To Love is Japanese R&B singer-lyricist Kana Nishino's second studio album. It was released on June 23, 2010 by SME Records. The album spawned four OriconTop 10singles, "Motto...", "Dear.../Maybe", "Best Friend" and "Aitakute Aitakute".
Background
"To Love" is Nishino's first album released after she solidified her popularity in the digital market. Despite Nishino's initial singles for her first album, Love One., not seeing much success, the songs promoted around the album's release were gradual hits in the digital market. Since then, all of her singles have hit No. 1 on RIAJ's Digital Track Chart, which tracks full-length song downloads to cellphones. "Best Friend" stayed at No. 1 for three consecutive weeks, while "Aitakute Aitakute" and "Motto..." reached No. 1 for two. Currently, "Aitakute Aitakute", "Best Friend," "Dear..." and "Motto..." are all certified for 750,000+ ringtone downloads and 500,000+ full-length cellphone downloads. "Maybe" has been downloaded on cellphones more than 100,000 times, along with a B-side to "Best Friend" "One Way Love" that is not present on the album.
Writing
Much like her first album, To Love is centred around a theme of love. As exactly one year had passed from her previous album, Nishino wanted to express the growth in her values and view on love. In an interview with Yahoo! Japan, Nishino stated that for the lyrics on the album she "makes an image from the music, then creates a short film made of images in her head, and from there creates the basis for the scenario for the lyrics. Many of the songwriters from Nishino's first album worked with her again for To Love. Sizk, who worked on the prologue/epilogues from her first album worked on the second albums, while the singles were created with Giorgio Cancemi. One song was written by Australian songwriters Nervo. Jeff Miyahara also returned to work with Nishino once again, with "Summer Girl" feat. Minmi.
Chart ranking
The album debuted at No. 1 on Oricon's daily albums chart, selling 71,000 copies on its first day. It stayed at No. 1 for the first week, selling 290,000 copies. The album's first week sales are currently the highest for a solo artist in 2010. The album was certified triple platinum selling over 750,000 physical copies Many album tracks were popular enough to chart digitally after the album's release. "Love & Smile", released a week before the album, was the most successful, peaking at No. 3. Others included "Summer Girl" feat. Minmi, "Kono Mama de" and "You Are the One".
