Free (Mao Abe album)

Free
Studio album by Mao Abe
Released	January 21, 2009
Recorded	2008
Genre	J-pop
Length	50:19
Label	Pony Canyon
Mao Abe chronology
— Free (2009) Pop (2010)
Singles from Free
"Free" Released: December, 2008 (radio single)

Free (ふりぃ Furī) is Mao Abe's first album, released on January 21, 2009.^[1] It entered the Japanese Oricon album charts at #17, and was in the top 300 for 10 weeks.^[2] The album was released in two versions: a regular version and a CD+DVD version only on sale for a limit period of time.

The album was Abe's first physical release, as opposed to the Japanese music industry standard of releasing singles beforehand. All of the songs on this album were written by Abe during 2006-2007 while she was at high school.^[3]

When the album was in its final stages, all of the finalised data was lost. The songs had to be rebuilt by Abe and her production team from the original studio recordings.^[4]

Promotion

The album was preceded by four digital download singles on iTunes between August and November 2008: all were acoustic demos of Abe songs. Two of these songs, "Hitomishiri no Uta" (人見知りの唄 Shy Song) and "My Baby", were used as album tracks, while the other two ("Anata no Koibito ni Naritai no desu" (貴方の恋人になりたいのです I Wanna Be Your Lover)and I Wanna See You) were used as singles after the release of the album.

The lead radio single, "Free" (ふりぃ), did extremely well on airplay charts. It reached #1 on the combined physical sales/airplay-based Billboard chart Japan Hot 100.^[5] A music video, directed by Masaki Ohkita, was made for the song^[6]), which appears on the DVD of the album. The song also had three tie-ups: it was used as the music countdown show CDTV January 2009 opening theme song (though interestingly it did not chart in the CDTV top 100), the music show Mashup! Musico's January ending theme song and the Glico Pocky commercial for special air on the music video channel Space Shower.

Three other songs had tie-ups: "Want You Darling" was used as the theme song of the drama Tetsudō Musume (鉄道むすめ Railroad Girl) (shown since October 2008), "My Baby" was used as the Ski Jam Katsuyama ski field commercial song, and "Kirei na Uta" (キレイな唄 Pretty Song) was used as the Beauteen hair colour commercial song. This tie-up came after the album's release, hence the song features as the B-side to Abe's "Tsutaetai Koto/I Wanna See You" single, released four months later.

Track listing

CD track list

All songs written by Mao Abe.

No.	Title	Arranger(s)	Length
1.	"Free (ふりぃ)"	Yūichi Komori	3:52
2.	"Hitomishiri no Uta (Kyōkan Shite Moraetara Ureshii tte Hanashi Desu) (人見知りの唄～共感してもらえたら嬉しいって話です～ Shy Song (I'm Just Saying I'd Like Someone to Understand How I Feel))"	Skin-Headz	4:43
3.	"My Baby"	Komori	4:03
4.	"Kirei na Uta (キレイな唄 Pretty Song)"	Komori	5:21
5.	"Deadline (デッドライン)"	Mao Abe	3:02
6.	"Don't Leave Me"	Shinji Onitsuka	5:07
7.	"Kotoba (コトバ Words)"	Komori	4:36
8.	"Want You Darling"	Masakazu Andō	4:16
9.	"17-sai no Uta (17歳の唄 17 Years Old Song)"	Andō	5:38
10.	"Nasakenai Otoko no Uta (情けない男の唄 Pathetic Boy Song)"	Abe	8:41

DVD track list

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Free (ふりぃ) (music video)"	3:52

Japan sales rankings^[7]

Release	Chart	Peak position	First week sales	Sales total	Chart run
January 21, 2009	Oricon Daily Albums Chart	9
	Oricon Weekly Albums Chart	17	7,700	21,300	12 weeks
	Oricon Yearly Albums Chart

Various charts

Chart	Peak position	First Week Sales
Soundscan Album Top 20[8]	20	5,800

Personnel

Mao Abe - acoustic guitar (#1-3, #5, #8-10), arranger (#5, #10), songwriter Masakazu Andō - arranger (#8-9), producer Kozo Fujita - art direction, photography Masao Fukunaga - drums (#2-3) Ryoji Hachiya - recording (#10), mixing (#5, #10) Daichi Hamazaki - drums (#8-9) Tatsurō Hayashi - hair & make-up Mikihiko Ishibashi - recording (#6, #10) Hiroyuki Ishimizu - photo assistant Akihisa Kanbe - supervisor Teppei Kawasaki - bass guitar (#1-3, #8-9), electric bass guitar (#4), washboard bass (#4) Kengo - background vocals (#3) Noriyuki Kisou - recording/mixing (#1, #7) Kenichi Kobayashi - bass guitar (#7) Yūichi Komori - arrangement (#1, #3-4, #7) Minoru Kuriyama - release operator Akira Matsuo - artist planner Meg&aska - styling Tsuyoshi Miyagawa - drums (#1, #4) Hitomi Mori - sales promoter

N.O.B.U!!! - background vocals (#1) Katsuhito Nakanishi - A&R director Aya Ninomiya - artist management Masaki Ohkita - music video director Shinji Onitsuka - arranger (#6), piano (#6) Daisuke Sato - drums (#7) Toshiyuki Satō - graphic design Yūichi Sekine - A&R producer Mitsuo Shimano - executive producer Takumi Shimizu - executive producer Skin-headz - arrangement (#2) Junko Sugawara - electric guitar (#1-3) Naoki Sugawara - executive producer Kōji Suzuki - artist management Yuji Suzuki - publishing promoter Kensuke Takeshima - coordinator Yoshiyuki Tanaka - acoustic guitar (#4, #7), electric guitar (#4, #7) Yutaka Uematsu - mastering, recording/mixing (#2-4, #8-9) Kenichiro Wada - electric guitar (#4, #8-9)

References

1. "唄｜阿部真央オフィシャルサイト". Retrieved 2009-12-01.
2. "ふりぃ/阿部真央". Retrieved 2009-12-01.
3. "インタビュー 阿部真央". @Pia. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
4. "インタビュー 阿部真央". VIDE-NET.COM. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
5. "Mao Abe - Free". Music Charts. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
6. "阿部真央 ふりぃ (ONLY SSTV EDITION)". Retrieved 2009-12-01.
7. "オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」". Oricon. Retrieved 2010-05-07. (subscription only)
8. 週間CDソフトTOP 20 アルバム総合 ランキングTOP20 2009年1月19日～2009年1月25日 調査分

External links

• Pony Canyon profile (Japanese)
• Translations of the album's lyrics into English