Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi: Music from the Series

by Puffy AmiYumi

Overview

Despite being huge stars in their native Japan and releasing three brilliant albums in the U.S., Puffy AmiYumi have never made much of a splash with record buyers. The band may finally change that with the release of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Music from the Series. After performing the theme for the Cartoon Network show Teen Titans, Puffy and the network decided to create their own animated series revolving around the band. The boisterously delicious theme ("Hi Hi") kicks off this disc of singles, album tracks, and rarities that is a necessity for already devoted Puffy fans and may just win them some widespread acclaim. The tracks are taken from the group's two American releases with four songs ("Boogie Woogie No. 5," "Love So Pure," "December," and "Into the Beach") coming from 2001's Spike and one ("Planet Tokyo") from 2003's Nice, their first single (1996's "True Asia"), the Scooby Doo 2 soundtrack ("Friends Forever"), their 1997 album SoloSolo ("V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N"), singles ("That's the Way It Is"), and rare tracks ("Forever," "Sunrise" and a rollicking cover of Jellyfish's "Joining a Fan Club"). Every song collected here is first-rate sunburst pop that manages to pull off the rare trick of being cute without being cutesy. The duo has so much good cheer, energy, and spunk that any charges of preciousness leveled at them can just be laughed away. It also helps that the two men responsible for crafting their sound, Tamio Okuda from the legendary Japanese pop band Unicorn and Andy Sturmer of the legendary American pop band Jellyfish, fully understand Puffy's appeal and craft perfect pop songs for them, delving into punk, new wave, girl group sounds, and even rockabilly and giving everything a bubbly J-pop twist. Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is a great introduction to the group. It doesn't provide the most rounded picture of the group -- look to 2003's Illustrated History for that -- but it does round up a batch of their most glittering and poptastic tunes, and is sure to be a hit with the same people who would be drawn to the cartoon. ~ Tim Sendra

Product Details

Release Date:	11/16/2004
Label:	Epic
UPC:	0827969351727

Tracks

1. Hi Hi
2. Friends Forever
3. Planet Tokyo
4. Joining a Fan Club
5. Forever
6. V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N
7. Love So Pure
8. True Asia
9. Boogie-Woogie No. 5
10. That's the Way It Is
11. Sunrise
12. Into the Beach
13. December
14. Teen Titans Theme

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Puffy AmiYumi   Primary Artist,Vocals
John Fields   Guitar (Bass),Bass,Guitar,Keyboards
Andy Sturmer   Percussion,Bass,Drums,Guitar,Keyboards
Ami Onuki   Vocals,Guitar
Masahiro Kitahara   Trombone
Takamune Negishi   Bass
Michael S. Kawai   Percussion
Tetsutaro Sakurai   Vocals (Background)
Maki Kitada   Bass
Kohsaku Abe   Drums
Yumi Yoshimura   Vocals
Yuta Saito   Keyboards
Zac Rae   Optigan,Theremin,Glockenspiel
Tamio Okuda   Guitar,Vocoder,Saxophone
Daisaku Kume   Keyboards
Takashi Furuta   Drums
Lyle Workman   Guitar
Dorian Crozier   Drums
Shinji Asakura   Percussion
Konishi Yasuharu   Keyboards
Haruo Kubota   Guitar
Isao Tanuma   Director
Hiroharu Kinoshita   Bass
Susumu Osada   Guitar,Harmonica
Thomas Tjaernqvist   Bass,Guitar,Keyboards

Technical Credits

Yasunori Heguri   Audio Production,Executive Producer
Aimee MacAuley   Design,Art Direction
Tetsuhiro Miyajima   Mixing
Osamu Hirose   Mixing
Takamune Negishi   Harmony
Tetsutaro Sakurai   Producer
Bruce Osborn   Photography
Taizo Ito   Executive Producer
Yosui Inoue   Composer
Puffy AmiYumi   Composer,Harmony
David Bianco   Mixing
Dave Way   Mixing
Greg Camp   Composer
Stephen Marcussen   Mastering
Andy Sturmer   Composer,Producer
Ami Onuki   Composer
Tamio Okuda   Harmony,Composer,Producer
Takashi Furuta   Harmony,Composer
John Fields   Mixing
Joe Zook   Mixing
David Thoener   Mixing
Konishi Yasuharu   Composer
June Shinozaki   A&R
Roger Manning   Composer