#579 Band Theory 109 | Ryuichi Kawamura

This time, I will talk about LUNA SEA's frontman, RYUICHI, now known as Ryuichi Kawamura. Back in 1997, when I was in my second year of junior high, the Ryuichi Kawamura boom was incredible.

Ryuichi Kawamura's solo debut

After LUNA SEA released STYLE in 1996, they announced a one-year hiatus to level up. Then, each member pursued solo activities before reuniting in 1998 to release
SHINE. The strongest band goes off for a year of training and then gathers again... We who lived through that in real-time were
excited by this development.

And among them, the one who kicked things off with a solo debut was RYUICHI.

"I was searching for you, ooh ooh ooh"

At first, seeing RYUICHI singing with all his might on TV, I thought, "Ry, RYUICHI...", but before I knew it, everyone was hooked, I was hooked, and in the end, his solo album sold 2.8 million copies, setting the all-time sales record for a male solo artist's album in Japan, a record that remains unbroken to this day—a monster achievement. He also made his acting debut, appeared on Kohaku, and had a romance with Yasuko Matsuyuki; it was just a wild year in 1997.

I thought he wouldn't return to LUNA SEA, but it's admirable that he actually did. By the way, it's said that when
J saw him singing I LOVE YOU, he made fun of him, saying, "What is that guy doing? lol"

The malicious copypasta about this album also became popular, lol.

Top 10 Ryuichi Kawamura songs you should listen to

10th place: Glass

I believe this is the song that made Ryuichi Kawamura a breakout star. This 2nd single, "Glass," is read as 'glass,' and it means glass. It's a

heartbreak love song that depicts a painful heart, comparing the chest wounded by heartbreak to glass. The point worth mentioning about this song is the "Your voice-"
WOOOOOOO!!" scream where he uses vibrato. It was truly popular.

9th place: evolution

Seriously, this album, LOVE, had singles and provided songs, and it sold like crazy, but this song was unique and stood out a bit, which was nice.

The copypasta mentioned earlier says something like this, which makes me laugh a little... lol

8th Place: LOVE

This is the title track of the album. By the way, in this album titled "LOVE," out of the 16 tracks included,
there are 4 songs with LOVE in the title,so it's quite a heavy push for LOVE, but this song was actually provided by Takamizawa-san from The Alfee. The lyrics are surprisingly dark and heavy.

7th Place: Namida-iro (Tear Color)

This is a self-cover of a song provided to Noriko Sakai, also known asNori-P,who later became a suspect. It's a super pop song that people sometimes say hinted at Nori-P's later tragic incident, and sometimes don't, but regardless, when Ryuichi Kawamura sings it, it inevitably becomes
the Kawamura World,that kind of song.

6th Place: Julia

This song came out after LUNA SEA disbanded, and as you can see from this music video, it's a super upbeat song. It's likely an expression of his determination to cast aside his previous RYUICHI image and say,
I'm going to do this solo now! Jojo!

5th Place: LOVE SONG

When this album "LOVE" was a hit, among the non-single tracks, this song wasthe most popular among people around me.It really is a good song. It's a simple track, but it has something that really grabs you. It's a masterpiece.

4th Place: SE, TSU, NA

And personally, this was my favorite song on the album. It's "SE, TSU, NA" (Momentary). It's a fast-paced song, and
the melody line is also wonderful.

3rd Place: I Love You

And the first single is this song, "I LOVE YOU." When you say "I LOVE YOU," you think of
Yutaka Ozaki,so it takes a lot of resolve to debut as a solo artist with this song title, but it's just like him to take on the challenge head-on. At first, the
"uh-huh-huh"was a bit hard to accept, but I remember that before I knew it, I was actually quite hooked on it, haha. It's a masterpiece that brings back memories of that time.

2nd Place: BEAT

This song was also a big hit... This long-haired Ryuichi Kawamura was a surfer, and he was riding the waves of society to the fullest. Everyone and their mother was into Ryuichi Kawamura back then. I heard the chorus of this song,

"Iro-asenai Memorieeees! URYYYYYYY!"everywhere, from cable radio to parodies.

1st Place: Love Is...

And, as expected, this is the song I like the most. I truly think it is a great song.
The piano is beautiful, and I also like the English lyrics.
And above all,the melody is poignant, and the structure of just having the chorus and the verse connecting to the chorus is simple and beautiful.
It was released as a sort of lead single for the album, so it ended up being buried, but I think it is a song that deserves much higher acclaim.
Listening to this really makes me time-slip back to 1997...

Summary

I like RYUICHI from LUNA SEA, but Ryuichi Kawamura, who debuted that year, also remains in my memory in that same way, but!
It was ironic that he sold so well as a solo artist that the image of "Ryuichi Kawamura the solo artist" and "Ryuichi Kawamura who sold 2.8 million copies as a solo artist"ended up clinging to LUNA SEA from then on...

Anyway, to sum it up, it really feels like 1997 was truly the year of Ryuichi Kawamura.