Nice.

4th Album / Stereo

Epic ESCL 2357

Released January 22, 2003

Produced by Andy Sturmer

Highest Chart Ranking: #20
Weeks on Chart: 4

Puffy's first album of original material in over two years (dating back to Spike), and their first album to be completely produced by Andy Sturmer. In addition to producing, Sturmer also wrote or co-wrote all the songs and played multiple instruments on each track. He gives the album a bright, retro pop-rock sound that's not quite as heavy as Spike was (for the most part). Also, there are a lot more down-tempo/low-key/acoustic pop songs in comparison to past Puffy albums - "Angel of Love," "Thank You," and "Shiawase" all share this trait. There's also the usual disco tune ("Tokyo Nights"), Moog-flavored rock ("Your Love Is A Drug"), jangly guitar rock ("Sayonara," "Long Beach Nightmare"), and even some ska ("K2G ~Kimini GO!~").

This was the first album Puffy didn't tour for. Ami gave birth to her daughter not too long after the record was released, so Yumi ended up doing a lot of promoting by herself (especially in America, where she lived for several months in early 2003 as she learned to speak English). However - as evidenced by the Rolling Debut Revue DVD - Puffy did play several songs that ended up on this album on their 2002 tours.

As with most of Puffy's pre-2004 output, this disc is (sadly) out of print.

Track Listing

1. Akai Buranko (words: Puffy/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:46)
2. Tokyo Nights (words: Pierre Taki/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:49)
3. Angel of Love (words: Shoko Suzuki/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:11)
4. Sayonara (words: YO-KING/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:18)
5. invisible tomorrow (words: Puffy/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:54)
6. Thank You (words: Yumi Yoshimura/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:52)
7. Long Beach Nightmare (words: Ami Onuki/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:13)
8. Your Love Is a Drug (words & music: Andy Sturmer) (3:32)
9. K2G ~Kimini GO!~ (words: Puffy/music: Andy Sturmer) (4:34)
10. Shiawase (words: Tamio Okuda/music: Andy Sturmer) (4:21)
11. Atarashii Hibi (words: Puffy/music: Andy Sturmer) (3:32)
12. Tomodachi (Album Version) (words: Puffy/music: Andy Sturmer) (10:05)

Notes:

• Ami plays the guitar solo on "invisible tomorrow."
• The first Puffy album not to have Tamio Okuda present on any song (though he did write the lyrics for "Shiawase").
• Ad copy promoting this album mentioned that the record presented a slightly more "grown-up" sounding Puffy than listeners may have otherwise expected.
• The first two tracks crossfade into each other.
• "Tokyo Nights" is similar sounding to the Buggles song "Video Killed The Radio Star."
• The song "K2G ~Kimini GO!~" was used in the episode "Mad Mod" of the cartoon series Teen Titans.
• "Atarashii Hibi" is somewhat similar to the old Elvis Costello song "Radio, Radio."
• "Tomodachi" bears a resemblance in spots to the old Supremes hit "You Can't Hurry Love."
• “Tomodachi (Album Version)” is not different from the single version, and is not actually 10 minutes long. There are several minutes of silence after the song ends, at the end of which is a hidden “track” (for lack of a better term, since it only goes on for about twenty seconds) containing a backwards snippet of “Angel of Love” followed by Andy Sturmer's daughter saying “Nice.” (thanks to puffy715 for the info)
• "Atarashii Hibi" and "Tomodachi" were both released on a single nearly two years before they appeared on "Nice." The two songs were released even before The Hit Parade or any of its singles.

Other

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