Music Corner Week 79: Fujii Kaze

Fujii Kaze is a musician and singer who hails from Satosho in Okayama, Japan. His whole life he’s been fixated on music, listening to jazz, pop, enka, and classical music from a very early age. At the age of twelve, Kaze started uploading videos to YouTube with him playing piano and doing vocal cover videos, his personal YouTube channel has gathered over 30 million views. He stopped uploading during High School to focus on his studies and after he graduated he went back to making videos. In 2019, Kaze moved to Tokyo where he signed on with Universal and that same year he started releasing music. His debut single, “Nan-Nan” was released on November 18 of 2019, and his second single, “Mo-Eh-Wa” was released a little over a month later on the 24th of December. In 2020 Kaze dropped his first album titled HELP EVER HURT NEVER on May 20th.

Fujii Kaze has an amazing voice that he employs to great effect. The listener can really hear the jazz influence in all of his music. He has a really smooth and laid-back style that just helps the listener to relax and enjoy the music. Kaze is also an amazing pianist and that really shows in his work. The first song I ever heard by him was his latest release “Kirari” which is just so catchy it hard to stop listening to it. “Kirari” shows off his vocal talent really well, going smoothly into the higher octave before dropping back down. 

Fujii Kaze just released his Help Ever Hurt Cover which includes a wide variety of American tunes such as Taylor Swift”s “Shake It Off”, and Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” just to name a few. His official website stays up to date with all his latest news along with his Twitter. Lastly, be sure to check out “Kirari” in the video below.

Gray's Onkagu Go For May 2021

Picking up after Ken and Luna with another month down from 2021, we at Ongaku to You would like our readers to know what was filling our ears for the past month. Each track is available across all digital music streaming platforms with Apple Music being featured on this site.

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“Vivid Vice” by Who-ya Extended

At first I wasn’t too crazy about this song but since it served as the second opening to Jujutsu Kaisen. I got to be much more familiar with it over the course of the back half of the season and it really started to grow on me. The first take version is on YouTube and it’s really good as well.

Check out “Vivid Vice” here, and the music video below.

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“Kirari” by Fujii Kaze

This was just a delight when it popped up on the Oricon. I’ve had it on repeat ever since. It is songs like this that got me into J-pop. I’m not too sure you would see a song like this do well in America which is really sad because this release is so well done with such a catchy tune. I’ve taken a liking to Fuji Kaze and I’ll definitely be talking about him again in the future.

Check out “Kirari” here, and the music video below.

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“Ganbarenaiyo” by JUICE=JUICE

JUICE=JUICE is one of the more consistent idol groups that produce great songs and their latest release is no exception. Sadly “Downtown” has been added to Apple Music but “Ganbarenaiyo” was just as good and I’ve been listening to this on repeat since it dropped. It’s such a beautiful number that really shows off the vocals of the girls.

Check out “Ganbarenaiyo” here, and the music video below.

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“Something New” by Johnny’s West

This song is so good it actually made me go out and purchase the single off CDJapan. I’ve never bought anything produced by Johnny’s before and that has been mostly due to the lack of money but this song was so good I just had to have it. It’s such a fun number that is does really well by the boys and Aimyon wrote the song in which it shows real well.

Sadly this song isn’t available on Apple Music but the music video is right below so check it out.

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“Fushigi” by Gen Hoshino

Gen Hoshino can be a real hit and miss with me but this is a release I greatly enjoyed. It’s honestly out of my typical wheelhouse in how laid back the tune is. There is a funkiness to it that I find refreshing.

Check out “Fushigi” here, and the music video below.

Kaze Fujii Gets Some Help In Special Releases!

Vocalist Kaze Fujii will be re-releasing his HELP EVER HURT COVER album May 20 to commemorate his first anniversary since its initial release. HELP EVER HURT COVER was initially released as a bonus CD with the limited edition version of his debut album HELP EVER HURT NEVER. HELP EVER HURT COVER contains a total of 11 tracks which are all English covers. In addition to this release, the vinyl is also being re-released; it began April 17 in advance by lottery through Kaze Fujii’s free app.

HELP EVER HURT COVER will be released in one edition, a CD-only standard edition which will include a booklet. You can check out the track listing, cover artwork, pre-order links, and Kaze Fujii’s latest music video for “Tabiji” below!

Standard edition

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HELP EVER HURT COVER Jacket Cover

Kaze Fujii「HELP EVER HURT COVER」

CD:

01. Close To You
02. Shape Of You
03. Back Stabbers
04. Alfie
05. Be Alright
06. Beat It
07. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
08. My Eyes Adored You
09. Shake It Off
10. Stronger Than Me
11. Time After Time

Kaze Fujii Lends a Helping Hand to Fans with Latest Album!

Vocalist Kaze Fujii announced that he will be releasing his first full album, HELP EVER HURT NEVER on May 20th. This will be the latest release done by Fujii since his もうええわ EP (Moueewa EP) and will be his first physical release. HELP EVER HURT NEVER is written and composed by Kaze himself and sound production will be handled by Yaffle. The album will drop with eleven tracks total and will be released under two editions; a standard CD-only edition and a two disk CD + Photobook limited edition. The limited edition second disk will include an additional eleven piano cover tracks.

Fujii had also announced that he will be holding two tours in Zepp Namba, Osaka, and Zepp Tokyo June 4-5 and 26-27 respectively. The announcement of the live tours came out of a short live concert video of his track “優しさ”(“Yasashisa”) that Kaze uploaded on his official YouTube channel which you can check here.

Pre-order both editions of HELP EVER HURT NEVER in the links below!

Standard edition 

Limited edition 

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Track listing:

Kaze Fujii「HELP EVER HURT NEVER」

01. 何なんw

02. もうええわ

03. 優しさ

04. キリがないから

05. 罪の香り

06. 調子のっちゃって

07. 特にない

08. 死ぬのがいいわ

09. 風よ

10. さよならべいべ

11. 帰ろう

Limited Edition CD Piano arranged covers

・Alfie

・Back Stabbers

・Be Alright

・Beat It

・Close To You

・Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

・My Eyes Adored You

・Shake It Off

・Shape Of You

・Stronger Than Me

・Time After Time