This Wednesday in Music #3 (11/27/19)

Here I am, back once again to talk about some of the stuff that comes out of Japanese record stores every Wednesday. Emphasis on "some," by the way. Doing these posts can be learning experiences for me. The two I've done before this, as well as this one, are a pretty random mixup of things that catch my eye, be it full albums or singles or whatever. As it turns out, there's more that comes out each week than I have the capacity to cover in my current state, and I mean MUCH more. And the best part of it is that even from artists that I recognize and like can release new songs or even whole albums that completely slip by my radar until after I'm done with that week's releases. I realized that if I want to cover absolutely EVERYTHING that comes out on a week-to-week basis that I'd be interested in, on top of writing about them in a way that's satisfying for myself, these could take a lot longer than I could keep up with. For right now (and by right now I mean as of the post after this one goes live,) I'll cap myself out at a max of 2 singles and 2 albums to cover weekly. All the experimenting and searching for stuff I was doing on the last one will be cut down just a bit, so they'll probably be more along the lines of artists I more regularly listen to and follow, unlike some of the things I'll be talking about later. This doesn't mean I won't break out of my comfort zone and talk about newer artists or anything, I'll just make the selection process a little easier on myself. I also thought about monthly roundups where I go over stuff I missed if I remember to, maybe I'll do those someday. With all that out of the way, let's dive in.

Starting off with an idol group I only really have passing familiarity with, Chuning Candy dropped their latest single, double A-side Stand Up!!/Ai no Uta. Of the two A-sides, I think I'm going for Ai no Uta as my favorite for that cool fast-paced beat and the chanting. Overall, however, the best song of the four released is Girls' Party just off of how effective that BFF hook is. Both A-sides, as well as the two B-sides, are all decently-produced idol songs. but the problem is that outside of the hook on Girls' Party, none of the songs really stand out much in the sea of idol songs that pour into my ears on a daily basis thanks to my constantly listening to J-Pop internet radio, which is coincidentally how I found out about this group. But if you're super into idol music like I am, you can't go wrong with giving the new tracks a few listens. Just don't expect to walk away a super-fan, I guess.

Sayuri released her latest single, About a Voyage, the ending song for the fourth season of Boku no Hero Academia. This isn't just one of the best HeroAca EDs, but also the song that really sold me on Sayuri as an artist. That's not to say that her other anime songs that she got known for were bad, by the way. I remember them all being pretty good, but something about this one struck me and left an impression in a way that the other songs didn't. There isn't a whole lot that's new or revolutionary about it, it's just a strong pop-rock song that's incredibly catchy from a singer with a great voice that fits with the darker direction the story of HeroAca seems to be taking.

AKB48 performed a new song, Aisuru Hito, as part of a medley for the 2019 NTV Best Artist show. Technically it isn't a single and hasn't been officially released outside of that show, but it's new AKB music all the same and that's enough reason for me to talk about this one. This is a track I really hope sees a future release on a single, possibly as an extended version, because it is wonderful. I'm not just saying this because my oshi Okada Nana is center, by the way (though that helps!) It's a very pretty, classic AKB ballad with a nice string section with the piano and acoustic guitar working together in harmony alongside the girls voices. It's just as good lyrically as well. I came across a tweet a few days ago that said something to the extent of "Aisuru Hito sounds like something that Naachan would write in her mobame" and I really couldn't agree more. It's got a bit of an existentialist angle wrapped up in a beautifully written love song that made Naachan a great fit for the role as center. It's probably the best song to come out of the 48Group camp this year, as fun as the last two singles and their coupling tracks were. Let's hope 2020 is a strong year for them!

Best girl in the center, as she should be.

Aren't Youtube recommendations wonderful? Through these automatic recommendations, several Japanese songs and albums have found themselves gaining more traction from curious viewers wondering what keeps popping up in the sidebar to videos or just letting AutoPlay run for a little while. Hell, that's why Plastic Love blew up the way that it did, even getting an official music video 35 years after the song itself came out. It was through Youtube recommendations that I, along with many other curious English-speaking fans, found out about SHE IS SUMMER. SHE IS SUMMER is the solo project of MICO, the lead of electropop outfit phenotas. Her solo work has a much more retro feel to it compared to her original group, going for a city-pop throwback sound that turns out to have an even wider international reach than any of her work with phenotas ever did. With phoentas in the back seat for right now, MICO's on her second solo album, WAVE MOTION. I had already heard the lead single, the chill, funky track CALL ME IN YOUR SUMMER as my introduction to her music a few months ago and was immediately impressed. The album proper meets the expectations set by this single and in some ways even goes beyond them. This album is filled with irresistible hooks, great synthwork and one of the most pleasing vocalists in pop today. MICO's high-pitched voice is always appealing and comforting, never grating. While every track is great, I'm shouting out mid-album cut Otona ni Naru ne, with those great spacy synths at the beginning, plus some of the best guitar work on the album and the catchiest hook out of any of the songs here that's gonna be stuck in my head for years being pulled off wonderfully by MICO. I highly recommend it.

