Album art & tracklisting: Kaname Kawabata - On the way home

Kaname Kawabata - On the way home | Random J Pop

Kaname Kawabata one half of the J-R&B group Chemistry (who Crystal Kay fans will recognize from "After love ~First boyfriend~" and "Two as one") will be releasing an album of covers, which is pretty much a rite of passage for Japanese recording artists. Just ask Beni. She swears by them. Caught her biggest hit in ages by releasing one, which then lead to her releasing three of them within the space of two years.

I'm as interested in hearing this album as I am interested in how Kaname managed to end up looking like a 14 year old school boy on the album covers.

Three covers on this album in particular have caught my attention. Hikaru Utada's "Flavor of life", Ayaka's "Mikazuki" and Angela Aki's "Home". Dude's playing with fire.

Kaname Kawabata - On the way home | Random J Pop

  1. Yasashisa de afureru you ni with Little Glee Monster originally performed by JuJu
  2. Orion originally performed by Mika Nakashima
  3. Flavor of life originally performed by Hikaru Utada
  4. Mikazuki originally performed by Ayaka
  5. Yasashii Kiss wo shite originally performed by Dreams come true
  6. Dear…again originally performed by Kohmi Hirose
  7. Refrain ga sakenderu originally performed by Yumi Matsuyota
  8. Katachi aru mono originally performed by Kou Shibasaki
  9. I'm proud originally performed by Tomomi Kahala
  10. Home originally performed by Angela Aki

Below is a promo video of Kaname singing some of the songs in a bathhouse. If you're thirsty, I'll warn you now; the only flesh you see in this video are that of Kaname's feet. If that's your thing, then you may want to grab a towel and some Kleenex. Otherwise, check him out getting his Onsen on as he sings a couple of the songs which feature on his album.


On the way home is released on December 10th just in time to fill stockings for the holidays, and I will be checking it out to hear the justices / injustices done to Hikaru Utada's "Flavor of life", Ayaka's "Mikazuki" and Angela Aki's "Home". Kaname has a good voice which I feel suits all three of these songs, so things would have to go REALLY bad for him to fuck them up completely. I love the arrangements of the originals, but would like for Kaname to be bold and switch them up a little. All three songs are very piano driven, but I've always wanted to hear them flipped and performed against nothing but an acoustic guitar and a string quartet. "Mikazuki" in particular. So let's wait and see whether Kaname is worthy of praise or a good dragging.

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