Hey! Say! JUMP – Your Seed ／冒険ライダー

“Your Seed ／冒険ライダー”, Hey! Say! JUMP’s 3rd single, was released in Japan on 23rd July, 2008 in two editions: a regular edition with both a-sides and their karaoke mixes and a limited edition with just the a-sides and an extra DVD. The song “Your Seed” was used as the image song for the Japanese release of the movie “Kung Fu Panda”. The single hit number one in it’s first week and has so far sold 160,032 copies.

1. Your Seed

If you’ve listened to HSJ’s previous songs, you know this song is completely different than those. When they debuted, JE had them present a much more cute and young image, but this song is definitely more mature. It’s not anything too hardcore, but it’s a step into a better and more mature direction. It’s a really fun dance song with a truly infectious rap section thrown in. And to fit the image of “Kung Fu Panda”, there are a lot traditional Asian instruments thrown in, giving off a nice kung fu atmosphere. My only problem with this song is that we don’t get enough of my husband Keito! They never let him sing or let him dance in the front, it’s so sad! But you know what makes this song even better?! Not that much crazy Chinen high notes! I love Chinen and all, but sometimes his high notes freak me out. D:

2. 冒険ライダー

The beginning of the next song, “冒険ライダー” or “Bouken Rider”, is kind of misleading. It starts off with synth and heavy drums, making the listener think it’s another one of those cutesy HSJ songs. And don’t get me wrong, this song is cute, but in a different vein than their previous works. This song is more laidback than “Your Seed”, which is really refreshing. It was a lot of brass instruments in the music, giving it a fun retro kind of feel, it reminds me a lot of a song that Arashi might sing. And all of their voices sound really strong together in this song, I hope that they can do more songs like this because it shows off their voices really well. At first I hated this song, especially since it’s an a-side like “Your Seed”, but it really grew on me. I like it a lot now, but of course not as much as “Your Seed”.

A PV for “Your Seed” was released to promote the single. I didn’t really expect much from the PV and good thing I did or I would’ve been extremely under whelmed. The entire PV is just them dancing to the song, I guess it’s good because we’ve never seen HSJ do a full on complicated dance routine, but it’s bad because that’s all that they do throughout the PV. It’s good, but really nothing special.

Kaori’s Conclusion: This was Hey! Say! JUMP’s first double a-side and I was actually really satisfied with it. I like their first two singles, but I hardly listen to them since they’re so – cutesy. But this single was a lot more grown up than their crazy sparkly smiley happy songs and I liked that. Hopefully Johnny keeps this kind of music for them and doesn’t revert them back to the crazy sugar-pumped boys they once were.

Score: 7/10

Nacho’s Conclusion: Meh, to be honest this single doesn’t impress me at all. I think it’s really boring. I always try to avoid comparisons with other artists, but this single has nothing to do with other JE works from 2008, like KAT-TUN’s “DON’T U EVER STOP” or Arashi’s upcoming single “truth”. I understand they’re still newbies, but if they wanna be like their JE workmates, they’ll have to be more charismatic. Nacho! Says! Spice it up, bitches!

Score: 5/10

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