@hogradish: If you read my initial comment after listening to the full album, I was a little disappointed that it was so similar to their other stuff, down to individual songs!

I don't think the problem is that they're trying to "move forward". Moving forward doesn't mean just adding a bunch of electronic effects to your songs. Again, none of this is really new for them, so it's not like they're experimenting or pushing in different directions. I... kinda wish they were doing that! I'd love to hear something from them that I've really never heard before. (Something like "Heaven na Kibun" on Yellow was a song like I'd never heard from them before - that was moving forward!) But "Tonight" especially, and also a few other songs on KFTD, are like other songs they've done in the past that I also haven't liked. So, not new, and their "newness" is certainly not why I don't like them... it's just not their best side. It's a common straw man argument in music to say people don't like stuff because it's new; that's just not what this is about.

All that said, I do want to reiterate that I don't dislike the album or anything. It's not my favorite Scandal album, but that's like saying chocolate isn't my favorite ice cream flavor or puppies aren't my favorite baby animal. All their albums are great, and I'd take any of them over anything from most other bands. But they've got 9 studio albums now (not including Encore Show, which is certainly a full album's worth of songs not on other albums), and I'd have to put KFTD in the bottom half, unfortunately.

Hello, spacecadet,
I'm sorry, but I didn't read your post. I just plopped my opinion down in what I thought was the appropriate thread. Since I didn't read the preceding posts, and since I'm quite new as a Scandal fan, I'm afraid it wasn't a very informed opinion.

Tonight has really grown on me a lot. I enjoyed it already from the start, but now I can't get it out of my head. I keep whistling the melody all the time when I'm doing other things at home.

It's a really catchy tune.

It may be true that there's nothing actually new, but this album is a mix of all their previous styles. Definitely their maturity album. And that's why it doesn't have a central theme. Nothing to care about that.

Only one thing is disappointing for me: there's no song sung by Mami

So I was checking the weekly Oricon Chart and I think I'm not understanding it

This URL says that KFTD ranked at #6 with 18 615 copies sold, but if you check the album information, it says that rank is #5 with 17 146 copies sold (you can click the #5 and it will take you to this URL)

If KFTD ranked at #6, I think this will be the first time ever where a "main" SCANDAL album doesn't rank on top 5 right?

victor_survive wrote:So I was checking the weekly Oricon Chart and I think I'm not understanding it

The album did in fact debut at ＃5 on the Oricon "Weekly Album Ranking" chart.

This page you linked to is the "Weekly Combined Ranking" chart which combines the physical sales and digital sales + streaming on paid sites and ranks releases based on points (read more about that here). KFTD debuted at ＃6 on this chart.

This page you linked to is simply the main "Weekly Album Ranking" chart that lists the combined sales of physical and digital sales + paid streaming. This goes by sales numbers and not points. Therefore, this chart is more important overall. KFTD debuted at ＃5 on this chart.

So yeah, it debuted on the "Weekly Album Ranking" chart at ＃5 with 17,146 copies sold for the week of February 10-16. That does mean that all nine of SCANDAL's original albums so far have in fact continued to rank within the top 5 spots of the Weekly Album Ranking chart!

My CD finally arrived today. After the first listen, I am enjoying the album. It flows a lot better than I thought it would, considering how different all of the singles sound. It's not as good as "Honey", but KFTD is still a great album. BTW, it was a fun surprise hearing Tomo and Mami rapping simultaneously on "You Go Girl!".

Thank you again, thoseguiltyeyes. You're like a priest or something, bringing the word to the masses.

Vinyl LPs have been shipped:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9SykUAj_fY/

Nice collage in this middle of this gatefold double LP

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9S4FBND9Tq/

Thanks for the translation summary. Makes watching the DVD more involving

Thank you very much for the summary!!  .hail.

It may be a completely crazy idea ... but as the band already knows "Scandal Heaven" and because this is the only worldwide fans site, do you think it would be possible to get a little interview with Scandal (or at least with one of them... maybe Rina)? The members of the forum could select 3 or 4 questions (maybe more), you send the translated questions by email to the management and then you translate the answers of this exclusive interview?

izzy wrote:It may be a completely crazy idea ... but as the band already knows "Scandal Heaven" and because this is the only worldwide fans site, do you think it would be possible to get a little interview with Scandal (or at least with one of them... maybe Rina)? The members of the forum could select 3 or 4 questions (maybe more), you send the translated questions by email to the management and then you translate the answers of this exclusive interview?

