Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Music / NaughtyBoys

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/swnm3p_naughtyboy_preview_m3.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:''"You'll be burning with a new love tonight."'']]
3[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click to see the cover for ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'']]\
4https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/65_naughty_boys_instrumental.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
5
6''Naughty Boys'', released in 1983 through Alfa Records in Japan and Pick Up Records in Europe, is the sixth studio album by Japanese SynthPop {{supergroup}} Music/YellowMagicOrchestra. Following the release of ''Music/{{Technodelic}}'' in the fall of 1981, the group intended to dissolve, only to find themselves still bound by contract to deliver two more studio albums to their label, Alfa Records. Consequently, the band simply went on hiatus during this time, with Music/HaruomiHosono, Music/RyuichiSakamoto, and Music/YukihiroTakahashi all focusing on their solo careers (Hosono placed particular weight on his, having withheld from releasing any solo material during YMO's three years of continuous activity).
7
8By this point, the lack of crossover success past 1980 (and their consequent abandonment by their American label, Creator/AAndMRecords) had gotten to the band members, and upon regrouping, decided to reorient themselves in a more explicitly commercial direction. However, rather than trying to reclaim their standing with western audiences, they turned towards the Japanese listeners that had already given them their biggest successes. Thus, ''Naughty Boys'' saw YMO transform themselves into a mock-idol group, riffing on the idea of an act as old as them attempting to stay "hip" with newer trends in Japanese music. Consequently, the album presented a tongue-in-cheek take on the en vogue CityPop genre, alternating between sincerity and irony and consolidating the musique concrete elements of ''Music/{{BGM}}'' and ''Technodelic'' with the new breed of J-pop that they had previously influenced. Fitting their focus on their home market, the band's lyrics on the album are almost exclusively in Japanese, with only two songs written entirely in English.
9
10The result provided YMO with renewed commercial success after the diminishing (though not drastically declining) returns of ''BGM'' and ''Technodelic'', becoming the band's last album to top the Oricon LP Chart; no other synth-pop band would top the charts in Japan until Music/{{Perfume}} in 2008. Two months later, the band released ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'', a RemixAlbum that, true to the name, reconfigured ''Naughty Boys'' as an entirely-instrumental album in the vein of YMO's typical fare. The instrumental version had previously been teased on the original ''Naughty Boys'' with a "preview" edit of "You've Got to Help Yourself", included in full on ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'' before being reworked as a vocal song on ''Music/{{Service}}'' later that year. While ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'' wasn't included in Restless Records' CD reissues of the band's catalog in the US and Europe, the instrumental versions of "Chaos Panic", "Lotus Love", and "Kai-Koh" would be included as bonus tracks on ''Music/{{Multiplies}}'' (alongside the non-album single "Kageki Na Shukujo"). Reissues since the 2000s have generally packaged the vocal and instrumental versions of ''Naughty Boys'' together as a result of their intertwined relationship.
11
12''Naughty Boys'' was supported by one single: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun".
13
14!!Tracklists:
15!!!''Naughty Boys'':
16[[AC:Side One]]
17# "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" (4:07)
18# "Expected Way" (4:34)
19# "Focus" (3:41)
20# "Ongaku" (3:25)
21# "Opened My Eyes" (3:40)
22
23[[AC:Side Two]]
24# "You've Got To Help Yourself (Preview)" (0:30)
25# "Lotus Love" (4:05)
26# "Kai-Koh" (4:27)
27# "Expecting Rivers" (4:37)
28# "Wild Ambitions" (5:10)
29
30!!!''Naughty Boys Instrumental'':
31[[AC:Side One]]
32# "Chaos Panic" (4:12)
33# "Expected Way" (4:34)
34# "Focus" (3:41)
35# "Kai-Koh" (4:27)
36# "Expecting Rivers" (4:37)
37
38[[AC:Side Two]]
39# "You've Got to Help Yourself" (4:21)
40# "Lotus Love" (4:05)
41# "Ongaku" (3:25)
42# "Opened My Eyes" (3:40)
43# "Wild Ambitions" (5:10)
44
45----
46
47!!''Dreams fly by in a tropeless sky'':
48* BreakUpBonfire: "Focus":
49--> ''You'll be burning with a new love tonight''\
50''And I'll be burning old pictures on my mind''
51* BreakUpSong: "Focus" is about reminiscing over a past romance through pictures.
52* {{Dedication}}: "Ongaku" is written by Music/RyuichiSakamoto and is dedicated to his daughter Miu (who was 3 at the time). The lyrics depict a scene where the two of them sing together while she plays the piano.
53* CompilationRerelease: Most reissues since 2013 (barring the LP and digital releases of the 2019 remaster) package both the vocal and instrumental versions of the album together in one package.
