''2nd W'' is the second album by the

Hello! Project is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but has s ...

duo W and their first album recorded and released after its members,

Ai Kago is a Japanese actress and former singer. In 2000, Kago debuted as a 4th generation member of the idol girl group Morning Musume. During her time in the group, she was also part of Mini-Moni and other Hello! Project sub-groups. In 2004, Kago depa ...

and

Nozomi Tsuji , known professionally by her birth name (born June 17, 1987) is a Japanese media personality, singer, and blogger. In 2000, she began her career as a singer for Japanese girl band Morning Musume. Tsuji later found success with related groups ...

, "graduated" from

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

in August 2004. Unlike their first album, ''

Duo U&U is the debut album by W, the duo formed by Morning Musume and Mini-Moni members and longtime friends Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji. Recorded while they were winding down their duties as Morning Musume and Minimoni members, the album consists of cove ...

'', which was all cover material, ''2nd W'' contains a mix of originals (composed by mentor and Hello! Project founder

Tsunku , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer, record producer, and songwriter. He is the lead singer of the rock band Sharam Q. As a songwriter, Tsunku is the primary producer for Morning Musume and other Hello! Project acts, such as Coco ...

) and covers of classic

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

female pop duo songs. Three of the songs, the Tsunku originals "Ai Ii na!" and "Robo Kiss" and a cover of

The Peanuts were a Japanese vocal group consisting of twin sisters Emi (, ''Itō Emi'') and Yumi Itō (, ''Itō Yumi''). They were born in Nagoya, Japan in April, 1 1941. As identical twins they had voices only slightly apart in timbre, which resulted in ...

's "Koi No Fuga", were released as singles in the months prior to the album; the latter selection was also the single released in advance of the album. Many of the songs on the album, both originals and covers, center around the topic of becoming, or about to no longer be, the age of seventeen. At the time of the album's release, Ai Kago had turned 17 a month prior, while Nozomi Tsuji would turn 18 that June. Another track, "Da-bu-ru-yuu Joshi Koutou Gakkou Kouka", is the mock-theme song for the fictional "Dabaruyuu Girls Senior School" (The

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"Dabaruyuu" being a corruption of the duo's name) and ties in with the album cover concept depicting Kago and Tsuji at a school ceremony. The duo would release one more single while retaining their earlier cute image, "

Ai no Imi wo Oshiete! is the fifth single of the Hello! Project group W, released on May 18, 2005. Track listing # # # Ai no Imi o Oshiete! (Instrumental) External links * Up-Front Works discography entriesCD Miss Love Tantei is the 6th single of W, released on September 7, 2005. Background and release "Miss Love Tantei" was composed by Los Angeles producers Joey Carbone and Steven Lee, the first time a songwriting team other than W's main producer, Tsunku, had wri ...

", would see the pair utilizing a more mature look and sound. The first press of the album comes with three photo cards and comes in special packaging.

Track listing

# – 1:11 # – 4:05 # – 3:35 # – 3:48 # – 3:49 # – 5:21 # – 3:03 # 18 ~My Happy Birthday Comes!~ – 4:17 # – 2:19 (

) # INTERLUDE – 0:24 # – 3:10 (

Junko Sakurada is a Japanese singer and actress. She was part of a music trio in 1973, which included Momoe Yamaguchi and Masako Mori. Sakurada then became successful in a solo music career, with 18 top ten singles in the 1970s. Her acting career ran from 1 ...

) # – 3:28 # – 4:18

Musical Personnel

– vocals (lead, harmony and background) *

– additional backing vocals (Tracks 1, 5) *Nao Tanaka – Keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 1), string arrangement (Track 3) *Shoichiro Hirata – Keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Tracks 2, 11) *Manao Doi – guitar (Track 2) *Hiroaki Takeuchi – backing vocals (Track 2) *Yohey Tuskasaki –

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two record ...

(Tracks 2, 9) *Yuichi Takahashi – guitar, keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Tracks 3, 4, 7) *Sting Miyamoto – bass (Tracks 4, 13) *

Atsuko Inaba (born March 13, 1974) is a former Japanese female singer who was affiliated with Hello! Project. Career She began her career as a Japanese idol with the all-girl group Osaka Performance Doll from 1993 to 1996. She then joined the new Hello! ...

– additional backing vocals (Tracks 4, 8) *Hideyuki "Daichi" Suzuki – guitar, keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 5) *Ume – guitar (Track 5) *Akira – keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming, additional backing vocals (Track 6) *Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus – male chorus (Track 7) *Yoshiaki Nakamura – narration (Track 7) *Miki Tominaga – narration (Track 7) *Shunsuke Suzuki – guitar, keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Tracks 8, 12) *Hideyuki Komatsu – bass (Track 8) *Hiroshi Iida – percussion (Track 8) *Yoshinari Takegami – saxophone (Track 8) *Masanori Suzuki – trumpet (Track 8) *Wakaba Kawai – trombone (Track 8) *Koji Makaino – keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 9) *Hideki Oguro – tympani (Track 9) *Yasuhiko Tachibana – upright bass (Track 12) *Keiichiro Uemura – drums (Track 12) *Yoshihiko Katori – vibraphone (Track 12) *Makoto Hirahara – additional backing vocals (Track 12) *Cher Watanabe – keyboards, drum machine, MIDI programming (Track 13) *Yasuo Asai – guitars (Track 13) *Armin "Takeshi" Linzbichler – drums (Track 13)

External links

UP-FRONT WORKS W discography entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:2nd W W (group) albums Zetima albums 2005 albums