We've already done exactly that

https://www.scandal-heaven.com/t12292-scandal-heaven-s-exclusive-interview-with-scandal#728335

At 34:35 Tomomi drives by Tokyu Plaza Omotesando, heading roughly northeast. Victor Studio is up that way. Well, there's a lot of stuff up that way, it's Tokyo.
Thank you for the summary!

A.M.D.K.J. at the official YouTube channel reached a 1 million views!! 

around 5,200,000 total YouTube views now for the six videos from this album
should be 500 million...

Meph1766 wrote:A.M.D.K.J. at the official YouTube channel reached a 1 million views!! 

1k from those are mine  .cool.


Congrats to the girls!

What about the album sales?

ELFLOCK wrote:I suppose this will probably be an unpopular opinion but to be honest I think they've actually been doing themselves a LITTLE BIT of a disservice by relying too much on Mami to write pretty much all the music the last couple of years. 

One thing that I don't get is what's happened to Haruna's voice...I know people are talking about 'Autotune' a lot...whatever,there's nothing wrong with a few vocal 'effects' as we used to call them

Agree. The Mami/Rina combo sometimes seem like hit or miss? It gave us great songs like Onegai Navigation and AMDKJ, but others like Fuzzy and Koisuru Universe even though they are nice they feel like there's room for improvement. Since Haruna and Tomomi have show the songs they wrote on KFTD are also nice, hope they continue.

Also agree it's ok to use voice effects. Voice is instrument just like guitar, the girls should feel free to experiment.

as for KFTD album.. I am more recent Scandal fan (last few years only) and personally like this album very much. Songs have variety and the order of the songs is also nice (e.g. having Laundry and Tsuki in the middle and end is a nice break from their "louder" songs). They make 6 MV for 12 songs also shows they are going all out for themselves and their fans, make me want to support them even more even though their concert postponed in my country.  .love.

After listening to KTFD over and over, I became more disappointed. Sure, it's much better and less "sexualized" than Honey (because of its redundant pop-punk melodies) but it has the feel more of a compilation album than a studio album. It has no central theme and too many musical subgenres which makes it more confusing. However, I love Mabataki, AMDKJ, and Neon City Escape.

Anyway, please bear with my unpopular opinion. The Mami-Rina songwriting combo is becoming more underwhelming for the past two to three years. They’re focusing too much on experimenting with “new music” rather than writing songs with effective hooks which we sorely miss. I'm sorry but their songwriting style has constantly lost its direction. In my opinion, Haruna seems to be the best yet the most underutilized songwriter in the band.

Is there any information about the release of KFTD band score?  

MamiNoodles wrote:It has no central theme and too many musical subgenres which makes it more confusing. 

guess this depends on perspective too. the band has said in multiple interviews that the album theme was to reflect who they are in their daily lives... which means the songs cover a variety of different emotional phases / life experiences they went through and tap on a variety of music genres to express them.

so while i do agree that sound-wise there appears to be no theme, i think the band's message to fans is the clearest it's been in years -- that they're humans just like us with ups and downs and different facets. not everything is shiny/happy like in Yellow, or manufactured j-pop like their earliest albums.

it is not easy balancing what they want vs what fans want, but i'm sure they know that at every phase of their career they will lose old fans and gain new fans, and they are fine with it. they seem much happier now than before their "her" label, so as a fan i'm happy for them too, even though i too do have preferences for what their music could sound like  

I never really cared whether albums have specific themes but I like that they're writing and producing music that they themselves have more control and say in and reflects feelings more personal to them now. I relly enjoyed kftd

dchan419 wrote:I never really cared whether albums have specific themes 

same opinion here! I enjoy variety of sub-genres, makes the album more fun to listen. I listened some albums from other bands that sounds all the same, and it's like one 40-minute song. I prefer that each song has its own identity, kftd is very solid for that reason

I honestly like albums to have a central theme, it makes them stands out from other albums, like Yellow, it's a very diverse album but it has a central theme, same with Honey and Qat.  KFTD, has a lot of good songs, but most of the songs sounds like something from other albums, but I feel like each song has it's own theme that compliments one another. 

Ironically though, my fav album is STANDARD and that doesn't have a central theme soo... :v

As for the Rina/Mami song writing thing, honestly if Mami and Rina wouldn't be writing, we'll be getting songs once every 1 year lol. Haruna just wrote her first song in like 5 years, and Tomomi, (while getting back in the game) is still not writing very much. It's just that Mami and Rina has more creative juices flowing and more influences, but I agree some songs can be a little lackluster.