''Moriagaro'' (stylized as MORIAGARO) (, "Let's Get Down") is the tenth studio album by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai, released on July 17, 2013 by

EMI Records Japan EMI Records Japan was a Japanese record label which operated as a sublabel of Universal Music Japan. Established in April 2013, it was the successor of its previous entity as a company, EMI Music Japan. The sublabel's headquarters was located a ...

and

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

. The album marked her first and only release under EMI Records Japan following Universal's purchase of

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

's music operations prior to its rebranding as

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

in 2014. Musically, ''Moriagaro'' expands on the dance-pop sound found on Ai's previous studio album, ''

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

'', with R&B and hip hop sensibilities. Alongside long-time collaborator Uta, Ai worked with various American producers. On November 20, 2013, the album was reissued as '' Motto Moriagaro''.

Writing and production

The album was written by Ai, collaborating with

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and Japanese producers. Ai collaborated with four singers: American R&B singers

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. In 2009, he signed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings. Jeremih's commercial debut single, "Birthday Sex", ...

, Lloyd and

Bridget Kelly Bridget Kelly (born April 8, 1986) is an American singer and songwriter from New York City. In 2008, Kelly, a pop and R&B recording artist, who has written songs for fellow American singers such as Kelly Clarkson, secured a recording contract ...

, as well as

Malaysian Australian Malaysian Australians ( ms, orang Malaysia Australia) refers to Malaysians who have migrated to Australia or Australian-born citizens who are of Malaysian descent. This may include Malays as well as overseas Chinese, Indian, Orang Asal, mixed M ...

R&B singer

Che'Nelle Cheryline Ernestine Lim (born 10 March 1982), known by her stage name Che'Nelle, is an Australian singer-songwriter signed to Universal Music Japan. Early life Cheryline Ernestine Lim was born on 10 March 1982, to a Chinese father, and a mothe ...

, who has based her career in Japan since 2011. Five of the songs are sung in Japanese, and three entirely in English. "Moriagaro," "Don't Turn Me Off" and "Gotta Get Mine" are sung in a mix of English and Japanese. Album recording took place mostly in Tokyo, as well as in

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Ai worked mostly with Japanese producer Uta (who she has worked with since ''

Viva Ai ''Viva Ai'' (stylized as ViVa A.I.) is the seventh studio album by Japanese Americans, Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai (singer), Ai, released March 4, 2009, by Island Records and Universal Sigma. It featured three singles, the 2008 theme s ...

'' (2009)) on the songs "Hanabi," "My Place," "Sogood" and "Voice." This is the first time that Ai only worked with a single Japanese producer on an album. Ai worked with five American producers on the remaining songs. Fifty 1 Fifty produced three songs, "For You," "Top of the World" and " After the Storm." De-Capo Music Group worked on "Moriagaro," C3prod on "Dear Mama" and Wonda Music on "Gotta Get Mine." Ai worked together with producer D.Clax and The Exclusives on the song "My Baby."

Promotion and release

The first single released from the album was "

Voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

" in February 2013. The song was used as the theme song for the drama '' Yakō Kanransha'', starring Kyōka Suzuki and

Yuriko Ishida is a Japanese actress and essayist from Nagoya. She was the Japanese voice of the title character San from the 1997 animated film ''Princess Mononoke''. She is the older sister of Hikari Ishida, also an actress. Filmography Films *''Gokudo no On ...

. The single became a big hit, being certified by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

as a gold single a month after release. It is currently her fourth most sold physical single since her debut. It is also her last release under the then-independent

EMI Music Japan , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. When ...

. Ai followed up the single with two digital singles. The first was "Mama e," used in a Lotte chocolate commercial campaign for

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the ...

, and "After the Storm," used as the theme for the Japanese release of the

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

martial arts film '' The Grandmaster''. Three other songs were used for TV commercials. "Sogood" was used for

KFC KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

Japan commercials, "For You" for

Kubota Kubota machine is a Japanese multinational corporation based in Osaka. It was established in 1890. The corporation produces many products including tractors and other agricultural machinery, construction equipment, engines, vending machines, p ...

commercials, and "My Place" for

Japan Rail The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as the or simply JR, consists of seven for-profit stock companies that took over most of the assets and operations of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. Mo ...

in promotion of the

Kyushu Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed railway network. It is an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen from Honshu connecting the city of Fukuoka (Hakata Station) in the north of Japan's Kyushu Island to the city of Kagoshima ( Kagoshima-Chuo St ...

