is the sixth album by

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is cons ...

, recorded from October 1982 to March 1983, and released on May 24, 1983. It contains the pop-oriented single "Kimi ni Mune Kyun", as well as a "preview" of "You've Got to Help Yourself", which was released in its full version on the companion album ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'', and again with vocals on '' Service''.

Overview

''Naughty Boys'' was their final album to top the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

charts. After that, no technopop artist was able to reach No.1 until

Perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

's 2008 album '' Game''. "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" also became the highest-charting single by a technopop artist on the Oricon charts, debuting at No. 2; a record the song retained until

's "

Love the World "Love the World" (stylized as "love the world") is Perfume's 7th major single. It was released on July 9, 2008 and debuted at number one on the Oricon chart, becoming the first electropop song from an electropop act to do so, Yellow Magic Orchest ...

" debuted at No. 1 in 2008. "Ongaku" ("Music") was reportedly written by

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto i ...

for his then-two-year-old daughter, Miu. ''Naughty Boys'' was re-released in 2004 in a double disc package alongside ''Naughty Boys Instrumental''. Various

cover versions In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" have been produced by later artists, including

Jan Linton Jan Linton is a British singer, musician and producer from Warrington who helped internationalise the music scene in Tokyo, Japan. Biography Jan Linton studied violin from the age of four, moving briefly onto piano, before discovering pop ...

in 1992, and including

School Food Punishment was a four-member Japanese band. They were signed onto Sony Music Japan's Epic Records Japan record label prior to their breakup in June 2012. The lyrics of each of the band's songs were written by lead vocalist and guitarist Yumi Uchimura. Ba ...

in 2011. Also in 2009, a cover of "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" was used as the ending theme song for the

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series ''

Maria Holic is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Minari Endō, the author of ''Dazzle''. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine ''Monthly Comic Alive'' on June 27, 2006, and is published by Media Factory. Th ...

'', sung by

Asami Sanada is a Japanese actress from Nagano Prefecture. She voiced the role of Vita in the ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' series, Jun Sakurada in the '' Rozen Maiden'' series, Kurumi Tokisaki in the '' Date A Live'' series, Sawako Yamanaka in the ''K-On ...

Marina Inoue is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Tokyo, Japan. She is affiliated with Aoni Production. She was signed into Aniplex until 2007. She was chosen out of 2,000 people from the "Gonna be a star" auditions (hosted by Sony Music Entertainment ...

, and

Yū Kobayashi is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with Holy Peak. Some of her most prominent roles include that of Tadamichi Aoba in ''Dan Doh!!'', Setsuna Sakurazaki in ''Negima! Magister Negi Magi'', Dan Kuso in '' Bakugan Battle Brawlers'', ...

, the

voice actresses Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

of the main characters.

Reception

John Bush of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

noted how the album sounds very different from their previous albums, praising it as "a solid album of commercial synth-pop" as well as the lead single "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" for "featuring vocals just as accomplished as its production." Andrew Stout of ''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards ...

'' has praised the album as "sensuous '' musique concrète'' perfected."

''Naughty Boys Instrumental''

A remix album, , was released in July 1983 by record label Alfa. It contained nearly the entire ''Naughty Boys'' album as instrumental tracks in an entirely different running order, as well as the b-side to "Kimi ni, mune kyun.", "Chaos Panic"; and the full instrumental version of "You've Got to Help Yourself", which was released in "preview" form on the previous album. "You've Got to Help Yourself"'s vocal version is also featured on '' Service''. ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'' featured additional synthesizers imitating the vocal lines, as well as new embellishments and mixes. Several tracks featured sonically updated percussion tracks, while "Ongaku" featured an acoustic

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

soloing over the piece. The instrumental versions of "Chaos Panic", "Lotus Love", and "Kai-Koh" were later included as bonus tracks on

Restless Records Restless Records is a record label that was started in El Segundo, California in 1986 by Enigma Records and primarily released alternative, metal, and punk records. Restless also licensed and released records from Bar/None Records, Metal Blade R ...

' 1992 CD release of '' X∞Multiplies'' in the United States and Canada, alongside the non-album single "Kageki Na Shukujo". Later, ''Naughty Boys Instrumental'' was re-released in its entirety as part of a double-CD package with the original ''Naughty Boys'' in 2004.

Translation notes

As on some other YMO albums, song titles are provided in both

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, and some have different translations altogether: * "君に、胸キュン。" translates to "My Heart Beats for You." *Though "Expected Way" and "Expecting Rivers" are the official translations, the Japanese titles translate to "Desired Path" and "River of Hope", respectively. *"邂逅" translates to "Chance Meeting". *"以心電信" translates to "Telegraph of the Heart".

Track listing

Personnel

*Yellow Magic Orchestra – Arrangements,

Electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

Mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

Producers Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Haruomi Hosono , sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop f ...

– Bass, Synth Bass,

Keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

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 withou ...

– Keyboards, Vocals *

Yukihiro Takahashi Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋幸宏 ''Takahashi Yukihiro'', born June 6, 1952) is a Japanese musician, singer, record producer and actor, who is best known internationally as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and as the fo ...

– Vocals,

Electronic drums Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sounds ...

, Cymbals, Keyboards Guest musicians * Takeshii Fujii & Akihiko Yamazoe – Technical assistance * Takashi Matsumoto –

Lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

for "Kimi ni, mune kyun." * Peter Barakan – Lyrics for "Focus" and "Opened My Eyes" *

Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Flo ...

–

Electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

Staff *Mitsuo Koike –

Recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

& Mixing engineer *Akitsugu Doi (Studio "A”) & Takanobu Arai (Onkio Haus) – Assistant Engineers *Kazusuke Obi & Osamu Takahashi – A&R Coordinators *Yōichi Itō (Office Intenzio) & Hiroshi Ōkura (B-2 Unit) –

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a Government agency, government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includ ...

*Tsuguya Inoue (Beans) – Art director *Tsukuitoshinao – Creative Services * Masayoshi Sukita –

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

*Mikio Honda (Bijin) – Hair, Makeup

References

{{Authority control 1983 albums Yellow Magic Orchestra albums Alfa Records albums