Golden Bomber - 101 Kaime no Noroi

It’s no surprise that air-band Golden Bomber is incredibly popular. The four are very crafty performers who always have an extra joke up their sleeves and are able to use their status as an “air-band” to appeal to a wide age-range of fans. Despite still being indie—and a visual kei band at that—the four have successfully held long running national tours each year for the past couple of years. Last year, Golden Bomber performed a sold out national tour that took them across all 47 prefectures in Japan and are set to do it all again in 2014.

For what seems like an eternity—or at least since the release of Dance My Generation the previous year—Golden Bomber fans across the globe have been eager for a new release. While there’s much excitement for 101 Kaime no Noroi, there’s an air of seriousness to this new release.

The title track, 101 Kaime no Noroi (101st Curse), highlights Kirishou's voice. Perhaps his throat and voice problems have resided. The melody sounds like a typical Golden Bomber but with a drop of something fresh. 101 Kaime no Noroi is definitely a song to play more than once.

The B-side Ano Subarashii Asa wo Mou ichido is oddly bright, but the backing track is very cute. What makes it shine, however, is the PV where the members are recording in a studio. It depicts the members as actual musicians and brings into question that they likely have been “real” musicians all along.

The exception to all this seriousness is It’s a Gay World. The track makes light of all of Golden Bomber’s queer tones to their skits in the middle of their lives, where Kirishou and Kyan almost always play two male lovers who end up falling for each other but struggle to confess. The result is always “L-l-let’s get married!” Continuing with this theme in mind, It’s a Gay World (from Honto ni Zenkoku Tour Hadaka no Ousama) is a little campy and hilarious but beautiful. In the skit, Kyan plays a young prince who is searching for his destined one. He stumbles upon a beautiful princess (Jun) in the forest. Stunned by her beauty, he immediately thinks they are fated to be together. Meanwhile, another young man who hides away in a bear costume (Kirishou) sees the prince by chance and falls in love at first sight but has no courage to confess. A conflict arises when a stranger (Kenji) catches the princess’ affections, and after a dodgy situation, the prince and princess don't get a "happily-ever-after" fairytale ending. Without a doubt, the best part of It’s a Gay World is that all four members sing, not just Kirishou. Kenji sings dramatically while Jun’s voice is cute. Also, Kyan’s singing is surprisingly good, so good that even Kyan could release a solo single, and it would sell.

Visually, the PV for 101 Kaime no Noroi trumps the quality of anything from previous PVs. The colours are beautiful, and there’s a nice side story about a young woman breaking out of her shell and becoming confident with the people around her, despite her thinking she is “cursed” to live this way.

Potentially, Golden Bomber might be referring to themselves in addition to when they mention said “curses” in the track. The sheer popularity of 2009 single, Memeshikute has brought Golden Bomber unimaginable fame for just an indie visual kei band in just a short span of time: fans want to hear and promoters only want to promote Memeshikute and nothing else. Golden Bomber lightly touch on this idea in this extended commercial for 101 Kaime no Noroi with a light comedic skit. The best part is the dad’s reaction, towards the end of the video.

While Memeshikute might very well be Golden Bomber’s own beautiful “curse”, it also happens to be the driving force of their fame that has allowed them to perform at Kouhaku Uta Gassen twice and at Budokan a number of times in recent years. That’s not a curse, it’s a blessing.