She has decided to pick out some of the more distinctive songs from YES!!! to write about, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading what she had to say – I’m sure it will be the same for you too!

About our volunteer reviewer

Nickname: Yo-Yo! (funbari) Location: Hong Kong, China Favourite BACK-ON song(s): CHAIN, HIKARI SASUHOU, sonomamade Other favourite artists: Avril Lavigne How did you find out about BACK-ON? Air Gear’s OP–CHAIN!! Mini Introduction: I love listening to music, playing guitar and reading manga (favourite manga: Shaman King & Air Gear). Due to my very low contribution on the forum as a member(~_~), I decided to write this review, and it’s a great experience! Website: Funbari Onsen

The Review:

For those who haven’t heard of any songs from BACK-ON, I think it’s not too difficult for them to fall in love with BACK-ON’s songs after listening to “YES!!!”.

In my view, BACK-ON is not at the extremities, even though their songs are mostly ROCK based, they’re neither a pure ROCK BAND, nor a POP BAND, nor even a Hip-Hop band, but something in between three of them.

This diversifies their songs’ types. And in this album, it’s quite obvious.

Here’s my review of some of the songs:

果てなき道へ[LA mix]
It’s a totally new song of BACK-ON. The lyrics are quite (or very!) ENCOURAGING, with a vivid beat, this is a lovely song I think. But it’s difficult for me to find a word to describe the intro though, I think it’s a little bit unmatched with the whole song, but a lively opening.

CHAIN [LA mix]
What’s the difference between the original CHAIN and the LA mixed CHAIN?
I think it is mainly the GUITAR, which has been re-volumed, and being emphasized especially in the intro and the bridge parts, which is made to sound really like the live version of CHAIN.

Besides, Kenji’s voice seemed to be masked a little bit by some special effects, which I think couldn’t bring out Kenji’s chorus part, and couldn’t deliver the feeling of “太陽をお呼び覚ます” as the original version did.

That’s why I like the original one better than this LA mix. But, this LA mix definitely has a stronger feeling of GUITAR.

color[LA mix] & Ashiato[LA mix]
These are songs of BAReeeeeeeeeeN in the single “Ashiato”, for those who don’t know BAReeeeeeeeeeN, it’s a Group(or BAND) with 10 members:

BACK-ON(5)+GReeeeN(4)+JIN(1).

I personally like the song, “color” more than “Ashiato” due to it’s very strong and fast drum beat, and together with its lyrics with a feeling of ‘going forward’, the 2 songs are both inspiriting.

For Ashiato, I love its ending, where GReeeeN and BACK-ON split the verse into two.

ヒカリサスホウ [NEW WORLD version]
This is one of my favourite songs! Compared with the other BACK-ON songs, this is one of the most “ROCK” songs, I think.

And I LOVE its intro, as it seems the sound is sliding into my left ear and into the right one!!

ヒカリサスホウhas 3 versions, here in YES!!! is the NEW WORLD version (same as that in the album “NEW WORLD”), another version is the very original version, which first appeared in the album “Survive”(which is an album of Airstrike / ピンクフラミンゴMG / BACK-ON). The other one, the FK metal version, appeared as the opening song of the anime OVA “Murder Princess”.

And I like this New world ver. most. For me, the oldest version has an intro that’s just a bit too long, and the FK metal ver. sadly, doesn’t have a longer version (yet…maybe?).

Finally, そのままで[NEW ver.]
The original version of this song is in the very first album(mini album) of BACK-ON, called “ADACHI TRIBE”. It is my favourite song from ADACHI TRIBE, as it was always very easy to relax while listening to the song.

The differences between this new ver. and the old one: first, it is the total reproduction of the instrumental track, which I think makes me more relaxed while listening to it~

And the second change is that they added the chorus part which doesn’t exist in the original version, I think this chorus makes the song more complete, and, perhaps more meaningful~

Seeing as the YES!!! EU Edition has recently been released in France, I hope this fan review and others will help people decide that the album is really worth buying. A huge thank you must go to funbari for kindly volunteering to write the review for us!

