Serve All and Kaze’s newfound vision and approach. They’re bright and fun. They’re freeing. They’re not catering to trends. They are very succinct representations of Kaze, or at least sides of Kaze, based on what we know and have seen of him. And this is what makes Kaze such an interesting artist. Not only does he have a clear vision for his sound, but he’s also not afraid to share so much of himself along with it.

One of the things I enjoy most about Kaze through his music and social media, is that he seems so free and unapologetically himself. There’s no façade with Kaze. There’s no rulebook that he’s playing by. He is fully comfortable in who he is and his artistry. Even if some of the things he says, does and sings about aren’t deemed ‘cool’ by those in the know.

Kaze is the type of artist who wears his heart on his sleeve. What you see a lot of the time is what you get. And oftentimes everything that Kaze does is very literal, even to the point that the covers for his albums say alot about the albums themselves. Help Ever Hurt Never being in black and white, with Kaze not smiling and hair completely dishevelled speaks a lot about the vibe of the album. Help Ever Hurt Never was a pretty sombre affair, with Kaze navigating what seemed like depression. And then there’s Love All Serve All. Featuring Kaze in full colour, with his hair looking less wild and a big smile. And this is an album which has a far brighter sound. Kaze isn’t always saying ‘LIFE IS GREAT’. But he has a shifted perspective in terms of how he sees the world. Help Ever Hurt Never sees the glass half empty, whilst Love All Serve All sees the glass half full.

A theme which seemed to go across the music and the videos of Help Ever Hurt Never was angst and an unwillingness to let go of the past. Where-as with Love All Serve All, the theme seems to be living in the present and trying not to fixate on the uncertainty of the future. And two recurring themes which are often woven into this narrative is that of faith and togetherness. On social media, Kaze often signs off with God bless. And during some gigs, sometimes he may just walk for a minute and talk about how grateful he is for God. He may even just pray. The music video for “Nan-Nan” has religious undertones. The song he wrote for Misia in 2021 “Higher Love” is basically a gospel song. Kaze is a church girl. And with Kaze’s 2021 “Free” live gig, and also his 2022 Alone at Home tour, of course a theme of some of these songs would also be togetherness. Reminding yourself that even if you feel alone, you are never truly alone in a world of 8 billion people, all living on this diseased rock, under this polluted ass sky. And with NASA showing us the James Webb Space Telescope photo of the universe and how truly fucking vast it is; we ain’t ALONE alone, or ALONE ALONE.

Fujii Kaze - Love All Serve All | HEHN Records, Universal Music

Faith and keeping a sense of togetherness via technology are probably high on the list of things that got many people through 2020, and is continuing to see them / us through even now; when many of us are still living lives in semi-isolation as a result of either COVID or one of its homegirls. So there’s something comforting about hearing somebody sing songs about these things, and how they are part of their coping mechanisms. This music pop star shit aside, Kaze is still just a person trying to make it through life and make sense of it all. That’s what unites us all. It’s something we all have in common. We’re all just trying to make it, and hold onto the things that we feel will help us do that. 

But Kaze isn’t afraid to put his hands up and say ‘Yo, life be doo-doo sometimes’. “Hedemo Ne-Yo” is a song about just being done with people. “Damn” is a song about just being done with everything. “Lonely Rhapsody” is about realising that you’re alone together with other people who are alone, and just allowing yourself to feel like shit without judgement. These feelings are a part of life. But there’s still brightness in these songs, in that the underlying message in each of them is that the fuckery will pass and we won’t always feel like utter shit. Big Bad Mode energy. Non permanence is also another big theme of this album. Remembering that bad times will pass, but also that good times aren’t forever. So, to always make great memories, which in turn will carry you through the darkness. It’s all a cycle. Something which is coolly alluded to, kind of, in the bridge of “Damn”, where Kaze self-samples and interpolates “Kirari” and “Mo-Eh-Yo”.

Kaze himself was so adamant to have this album sound bright and uplifting, that he had “Hedemo Ne-Yo” be rearranged to sound brighter than the single version, flipping the song from ‘THESE PEOPLE GET ON MY FUCKING NERVES, FUCK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM’ to ‘Ugh. *Shrugs*. They’re annoying. But, whatever. So, where he going for lunch?’. That’s how committed Kaze is for this album to not make us all feel like shit.

Something else that comes through in this album is Kaze’s sensuality. Not necessarily in the sexual sense. There’s no clear fuck song on this album, unless you wanna completely change the meaning of “Garden” to mean that Kaze will treasure memories of your pussy until the day he dies. But there is just this sensuality that comes through in some of these songs; especially in the slower numbers like “Garden”. But then also in songs like “Damn” where Kaze just sounds like a badass. He’s singing with his feelings and his heart through each song. This is something which comes through a lot more on the companion cover album Love All Cover All.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kaze for giving us AN ALBUM. Despite singles from as early as 2020 featuring on Love All Serve All, everything sits together as a top to bottom album and a body of work. The only thing I would change is “Bye For Now”. This song is two songs from the end of the album, yet sounds like it should be closing it out. It’s just not the type of song you slap two songs after. But also, “Bye For Now” just doesn’t fit the album. It’s far too slow, and has a sound, vibe and energy which is at odds with every other song on Love All Serve All. But worse, is that it just grinds the entire album to a halt when it hits. “Bye For Now” is a really good song, and shows that Kaze could be a go to for any movie or anime that needs a nice, slow, borderline depressing ending theme song. But this album wasn’t the place for it. It either should have been reworked or just left off. Having Love All Serve All be a tight 10 track album would have been absolutely fine.

As was the case with Help Ever Hurt Never, Love All Serve All features stellar production, courtesy of Kaze’s partner in crime Yaffle. He’s an amazingly talented producer who has been racking up production credits in J-pop for the past 3 years; but not everything he ends up producing tends to really hit. And it doesn’t help that he doesn’t have a signature sound in the same way that some other producers do. But when it comes to Kaze’s shit, Yaffle continually flexes his musicianship and production skills, and knocks shit out of the park. Kaze is pretty fearless musically and has such a broad palette, so Yaffle probably never feels compelled to stay locked into a particular style, even though he has helped create what could be considered a Kaze sound. Yaffle and Kaze make a great team, and they could honestly go anywhere and do anything musically at this point.

Love All Serve All is another solid offering from Kaze Fujii, who has once again let us know that he is one to watch with a talent that will carry him all the way. Japanese music has seen a really cool influx of newer talent who manage to straddle the line between old and new, traditional and non-traditional; and Kaze is one of those talents. There’s everything here for local Japanese music listeners to latch onto, but there is also clear appeal for Western audiences too. But the thing is, Kaze is not even trying to have Love All Serve All be this perfect balance or represent any form of intersection. This album is just a reflection of who Kaze is, the music he’s into and his influences. And it just happens to be that he is talented enough and in good enough company with Yaffle to translate these things into good, memorable, digestible songs with a wide appeal.

Kaze truly did serve.

Verdict: Pixel 6

Highlights:
▪ Kirari
▪ Matsuri 🔥
▪ Hedemo Ne-Yo (Love All Serve All edit) 🔥
▪ Yaba
▪ Mo-Eh-Yo
▪ Garden 🏆
▪ Damn 🔥
▪ Lonely Rapsody 🔥
▪ Seishun Sick
▪ Tabiji