''Umi'' (海 / ''Ocean'') is the thirteenth domestic single released by the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese hip-hop group

Lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

. The single failed to break the top twenty on

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 Nov ...

for the weekly ranking, charting at #27 for two weeks. ''Umi'' was released as a CD+DVD combo, which was only released for a limited time. One of five possible pictures were also packaged with each copy. The

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

"Kimi wa Nanika ga Dekiru" was a cover of the same song, originally released by 99Harmony.

Information

''Umi'' (海 / ''Ocean'') is the thirteenth single released by the

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 ...

hip-hop

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

on July 18, 2007. The single failed to chart in the top twenty on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

s, reaching #27 for the weekly ranking and only remaining on the charts for two consecutive weeks. Limited copies of the single housed one of five possible photographs. The single was only released as a limited CD+DVD combo pack. The CD featured the title track with its corresponding instrumental, and the coupling tracks "Sora no Kanata e" (空の彼方へ / ''Beyond the Sky'') and "Kimi wa Nanika ga Dekiru" (君は何かが出来る / ''You Can Do Something''). The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

harbored the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Umi", along with the video's behind-the-scenes making. "Umi" was written and composed by the Japanese rock band MJ. The musical arrangement was done by Seiji Motoyama, who had worked with Lead with prior songs (" Summer Madness", "

Drive Alive ''Drive Alive'' is the twelfth domestic single by Japanese hip-hop group Lead. It peaked at #14 on the Oricon weekly charts, remaining on the charts for three weeks. The single was released as both a standard CD and a limited edition CD+DVD com ...

") and would continue to work with the group in the future. "Sore no Kanata e" was written and composed by Japanese

musical composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Gajin (

Masato Nakamura is a Japanese musician, bass guitarist, and record producer. He is a member of the J-pop band Dreams Come True, which was formed in 1988 and went on to sell over 50million CDs. He also composed the soundtracks for the video games ''Sonic the H ...

), who has also worked with the likes of

KinKi Kids is a Japanese duo consisting of Koichi Domoto and Tsuyoshi Domoto under the talent agency Johnny & Associates. KinKi Kids was formed in 1993 and officially debuted on July 21, 1997. With more than 30 million physical copies sold, they are one of ...

and

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with it ...

. The music was performed by Seiji Motoyama, like the title track. "Kimi wa Nanika ga Dekiru," originally by the Japanese band 99Harmony, was composed by Toshiyuki Kimori and arranged by Akira Sasaki. The lyrical portion was written by Michio Yamagami.

Promotional advertisements

To help promote the single, both "Umi" and the coupling tracks, "Sora no Kanata e" and "Kimi wa Nanika ga Dekiru", had promotional tie-ins. "Umi" was utilized as the ending theme to the Japanese television series ''We Have Muscle!'' (いただきマッスル! / ''Itadaki Massuru'') throughout the month of July. "Kimi wa Nanika ga Dekiru" was the theme song to the film ''Captain,'' which was based on the manga of the same name. The song was originally performed by the band 99Harmony for the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, 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 Japane ...

adaptation, which aired in the 1980s. "Sora no Kanata e" was also used as a tie-in for the film and played during one of the scenes.

Track listing

Charts (Japan)

References

External links

Lead Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Umi 2007 singles 2007 songs Pony Canyon singles J-pop songs Lead (band) songs