If you’re interested in reviewing one of BACK-ON‘s albums or singles, please get in touch! To rehash what we said last time, our aim is always to encourage as many people as possible to listen to BACK-ON‘s music, and by featuring different styles of reviews by fans, it will help promote their work to even more people. If you liked this review or any of the others,  please do let us know in the comments or on our Forums.

To give new readers a little background: several weeks ago, some Forum members kindly volunteered to share their thoughts about the album with us, and we featured our first fan review by Edward at the end of November, which has been read over 200 times since!

However, we did have more than one volunteer, and I am delighted to present our second ever fan review of YES!!! courtesy of Sesshy! She has picked several songs from the album to write about in her rather detailed review, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!

About our volunteer reviewer

Nickname: Sesshy Location: California, USA Favourite BACK-ON song(s): NEW WORLD, Chain, Sono Mama De (NEW ver.) Other favourite artists: UVERworld How did you find out about BACK-ON? By my boyfriend Mini Introduction: I’m a graphic designer for many things, even for BACK-ON’s Official street team. I’m a HUGE J-music fan. I believe Japanese makes very unique music, which makes me want to listen to over and over. I has have a big inspiration with Art and Music. Website: Evanescent Studios

The Review:

:::Back-ON YES!!! Review:::

Hate Naiki Michi E [LA Mix]: I really love this song. Especially the beginning when it sounds all hard rock like. The Chorus where Kenji sings is really good. It shows Kenji is getting much better at singing like always. I also notice that Kenji sing some parts in English and I actually understood it. TEEDA’s rapping is also awesome (what’s new?). Around 2:43, He does like some strong rapping voice, which I like! This might be my most favorite song in Back-On’s album.

flower [LA]: I’m a bit annoyed and a bit into it. I love flower, but however I notice they only changed the tone and sound to it, adding more beat to the song. Where Kenji raps in the song around 1:29, I like the “electronic” voice. I also hear more of Icchan’s drumming. However, I still prefer the original song over this. Also, I think Kenji sounds so different in this song. Also, I’ve notice the girl singing is different. But again, prefer the original song.

NEW WORLD: I really thought they were going to remix this song. I wanted to a nice remix, but then again, the song is awesome as it is. NEW WORLD is my most favorite song out of BACK-ON. Kenji’s singing, TEEDA’s rapping, Shu’s guitar, MACCHAN (or ICCHAN), Gori’s bass is all great. Nothing should be change in this song. So pretty much glad this one wasn’t remixed!

Sands of Time: I will always love the electronic voice of Kenji’s in the beginning. When I first heard this song, I was pretty much shaken up at the beginning. What is also good about this song, when I have the bass louder, makes great sounds out of my earphones or stereos. Around 2:00, Teeda was amazing there; sounds all robotic. I guess you can say I like that kind of effects in music. Excellent song.

Butterfly: There could be some changes on this song, even though this one was not remixed like most are. I did love the beat, reminded me some kind of action scene that would be played as a background song. There might be a bit “too” much noise that it kind of hurts your ears a bit unless it’s lowered. I do know all the lyrics to this song since I play BACK-ON a lot. I really like when Kenji says: “You’re my butterfly.” Chorus is well put, but I believe they can did a bit more work to it. Beat is excellent.

BLAZE LINE: I believe this song was defiantly made for the anime Eyeshield 21, which was played as the opening theme song. I did honestly laugh at the part when Teeda said something…a bit over PG-13 rated, haha. The rhythm with the guitars are really well done. Where Teeda starts rapping including the bass playing was like for people to come along and cheer. It can really be played for a football game; that’s I see this song for. Not my favorite song, but I really like it. BOOM, BOOM clap, BACK-ON!

DRIVE: I think I prefer the DRIVE(Shutoko REMIX) since it’s more jumpy. The beat and rhythm is well done, but I think they could make more rock-ish type. To me, it’s calm, something that would be just a chill song, so probably wouldn’t be something to jump with. I didn’t really like how Kenji sang, I guess it kind of annoyed me.

a day dreaming: I believe this song is to be the most calmest song out of their discography. I wasn’t feeling much too this song. I guess it’s…too calm, I guess I can put it that way. I did like the guitar rhythm. Kenji did well singing the chorus, but Teeda could do better with his as well. I know he can sing.

