Naughty Boys, released in 1983 through Alfa Records in Japan and Pick Up Records in Europe, is the sixth studio album by Japanese Synth-Pop supergroup Yellow Magic Orchestra. Following the release of Technodelic in the fall of 1981, the group intended to dissolve, only to find themselves still bound by contract to deliver two more studio albums to their label, Alfa Records. Consequently, the band simply went on hiatus during this time, with Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yukihiro Takahashi all focusing on their solo careers (Hosono placed particular weight on his, having withheld from releasing any solo material during YMO's three years of continuous activity).
By this point, the lack of crossover success past 1980 (and their consequent abandonment by their American label, A&M Records) had gotten to the band members, and upon regrouping, decided to reorient themselves in a more explicitly commercial direction. However, rather than trying to reclaim their standing with western audiences, they turned towards the Japanese listeners that had already given them their biggest successes. Thus, Naughty Boys saw YMO transform themselves into a mock-idol group, riffing on the idea of an act as old as them attempting to stay "hip" with newer trends in Japanese music. Consequently, the album presented a tongue-in-cheek take on the en vogue City Pop genre, alternating between sincerity and irony and consolidating the musique concrete elements of BGM and Technodelic with the new breed of J-pop that they had previously influenced. Fitting their focus on their home market, the band's lyrics on the album are almost exclusively in Japanese, with only two songs written entirely in English.
The result provided YMO with renewed commercial success after the diminishing (though not drastically declining) returns of BGM and Technodelic, becoming the band's last album to top the Oricon LP Chart; no other synth-pop band would top the charts in Japan until Perfume in 2008. Two months later, the band released Naughty Boys Instrumental, a Remix Album that, true to the name, reconfigured Naughty Boys as an entirely-instrumental album in the vein of YMO's typical fare. The instrumental version had previously been teased on the original Naughty Boys with a "preview" edit of "You've Got to Help Yourself", included in full on Naughty Boys Instrumental before being reworked as a vocal song on Service later that year. While Naughty Boys Instrumental wasn't included in Restless Records' CD reissues of the band's catalog in the US and Europe, the instrumental versions of "Chaos Panic", "Lotus Love", and "Kai-Koh" would be included as bonus tracks on ×∞Multiplies (alongside the non-album single "Kageki Na Shukujo"). Reissues since the 2000s have generally packaged the vocal and instrumental versions of Naughty Boys together as a result of their intertwined relationship.
Naughty Boys was supported by one single: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun".
Tracklists:
Naughty Boys:
Side One- "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" (4:07)
- "Expected Way" (4:34)
- "Focus" (3:41)
- "Ongaku" (3:25)
- "Opened My Eyes" (3:40)
Side Two
- "You've Got To Help Yourself (Preview)" (0:30)
- "Lotus Love" (4:05)
- "Kai-Koh" (4:27)
- "Expecting Rivers" (4:37)
- "Wild Ambitions" (5:10)
Naughty Boys Instrumental:
Side One- "Chaos Panic" (4:12)
- "Expected Way" (4:34)
- "Focus" (3:41)
- "Kai-Koh" (4:27)
- "Expecting Rivers" (4:37)
Side Two
- "You've Got to Help Yourself" (4:21)
- "Lotus Love" (4:05)
- "Ongaku" (3:25)
- "Opened My Eyes" (3:40)
- "Wild Ambitions" (5:10)
Dreams fly by in a tropeless sky:
- Break-Up Bonfire: "Focus":You'll be burning with a new love tonight
And I'll be burning old pictures on my mind - Break Up Song: "Focus" is about reminiscing over a past romance through pictures.
- Dedication: "Ongaku" is written by Ryuichi Sakamoto and is dedicated to his daughter Miu (who was 3 at the time). The lyrics depict a scene where the two of them sing together while she plays the piano.
- Compilation Re-release: Most reissues since 2013 (barring the LP and digital releases of the 2019 remaster) package both the vocal and instrumental versions of the album together in one package.