54* DistinctDoubleAlbum: For the band's 2003 reissue campaign (based on the 1999 remasters), the two different versions of each album were collected as double-CD packages, one disc for each rendition. This configuration is also used for the SACD releases of the 2019 remasters (the LP and digital releases re-separate the two albums).
55* FaceOnTheCover: The vocal version features a headshot of the band members against a solid teal backdrop.
56* GratuitousEnglish: On "Focus" and "Lotus Love".
57* GratuitousForeignLanguage: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" has a spoken-word section where a woman speaks the following passage in Italian:
58--> ''Hello beautiful. A night out with me, what do you say?\
59I like you very much.\
60I would like to see what you can do in bed.\
61Come and have fun with me.''
62* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: ''Naughty Boys'' and ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'' differentiate each side with different oceanic photographs: a shot of seagulls in the sky on side one and a shot of waves on a beach on side two.
63* {{Instrumentals}}: "You've Got To Help Yourself (Preview)" on ''Naughty Boys'', and ''every'' song on the aptly-titled ''Naughty Boys Instrumental''. The full version of "You've Got to Help Yourself" on the latter would later be reworked as a vocal track on ''Music/{{Service}}''.
64** ''Naughty Boys'' was also released as an instrumental album. Major differences are a longer cut of "You've Got To Help Yourself" and "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" being replaced with the instrumental cut of the non-album Single "Chaos Panic".
65* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: You don't call an album ''Naughty Boys'' and expect people to read it innocuously, especially if you have a history of working closely with English-language lyricists.
66* IntercourseWithYou: The Italian spoken-word lyrics of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" imply an invitation to bed from a woman to a man who has a crush on her.
67* IntimateHealing: "Opened My Eyes"
68--> ''I couldn't sleep in my bed at night''\
69''I didn't have any appetite''\
70''For anything (For anything)''\
71''You gave me back all the love I need''\
72''You gave me reason to believe''\
73''In everything (In everything)''
74* LyricalDissonance: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" -- at face value, it's an upbeat love song, but it's actually about starting an affair with someone.
75* MinisculeRocking: "You've Got to Help Yourself (Preview)" clocks in at just 30 seconds.
76* NewSoundAlbum: Radio-friendly CityPop with post-{{disco}} trimmings.
77* OneWordTitle: "Focus" and "Ongaku"
78* ThePowerOfLove: "Opened My Eyes"
79--> ''You gave me back all the love I need''\
80''You gave me reason to believe''\
81''In everything (In everything)''
82* RearrangeTheSong: The "preview" version of "You've Got To Help Yourself" is a 30-second edit of the version that appears on ''Naughty Boys Instrumental''.
83* RemixAlbum: ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'' radically reconfigures the original ''Naughty Boys'' into an all-{{instrumental|s}} format.
84* SayMyName: Played in a romantic effect on "Wild Ambitions":
85--> ''So call my name''\
86''Please call my name''\
87''I'm running through the wild lands''
88* SelfDeprecation: The "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" video makes fun of how completely unlike a boy band YMO are and how unsuited they are to singing (what sounds like) a SillyLoveSong.
89* SillyLoveSongs: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" (English translation: "I've got a crush on you")
90* SpeakInUnison: A sung variant. On the last the verse of "Ongaku", all three YMO members singing the same last lyric.
91* SpecialGuest:
92** Music/BeBopDeluxe frontman Bill Nelson plays electric guitar on the album. Music/YukihiroTakahashi would return the favor by playing drums on Nelson's solo album ''Chimera'' that same year.
93** Takashi Matsumoto wrote the lyrics of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun". He was previously part of the bands Apryl Fools and Happy End, along with Music/HaruomiHosono.
94* SpokenWordInMusic: The Italian section of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun".
95* StylisticSuck: YMO intentionally half-ass their miming in the music video for "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun", and spend more time goofing off than actually trying to perform the song, all for the sake of poking fun at the idea of three grown men pretending to be teen idols.
96* ThrowingOffTheDisability: "Opened My Eyes" uses this trope as a metaphor for the feeling of personal renewal that comes from love:
97--> ''It was you, you made a blind man see''
98* TranslatedCoverVersion: YMO would put together a very loosely translated English rendition of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" with Music/TheHumanLeague for the collaborative EP ''YMO Versus The Human League'' in 1993; the track would later be included as the B-side to the Human League's single "Tell Me When" and on the deluxe edition of that song's parent album, ''Octopus''.
99* VocalTagTeam: The last verse of "Ongaku" features each YMO member singing his own lyric before the three of them sing in unison on the last line.

Top