Sono Mama De [NEW ver.]: Indeed I love the new version than the original song. Has more beat, more addings to it. If you compare the old one to the new one, it is such a big improvement and shows how much they HAVE indeed improved. The old version was like some random singing along they made, but this new one is much better to listen and sing along than being just: “random.” Part when they say: “La la laaa” was AWESOME. It gave me chills, but in a good way. Perfect way to end the song, leave you chills.

Hikari Sasuhou [NEW WORLD ver.]: I actually thought they were going to add that one version since it’s not in any official release, but guess not. I believe I prefer the survive version, since it’s more rock-ish, but that’s my taste. I did love how the guitar was played throughout the song. Kenji’s long pause singing was pretty good while Teeda goes out on his rapping. Good song, but the other version is much preferred to me.

Chain [LA mix]: This was a bit unexpected to me because it didn’t sound much like the, what I called, the best Chain live ever. I can tell the different drum beat, which was nice. You can also tell this has more beat and the guitar is more “quiet.” I guess you can call it the pop-side of Chain. Yeah, I see it more pop-ish. Do like that sound that goes: “pash. pash. pash-pash-pash, pash.”

FLYDOM: Pretty much an old, but good punkish song. I can say this song was their beginning and obivously can tell comparing to their newer songs. I can’t imagine a mix of this song, and maybe they have. Though, it’s a fun song, even though they have the “Engrish” parts in it. Fwedom,

color [LA mix]: I love this song, but I don’t really see any much difference like the original. I love the parts when you hear them all techno-y when they go: “I’m going down down down” (I think or “Don’t let me down down down” Haven’t read the lyrics). The guitar delay is really cool. I believe to love this song more than Ashiato.

Ashiato [LA mix]: Again, don’t see a lot of difference than the original song. Ashiato, is a amazing song that goes right between GReeeeN and BACK-ON. Has the mix of both, which is awesome. I hope to see more band combination such as this. The chorus is amazing. I love the part when Teeda spells: “BAReeeeeeeeeeN.” One of my favorite songs.

I would like to say a big thank you to Sesshy for her review and for taking the time to evaluate the album and write a review for us. As we have said before, our aim is to encourage as many people as possible to listen to BACK-ON‘s music, and again, we hope that featuring different styles of reviews is one of the right steps forward to promote their work to others! Please let us know what you think in the comments or on our Forums. :)

About our volunteer reviewer
	Nickname: Edward Location: CA Favourite BACK-ON song(s): Rain, Hate Naki Michi E, Chain, Flower, Blaze line Other favourite artists: Uver-world How did you find out about BACK-ON? I first heard their song in Air gear Mini Introduction: I am fourteen years old and I live in Maple Ridge Canada. i am a major BACK-ON fan and I am from Taiwan

The Review:

BACK-ON’s new album, “Yes!!!” is a great collection of their best selling hits like Flower, Sands of time, Blaze line and Chain. I personally like how BACK-ON’s music contains a huge variety of music with a lot of different backgrounds.

From the holy church of “Hate Naki Michi E” to the foot-ball field in “Blaze line” and the tempo ranging from soft rock to hard rocks and rap. The new L.A. mixes have more background sounds and have more echoes.

My favorite re-mix is the one for “Flower” because the background noises, reverbs and echoes work a lot better than the original and the only bad thing abut it is that the violin’s sound has been changed.

I really like how BACK-ON uses a lot of different instruments and how a lot of their songs have deep meanings behind them. Overall this album is majorly awesome and is a must have, I feel lucky to have been chosen to write this review.

Hope you enjoyed reading Edward‘s review! A big thank you to him for taking the time to evaluate their album and send us his thoughts. Our aim is to encourage as many people as possible to listen to BACK-ON‘s music, and hopefully featuring different styles of reviews is one of the right steps to promote their work to others! Please let us know what you think in the comments or on our Forums. :)

p/s: You can now listen to the new songs from YES!!! in full by visiting our Music page and scrolling to the bottom for the player. Unfortunately the latest Flash update has meant that the player currently does not work in Firefox (as far as I know) but does work in Internet Explorer.