TURN IT UP: UPTURN - LEAD
Song: Upturn Album: Upturn Single Year: 2013 Artist: Lead Label: Pony Canyon Live Performance
This song is just full of so much happiness! I don’t know what else to say about it! I really like Lead’s voices and how they work together. The insertion of the rap in the bridge was really well put together. My Japanese isn’t good enough to translate the song, but from what I’ve managed to translate, the song seems to be talking about hope and turning things around for the better. I think the song is pretty successful in conveying that.
Lead is well known for their dance routines that consume the majority of their videos, and this one is no different. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the video and how it complemented the happiness of the song with the bright lights and awkwardly faded views of the sky... and the cheesy back-lights... and the bed-sheet background for the close up shots... UGH! Guys. Come on now. I know Japan is struggling financially, but the very least you could do is cut the crappy sky edits, sell that stop motion camera and invest in a better lighting system. I don’t understand why the music video had to be so desaturated. If the song is about hope and turning things around for the better, it would have made more sense for the video to become brighter or more saturated as it goes on.
I love this dance! It’s very fun watching them perform it live. That shadow boxing bit was pretty sweet. Kinda like your freakin’ punchin’ all the bad crap out of your life and then shimmying the good stuff back in. Yeah. Feel the burn!
The English in this is so bad! I didn’t even realize that they were saying “upturn” the song until I looked at the lyrics. Even then, it sounds as though they’re saying “uptown” rather than “upturn”... Nice try, but cutely punching your woes into the air does not make this English okay.
The song itself is incredibly uplifting and a real pleasure to listen to. The music video, although it mainly focuses on the dance (which I usually like), was very dull and boring because of the lighting and awkward fade ins and cuts and could have been done better to compliment the happy and energetic feel of the song. The dance was fantastic and is fun to watch. Overall, worth listening to, but you could skip the music video.
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