''Heartbreaker'' (ハートブレイカー) is the third original album by J-pop singer-songwriter

Marie Ueda is a Japanese singer and songwriter under Giza Studio label. Biography At the age of 5 or 6, Ueda dreamed to become a singer one day. During elementary school she tried out in various auditions at singing contests. In 2003, at 12, she sang Y ...

. It was released on 26 August 2020 under the

Giza Studio is a Japanese record label. The Giza Studio started as an indie label in the late 1990s under the name Garage Indies Zapping Association, but soon Being Inc. bought it as their sister label company. Giza Studio is located in Osaka, Japan and ...

label. It includes the singles "Revolver", "I Just Wanna Be a Star", "Stranger" and "What's".

Background

The album consists of 17 songs, which makes it the longest album in Ueda's career. It's also the first album which includes lyrics and music from other people. Various veteran musicians from Being, such as

Akihito Tokunaga (born 22 September 1971) is a Japanese musical composer and arranger under Giza Studio label since 2000. Biography Since college he worked as orchestrator, then start working as a bassist. For artists as Zard, Mai Kuraki, B'z and many others f ...

Daria Kawashima , known before as Miki Kawashima, is a Japanese musical composer, singer-songwriter, lyricist under Being Inc. records. Biography In 1986, she debuted as ''Miki Kawashima'' with the single Silk no Kuchibiru under CBS Sony label. Three years, she ...

and

Aika Ohno Aika may refer to: Arts and media * ''Aika'' (album), a 1996 album by Finnish singer-songwriter Aki Sirkesalo *''Agent Aika'', a 1997 anime OVA produced by Bandai Visual and Studio Fantasia *AIKA Online, an MMORPG *Aikakone or Aika, a Finnish mu ...

were involved in the music production. The album was released in two editions, regular CD and limited CD+DVD. The DVD consisted of music video clips from the years 2016-2020. This is Ueda's first original album to be released in three years and eight months.

Promotion

"Revolver" was used as an intro song to the television variety program ''Bebop Higheel''. The song was released as a single on 8 August 2017. The digital single "Stranger" was released on 1 October 2019. Later that year, it was announced that it would serve as a anniversary campaign song for the department store Flags in Fukuoka. The digital single "What's" was released on 1 May 2020. It was announced that it would serve as a theme song to the movie ''Missis Noisy''. While the movie was postponed due to worldwide pandemic (originally scheduled to premiere in May 2020), the digital single was released according to the schedule. The song was composed after the one-night live Palpable Babble Live in 2019. "I Just Wanna Be a Star" was produced along with the music video clip within the span of 25 hours during the YouTube live broadcast in November 2019. Several months later, in April 2020 was announced the song promotion in the television drama ''Peanut Butter Sandwich'' and released as a digital single on 1 May 2020. Digital single "Niji ga Kakaru Kara" and movie insert song "Go to the Sun" remain unreleased from the album recordings.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from album booklet. *

– vocals (all), piano, arrange (17), music&lyrics (1-2,4-5,9,11,14-15,17) *Hirofumi Nishimura – piano, organ (1,8,9,10,13,15) *

– bass, guitar, chorus, arrange, music, programming (2,3) *

Hiroshi Asai (born 26 April 1978) is a Japanese arranger, musician and composer for the Giza Studio label. He is a former member of band ''The★tambourines''. Since 2012 he is a member of the instrumental band ''Sensation''.First headline news"Opened home ...

– bass, programming (1,7,9,10,13) * Keisuke Kurumatani (Sensation) – drums (1,8,9,10,11,13,15) *Kei (ex. Magenta Blue) – guitar, chorus (6,7) *

– chorus, music (10) *

– chorus, music, arrange (7) *Yūzō Ōkusu – chorus, music, programming, arrange (6) *Soshiranu – arrange, programming, music, lyrics (1,4,5,12,15) *Kenta Watanabe – guitar (1,9,13) *Joe Daisque – poem, music, arrange, guitar, programming (8) *

Kazuya Yoshii is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band The Yellow Monkey. When they went on hiatus in 2001, before officially disbanding three years later, Yoshii started a solo car ...

(

The Yellow Monkey The Yellow Monkey, sometimes abbreviated as , is a Japanese rock band originally active from 1988 to 2001, before officially disbanding in 2004. They announced their reformation in 2016. The band's name was derived from the ethnic slur that J ...

) – poetry reading (8) * Mai Ueda – acoustic guitar, chorus (14)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2020 albums Being Inc. albums Giza Studio albums Japanese-language albums