
Track Listing
- TYCOON
- Q.E.D.
- Serious
- SHOUT LOVE
- IDEAL REALITY
- LONE WOLF
- DECIDED (Album ver.)
- PRAYING RUN
- ALL ALONE (Album ver.)
- Itteki no Eikyou (Album ver.)
- Honoo Sukoshi
- Boku no Kotoba de wa nai Kore wa Bokutachi no Kotoba (Album ver.)
- WE ARE GO (Album ver.)
- Collide
- Sou Zeniki
- I LOVE THE WORLD
- Emu
- Shuuen
1. TYCOON
Opening the album up, the title track TYCOON sounds pretty experimental for an intro with a darker and mysterious sound, but then it switches into this cool dance beat with some cool sawtooth synths and some screaming (I doubt that’s TAKUYA, but hey…). Unique introduction though!
2. Q.E.D.
The song sort of flows into our first vocal track of the album and TAKUYA’s loud and strong vocals enter in with a pretty neat rockin’ arrangement that kind of goes between being hard, but also a smidge sing-along with the acoustic parts into a pretty powerful chorus to round it out. I dug it a lot, even when Seika comes in with a brief sax part before TAKUYA gets in with a pseudo rap. It’s a song that has many parts to it, but I kind of liked it~.
3. Serious
It doesn’t feel like too many change going into our next track at first as the sound almost felt like “Q.E.D.”, but after TAKUYA’s intro, the piano enters the song and the tune kind of goes in between those sounds. I will say the one thing that stands out about this one are the small passages of pure jazz in the small breaks, but otherwise, it’s a pretty straightforward song and wasn’t a bad listen.
4. SHOUT LOVE
I almost thought the next track was going to be like a crowd screaming song, but SHOUT LOVE starts off quite a bit more mellow than I expected with a little bit of synths and acoustic guitar. I’m not sure where it stands as it feels like a mid-tempo ballad, but the band makes things loud and aggressive enough to not quite fit the style. TAKUYA does sound like he’s slightly straining his voice for this one so it’s not a favorite sadly.
5. IDEAL REALITY
I already started digging the funky vibes from the intro of IDEAL REALITY with the saxophones and bass playing around while TAKUYA is rapping in between the melodies. It’s definitely different enough to stand out on the album away from the rock songs that filter out and I thought it was an impressive switch (even if the tune later on does bring back the remainder of the band). Definitely an early favorite on the album!
6. LONE WOLF
Wow, an almost 6 minute track up next! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the tune is quite stripped down and includes a lot of acoustic guitar and strings and a rather pretty emotional performance out of TAKUYA who sounds a LOT better than he did in “SHOUT LOVE” at the least. I thought the song was going to be a harder song, but unfortunately because of that, LONE WOLF does feel that it drags on a smidge too long without really hitting it big.
7. DECIDED (Album ver.)
I’m surprised that all the A-sides (except “I LOVE THE WORLD”) were all given edits on the album, especially this one because it came out a couple weeks before the album did so it’s just odd to me. I’m not quite sure what changed about DECIDED though as they both sound the same to me, but there could’ve been some small edit (or the arrangement got updated?). Either way, the song is still pretty awesome and TAKUYA gave a pretty explosive performance that makes some of their older power tracks so damn good!
8. PRAYING RUN
It feels like it’s been forever since I listened to PRAYING RUN (a B-side from “I LOVE THE WORLD”). As the album’s longest track at over 6 minutes, I still am not quite a BIG fan of TAKUYA’s breathing in the opening, but after that, the tune brings us to more of an experimental track that has their acoustic/hip-hop groove to synth usage and hard rock all wrapped in one package. It’s an interesting song, but it feels as long as it really is…
9. ALL ALONE (Album ver.)
As part of the 3rd single released in the era, ALL ALONE’s changes are a bit more easier to tell here! With a different ending (instead of only piano, it’s this time alongside acoustic guitar) and some minor additions throughout the song and a shorter time (by a couple seconds) ALL ALONE is still kind of an odd one for me amongst the A-sides. It’s a lighter affair like “LONE WOLF” but this song was the better one of the single it came from even if I don’t think too much of it on the album.