- Distinct Double Album: For the band's 2003 reissue campaign (based on the 1999 remasters), the two different versions of each album were collected as double-CD packages, one disc for each rendition. This configuration is also used for the SACD releases of the 2019 remasters (the LP and digital releases re-separate the two albums).
- Face on the Cover: The vocal version features a headshot of the band members against a solid teal backdrop.
- Gratuitous English: On "Focus" and "Lotus Love".
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" has a spoken-word section where a woman speaks the following passage in Italian:Hello beautiful. A night out with me, what do you say?
I like you very much.
I would like to see what you can do in bed.
Come and have fun with me. - Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Naughty Boys and Naughty Boys Instrumental differentiate each side with different oceanic photographs: a shot of seagulls in the sky on side one and a shot of waves on a beach on side two.
- Instrumentals: "You've Got To Help Yourself (Preview)" on Naughty Boys, and every song on the aptly-titled Naughty Boys Instrumental. The full version of "You've Got to Help Yourself" on the latter would later be reworked as a vocal track on Service.
- Naughty Boys was also released as an instrumental album. Major differences are a longer cut of "You've Got To Help Yourself" and "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" being replaced with the instrumental cut of the non-album Single "Chaos Panic".
- Intentionally Awkward Title: You don't call an album Naughty Boys and expect people to read it innocuously, especially if you have a history of working closely with English-language lyricists.
- Intercourse with You: The Italian spoken-word lyrics of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" imply an invitation to bed from a woman to a man who has a crush on her.
- Intimate Healing: "Opened My Eyes"I couldn't sleep in my bed at night
I didn't have any appetite
For anything (For anything)
You gave me back all the love I need
You gave me reason to believe
In everything (In everything) - Lyrical Dissonance: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" — at face value, it's an upbeat love song, but it's actually about starting an affair with someone.
- Miniscule Rocking: "You've Got to Help Yourself (Preview)" clocks in at just 30 seconds.
- New Sound Album: Radio-friendly City Pop with post-disco trimmings.
- One-Word Title: "Focus" and "Ongaku"
- The Power of Love: "Opened My Eyes"You gave me back all the love I need
You gave me reason to believe
In everything (In everything) - Rearrange the Song: The "preview" version of "You've Got To Help Yourself" is a 30-second edit of the version that appears on Naughty Boys Instrumental.
- Remix Album: Naughty Boys Instrumental radically reconfigures the original Naughty Boys into an all-instrumental format.
- Say My Name: Played in a romantic effect on "Wild Ambitions":So call my name
Please call my name
I'm running through the wild lands - Self-Deprecation: The "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" video makes fun of how completely unlike a boy band YMO are and how unsuited they are to singing (what sounds like) a Silly Love Song.
- Silly Love Songs: "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" (English translation: "I've got a crush on you")
- Speak in Unison: A sung variant. On the last the verse of "Ongaku", all three YMO members singing the same last lyric.
- Special Guest:
- Be-Bop Deluxe frontman Bill Nelson plays electric guitar on the album. Yukihiro Takahashi would return the favor by playing drums on Nelson's solo album Chimera that same year.
- Takashi Matsumoto wrote the lyrics of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun". He was previously part of the bands Apryl Fools and Happy End, along with Haruomi Hosono.
- Spoken Word in Music: The Italian section of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun".
- Stylistic Suck: YMO intentionally half-ass their miming in the music video for "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun", and spend more time goofing off than actually trying to perform the song, all for the sake of poking fun at the idea of three grown men pretending to be teen idols.
- Throwing Off the Disability: "Opened My Eyes" uses this trope as a metaphor for the feeling of personal renewal that comes from love:It was you, you made a blind man see
- Translated Cover Version: YMO would put together a very loosely translated English rendition of "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" with The Human League for the collaborative EP YMO Versus The Human League in 1993; the track would later be included as the B-side to the Human League's single "Tell Me When" and on the deluxe edition of that song's parent album, Octopus.
- Vocal Tag Team: The last verse of "Ongaku" features each YMO member singing his own lyric before the three of them sing in unison on the last line.
