Fujii Kaze announces his third studio album, Prema

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Fujii Kaze has announced a new album. It’s been 3 years since Love All Serve All. And we’ve had 6 singles since then. But what features — or doesn’t feature — is certainly a surprise, because it’s an album of all new material. And there’s more. It’s an English language album.

Fujii Kaze - Prema | HEHN Records / Universal

Now, if you buy the limited edition version of Prema, it does come with a second disc which features “Grace”, “Workinʼ Hard”, “Hana”, “Michi Teyu Ku (Overflowing)”, “Feelinʼ Go(o)d”, and “Masshiro (Pure White)”. I personally think that a Summer re-release of Love All Serve All would have made more sense, because these songs felt like extensions of that album. But I do get the decision here to pack them onto a new album. I don’t think it’s a bad choice. I just think creatively, packaging those songs under Love All Serve All makes more sense to me.

Casket Girl
I Need U Back
Hachikō
Love Like This
Prema
It Ain’t Over
You
Okay, Goodbye
Forever Young

Despite being in English, Prema is fully regarded as Fujii Kaze’s third studio album. But Prema is a very different title for a Fujii Kaze album format wise. However, Prema is a sanskrit word for love. And Help Ever Hurt Never and Love All Serve All are pulled from a quote from Sathya Sai Baba — a famed (and controversial) figure who practised Hinduism. So the album title is consistent thematically. Although the album cover is definitely a visual deviation from Help Ever Hurt Never and Love All Serve All.

But ponderings over ‘differentiation’ aside — Kaze’s Japanese and English albums will be existing under the same artist name as one discography. The only difference is that Prema will be released through Republic Records outside of Japan. But Republic Records is owned by Universal, who Fujii’s albums release under anyway.

As both a Fujii Kaze fan and a Hikaru Utada fan, it’s nice to look at this and feel that lessons were learned from the horrid handling of Hikaru Utada’s English language albums. Because even back when that shit was first happening, many of us fans knew it was foolishness that made no sense.

Kaze has always recorded and put out music in both languages from the start of his career. And there has been no real separation of the sounds. With Hikaru Utada, their English language releases had a very different vibe to their Japanese releases, and it was only with their album Bad Mode in 2022 that we got a proper consolidation of the two. But the way in which Hikaru’s English language releases were treated and approached was an absolute mess. It seemed like the Utada releases were targeted to a whole different audience, which I think was a mistake. Exodus has aged really well, but I still don’t think it was a particularly marketable album for an artist like Hikaru Utada — who I imagine Def Jam signed with the expectation that they would parallel the commercial success they had in Japan. The quality of the music across the Utada releases was a shambles. Exodus was quirky — as Hikaru’s music always has been — but it lacked polish and a more commercial sound. A couple of Timbaland productions was not enough to cut it. This Is the One had a more commercial sound for North America, but it came too late. There was nothing about it to make it stand out at a time when everybody done worked with Stargate and Tricky Stewart and radio was over saturated with their productions. Hikaru sounded like every other pop girl on the radio.

All this to say, that it’s nice to see that Prema is being treated like just another Fujii Kaze album, and not some exception which needs to be separated from his other releases.

The lead single from Prema, “Hachiko” is a really cool song and has made me sit up in a way none of Kaze’s singles over the past year has. So I am really excited for this new album. It’s just a shame that it only features 9 songs. Like, gurl. You couldn’t have just rustled up another three songs!? But I guess the inclusion of the singles he’s released over the past couple of years makes up for that. And in this regard, Prema really is being treated like just another Japanese release.

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🎤 Performances: “Free” Live 2021 | “Me-Eh-Yo” on the Help Ever Arena Tour | Tiny Desk | Feelin’ Good

💿 Album Reviews: Help Ever Hurt Never | Help Ever Hurt Cover | Love All Serve All