. "Gotta Get Mine" was also used as the July opening theme for the

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

R&B/dance program Chōryūha. "Top of the World" was later used as the opening theme for the TBS drama ''

Higanjima is a Japanese manga series by Kōji Matsumoto. It was adapted into a live action film in 2010. It also spawned two sequel series, ''Higanjima: Saigo no 47 Nichikan'', and ''Higanjima 48 Nichigo…'', both published in Kodansha's ''Week ...

'' in October 2013. Music videos were produced for the album songs "Gotta Get Mine," "Hanabi," "My Place," and "Sogood."

Tours

Ai's ''Moriagaro Tour'' began in October in

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, Japan, and included 33 dates. The final concert was held on December 18, 2013, at the

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts con ...

in Tokyo.

Track listing

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Moriagaro'' and Tidal.Notes * Tracks 1, 3–4, 8, and 10–12 are stylized in

all capitals In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in l ...

. * Track 6 is titled in Japanese * Track 7 is stylized in all lower case.

Charts

Sales and certifications

Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from ''Moriagaros liner notes booklet. Managerial *Yuki Arai – executive producer *Takeshi Fukushima – advance marketing chief *Shigetaka Haratake – sales promotion *Hiroyuki Jinno – legal rights and business affairs *Nozomu Kaji – marketing, promotion *Junji Kaseya – associate producer *Kimiko Kato – sales promotion *Saikan Kobayashi – project assistant *Kazuhiro Koike – executive producer *Toshiharu Kojima – artist management *Jiro Koyasu – associate producer *Kyosuke Ochiai – design coordination *Shinobu Ozawa – artist management *Koichi Sakakibara – artist manager *Satomi Takizawa – artist management *Seiichi Watanabe – A&R *Yusuke Yamamoto – project assistant Performance credits *Ai –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

*Che'nelle – vocals (#9) *Jeremih – vocals (#1) *Bridget Kelly – vocals (#8) *Lloyd – vocals (#5) *Swiss Chris – drums (#8) Visuals and imagery *Ambush – costume cooperation *Justin Davis – costume cooperation *Noriko Goto – stylist *Ayako Hishinuma – prop creator ('Moriagaro Bling Bling') *Manabu Honchu – design *Justin & Valley – logo design *Akio Kawabata – package coordination *Yasunari Kikuma – photographer *Akemi Ono – hair, make-up *Toshiya Ono – art direction *Shuma Saito – package coordination *Silver Face – prop creator ('Moriagaro Knuckle Rings') *Shigeaki Watanabe – prop creator ('Moriagaro Cap') *Wut Berlin – costume cooperation *X-Closet – costume cooperation *Eiji Yoshimura – design Technical and production *Ai – producer (#1, #3-4, #6-7, #9-10) *Arden 'Keys' Altino – co-producer (#8) *Ben-E – producer (#6) *Jo Blaq – mixing, vocal recording (#12) *C3prod – producer (#6) *Tom Coyne – album mastering *D.Clax – producer (#5) *De-Capo Music Group – producer (#1) *DOI – mixing (#1-7, #9-11) *Akene 'The Champ' Dunkley – co-producer (#8) *Jerry 'Wonda' Duplessis – producer (#8) *Fifty 1 Fifty – producer (#9-10, #12) *Keisuke Fujimaki – vocal recording (#4) *Seiji Itabashi – assisting (#8, #11) *Carlos 'Los' Jenkins – vocal recording (#12) *Neeraj Khajanchi – additional vocal recording (#8), vocal recording (#11) *T. Kura – vocal editing (#2) *Sean 'Pen' McMillion – engineering (#5), vocal producer for Lloyd (#5) *Michico – vocal producer (#2) *Yoshinori Morita – vocal recording (#1, #6-7, #9) *Taiji Okuda – Japanese production (#5), recording (#2-3, #10) *Mario Parra – Che'nelle's vocal recording (#9) *Lance Powell – assisting (#8) *Andrew Robertson – assisting (#8) *Mark Roger – vocal recording (#1) *Serge 'Sergical' Tsai – recording (#8) *Uta – producer (#2-4, #7, #11) *Satoshi Yoneda – vocal editing (#2)

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Ai (singer) albums Japanese-language albums EMI Records albums Universal Music Group albums Universal Music Japan albums Albums produced by Ai (singer)