10. Itteki no Eikyou (Album ver.)
As one of the more least likened songs released for the TYCOON era, Itteki no Eikyou was to me just your normal UVERworld song with the anison tones and heavy rock vibes. The album version seemed to be mostly the same but with more saxophone and the ending was shortened (with the acoustic guitar). Otherwise it’s the same song still. I guess it has slightly grown on me because of the album needing a little nod to their anison stuff, but it’s still not up there with the bests.
11. Honoo Sukoshi
Taking a break from the already released songs, we get back into a new track with Honoo Sukoshi. I was pleasantly surprised the tune begun with some repeating bass synths and this ethereal background as well. For some reason, once the chorus kicks in, I get this Western-kind of feeling from it beyond TAKUYA’s howling vocals. It’s a pretty interesting song, especially for one being mid-tempo.
12. Boku no Kotoba de wa nai Kore wa Bokutachi no Kotoba (Album ver.)
As the first A-side released for the album, I had to go back to the original and take a quick listen, but I do still quite like this one. The album cut is a bit longer and with an updated ending as well. Still, after hearing the other “album edits”, I’m wondering why they even did it when they’re only small minor things. Either way, this song still sounds great and the experimentation did wonders for this song! Like I said in the single review, I still think this is the softest you’ll be hearing TAKUYA on this album!
13. WE ARE GO (Album ver.)
Though as my least liked A-side of the era, WE ARE GO feels super loud and just feels like a song used for concerts. The difference really comes only in the beginning as the album version omitted the TAKUYA-only intro. The song though to me is just the same thing and I’m still not quite the biggest fan of this. It’s loud and in your face and it kind of grates on me after a while.
14. Collide
At least they didn’t touch this B-side from “Boku no Kotoba de wa nai Kore wa Bokutachi no Kotoba” because this song was just as good as the A-side if not moreso! It’s definitely going back to some pretty hardcore stuff with the arrangement on top of adding Seika’s sax melody and the bits of synth throughout! It just did a great job of waking me up after “WE ARE GO” and TAKUYA sounds amazing through this track, I’m so happy they included this track!!
15. Sou Zeniki
Back to another new track, Sou Zeniki continues this burst of energy, but the song has a lot more synths throughout and TAKUYA is singing in a slightly higher pitch like in “SHOUT LOVE”, but there’s something that’s fitting here. Yeah, this feels like a more experimental “Collide” but with more synths and sax in the arrangement, yeah this is pretty cool!
16. I LOVE THE WORLD
I’m so surprised that somehow I LOVE THE WORLD didn’t get changed up for the album, but that’s just fine because it was my favorite amongst the 5 singles released! This one definitely gives me those “GO-ON” & “GOLD” vibes with the awesome even mixture of rock and synths. Though I will say it leans a bit more on the synthy side of things. I just love the craziness of the song and being in this string of badass songs (“Collide”, “Sou Zeniki” and “Emu”) is just perfect!
17. Emu
As the B-side from “Itteki no Eikyou”, Emu is on the other side of the coin compared to “I LOVE THE WORLD” by having a louder rockin’ arrangement and punch with the lines given by TAKUYA & that female singer that comes in the choruses. Just an awesome track and powerful B-side and like “Collide” excited to see making the album cut!
18. Shuuen
As the album’s final track, Shuuen slows things to another mellow rock track but appropriate due to its placement on the album! Though beyond that, by itself, Shuuen isn’t quite a memorable track for me due to its swaying rhythm and just slower singing. I just think after the long strings of powerful songs, Shuuen just halts it for the ending and like I said, makes sense, but not memorable.
Tracks Recommended
- Collide
- I LOVE THE WORLD
- IDEAL REALITY
- DECIDED (Album ver.)
- Sou Zeniki
Song of Avoidance
UVERworld after “Ø CHOIR” took quite a while getting this album out and from the output of TYCOON, it’s not quite as good unfortunately. A lot of the new tracks were kind of in the middle with two exceptions in Sou Zeniki & IDEAL REALITY, but I think the album relied a lot on the singles released. Which on that topic, I don’t think any of the songs needed to be edited any and didn’t make sense why they did. It’s an OK album though and there’s some great tunes to be found, but their last album was just that good!