Eien no yakusoku (promise of eternity) is
Hirakawachi Icchome’s tenth single; their first release in 2007 which was soon followed by their fifth album. Seeing as both brothers were teenagers when starting the band, lead vocalist’
Naojiro’s voice changed through the course of years, the boyish children’s voice taking on a much more manly tone. Not only
Naojiro changed, also
Ryunosuke’s songwriting matured and a perfect example of this is the title track
Eien no yakusoku.
Already in the intro, the listener gets introduced to the slightly quirky character of the song. With a slightly lilting rhythm and
Naojiro singing effortless, the melody and rhythm of the pop-rock song flow smoothly. It is a little bit reminiscent of songs from the sixties or seventies, which is fuelled by the perfectly arranged backing vocals in the chorus.
The video features the two brothers playing the song, with a couple of mime-actors goofing around them, and the playful image fits with the music perfectly.
Next up is the first cover,
Success, composed and performed by
Ryudo Uzaki and his
DOWN TOWN BOOGIE WOOGIE BAND in 1977. The song was completely rearranged by
Ryunosuke, and he has successfully updated the seventies hit to a song suitable to this decade. Starting out with a catchy bass riff that returns throughout the whole track, it soon transforms into a swift rock song. The seventies feeling stays a little, yet with a much more passionate, fierce vibe to it.
The brothers chose a cover of
The Beatles next, namely
Don’t Let Me Down. Funny thing is, the visual kei band
Doremidan explained in
their interview on JaME that they based their name on the same
Beatles song.
Naojiro, with his poor, slurred English pronunciation, does an excellent job of demonstrating how "Don’t let me down" sounds like "Do le mi dan" when sung with a heavy Japanese accent. This time, the two siblings didn’t stray far from the original version. The instrumentals of the pop-rock song are pretty much the same, perhaps a little heavier, and
Naojiro sings in the same passionate, confident voice.
Even though the single didn’t rank very well on the charts, the three strong tracks show how well the two brothers have developed themselves into skillful musicians. It’s truly a pity that they have disbanded, because the future seemed to promise great things for
Hirakawachi Icchome.
