Versus is the third, and second full length album, by Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese rock band

Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

 Mr. Children

Mr. Children

, commonly called , is a Japanese rock band formed in 1988 by Kazutoshi Sakurai, Kenichi Tahara, Keisuke Nakagawa, and Hideya Suzuki. As a group, they are one of the most successful Japanese rock artists, having sold over 50 million records and creating the in the mid 1990s in Japan...

 released on September 1, 1993. The album debuted on the Japanese Oricon

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. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

 music charts at #3 and sold 802,140 copies during its run on the chart. Just like the previous two albums, Versus contains only one single released on July 1, 1993, titled "Replay" with another album track "And I close to you" also being included in Mr. Children's fourth single "Cross Road

Cross Road (song)

"Cross Road" is the fourth single released by Mr. Children on November 10, 1993.-Overview:The single reached #6 on the Oricon Japanese charts selling 1,255,940 copies during its run on the chart. The title track, "Cross Road", was used to promote the Japanese drama and also included in Mr....

". Versus also marked the first time use of Takeshi Kobayashi as a writer and composer for Mr. Children.

Track listing

Personnel

• Kazutoshi Sakurai
  Kazutoshi Sakurai
  is a Japanese musician and entrepreneur. He composes and writes almost all of the songs for his band Mr. Children, in addition to writing lyrics and singing for his solo project group Bank Band. In 2006, Sakurai ranked #8 in HMV's "Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time" and in 2007 was voted #4...
  
   – vocals, guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Kenichi Tahara – guitar
• Keisuke Nakagawa – bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Hideya Suzuki – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , vocals
• Carol Steele - percussion
• Takuo Yamamoto - tenor
  Tenor
  The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
  
  , baritone sax, recorder
  Recorder
  The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
  
  
• Yoichi Murata - trombone
  Trombone
  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
  
  
• Toshio Araki - trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  

Production

Production credits for album:

• Producer - Takeshi Kobyashi
• Executive producer - Takamitsu Ide, Mitsunori Kadoike
• Recording - Kunihiko Imai, Hiroshi Hiranuma, and Doug Conroy
• Mixing - Hiroshi Hiranuma, Kunihiko Imai
• Brass arrangement - Takuo Yamamoto
• A&R chief - Koichi Inaba
• A&R director - Makoto Nakanishi, Katsumi Shinohara
• Computer programming - Ken Matsumoto
• Assistant engineering - Greg Digesu, Jeff Mauriello, Kenji Nagashima, Yoshitaka Shirahata, Kei Kosaka, and Tomoaki Sato
• Recording - Waterfront Studios, Tokyo Hilton Hotel, Hitokuchizaka Studio, and Avaco Studio
• Mixed at - Peninsula, Studio Vincent
• Mastering - Gateway Mastering
• Mastered by - Bob Ludwig
• U.S production supervision - Kaz Hayashida
• Account Administration - Jeff Schwartz and Rupert Gray
• Translator - Rika Nakaya
• Recording co-ordination - Akira Yasukawa
• Promotion - Naoki Imoto
• Sales promotion - Masayuki Nakagawa
• Art Direction - Mitsuo Shindo
• Designer - Satoshi Nakamura
• Photographer - Meisa Fujishiro
• Stylist - Hiroko Umeyama
• Marine coordinator - Masato Nagai
• Artist management - Isao Tanuma and Kazushiro Miura
• Desk management - Tomoko Okada
• Production management - Tetsuhiko /nono
• Production co-ordination - Harumi Oshima
• P.R management - Chikane Kumagai