Kimi Ga Suki * Raifu is the eighth album by alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 musician Matthew Sweet

Matthew Sweet

Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...

. Originally released as a "thank you" to 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 fans in 2003, it received a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 release in 2004. Sweet stated in the album's liner notes

Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

 that he wrote the album in the course of one week in January 2002, and enlisted the help of some of his Girlfriend

Girlfriend (album)

Girlfriend is the third album by Matthew Sweet, his most commercially and critically successful album to date. AV Club has referred to it as Sweet's magnum opus and labeled it the best power pop album of the 1990s...

-era bandmates during the recording. Sweet mixed, produced and engineered the album at his house. The album cover was designed by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara

is a Japanese artist. He currently lives and works in Tokyo, though his artwork has been exhibited worldwide. Nara received his B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music. Between 1988 and 1993, Nara studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, in Germany. Nara...

.

In the liner notes, Sweet described the album's title as an attempt at reverse Engrish

Engrish

refers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...

: "If I did it correctly, the title should seem a little strange or wrong, but still meaningful! The true definition is supposed to be a 'love you' life, one devoted to loving someone or something, even life itself!"

Track listing

1. "Dead Smile"
2. "Morning Song"
3. "The Ocean In-Between"
4. "I Love You"
5. "I Don't Want to Know"
6. "Warning"
7. "Spiral"
8. "Love is Gone"
9. "Hear This"
10. "Wait"
11. "Tonight We Ride"
12. "Through Your Eyes"

Personnel

• Matthew Sweet
  Matthew Sweet
  Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...
  
  : vocals, bass guitar, guitar
• Greg Leisz
  Greg Leisz
  Greg Leisz is an American multi-instrumentalist, playing lap and pedal steel guitars, guitar, mandolin, and bass.- Biography :Leisz was influenced early on by the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, especially pedal steel player "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow...
  
  : guitar
• Richard Lloyd: guitar
• Ric Menck: drums