Onto what may have been the most anticipated album release of the week was the debut album by BEYOOOOONDS, BEYOOOOOND1st. BEYOOOOONDS is the latest group to come out of the idol empire that is Hello! Project, bursting onto the scene back in October 2018 and wowing the idol-fan public. In fact, they may just be starting a new uptick in attention towards Hello! Project as a whole, particularly as groups such as AKB48 have started to fade off a little in 2019. After listening to their debut album, it's certainly not hard to see why their taking the idol world by storm. Just before I get into the album itself, I have to admit that I never got into Morning Musume very hard. Sure I listened to their first full album a couple of times and liked it well enough, and I've listened to some of their hits here and there and liked those well enough too, it felt like with Morning Musume and its many sister groups that I never found too many tracks that clicked with me as much as songs from the other major idol groups that have sprouted out in the wake of MoMusu have. Nethertheless, my first exposure to BEYOOOOONDS was during the stream for 2019's Tokyo Idol Festival and I had a great time with their performance, even if that was my only exposure to them leading up to the release of their debut album. Listening to BEYOOOOOND1st was one of the most fun experiences I've had listening to an idol album in 2019. There's tons of colorful, playful songs spread across its 72-minute runtime. It goes for many different styles throughout that runtime, ranging from heavy metal to classic idol balladry and spoken word pieces, managing to stick the landing on all of it and never settling for one specific mode. The one thing unifying all of it is a child-like sense of imagination and wonder that is perfectly "idol." Sometimes that experimentation even applies within the songs themselves, such as Atsui! starting with some lovely piano before giving you a kawaii-metal gutpunch for the rest of it that wouldn't be out of place on a Babymetal record. This record also knows when to calm itself down from its sugar high and relax a little, like on the piano-led interval leading up to Megane no Otoko no ko or the opening bit of the finale Nobishiro ~Beyond the World~, even if the latter does eventually lead up to a big jazzy ending. All in all, if you like genre-bending energetic J-pop you cannot go wrong with this one. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for BEYOOOOONDS and I'll certainly go back and listen to more Hello! Project. I feel like this album was the "in" that I was craving for to do more exploring into all of those groups.

Man, that was a long one, at least for me anyway. With school starting back up, I can't really expect myself to get out posts of this length very regularly, but it always feels good to have long posts every once in a while. I imagine next week will be a little quieter, as I mainly have my eyes set on a new Love Live-related single and a new EP from indie rock group Lucie, Too. Until then, later!

This Wednesday in Music #2 (11/20/19)

Before I begin talking about the songs from this Wednesday, there's two notable releases I'm purposefully leaving out from the post this week that I'll cover later on down the road. Yamamoto Sayaka released her third single under Universal, Tsuioku no Hikari, and while I'm very excited to cover it I decided that I won't listen to the studio version until the album it's attached to, Alpha, drops on December 25th. This decision comes from seeing just how little new material there is from the new album, as there's only 3 new songs attached to it, so I may as well just knock it out all at once on a special after-Christmas episode. I'm the most excited to get to this of any of the releases I want to talk about this year. Speaking of Christmas, Little Glee Monster released the B-Side early to their upcoming single, I Feel the Light, called Itoshisa ni Ribbon wo Kakete. Due to its seasonal subject matter and its packaging with a new single, I'm saving it for when the single itself comes out on December 11th, closer to Christmas. Without further ado, let's get right into it!

May'n has her new release this week, the single graphite/diamond tied in as the opening song for Azur Lane.  This is another case where the best part of the song, in this case the awesome synth and drum breakdown right after the part used in the anime stops, isn't in the OP version. Other than that, this is some pretty boilerplate "modern action anime opening" music, and while it's a decent listen in the context of the anime or if it shows up on one of those online anime radio stations I love so much, it and its slightly better B-side aren't songs I imagine returning to very much on their own outside those contexts.

Amazarashi continues to impress with their latest single Mirai ni Narenakatta Ano Yoru ni. It's been 2 years since the last Amazarashi album, 2017's Chihou Toshi no Memento Mori, featuring the massive hit Sora ni Utaeba from Boku no Hero Academia 2. They have dropped some singles after that to keep fans busy in the meantime, including this one which really turned out well. I love the guitar solo, I love the really pretty pianos and synths floating in the background, and Akita Hiromu's vocals continue to impress. I wouldn't say this surpasses the greatest tracks in their catalog, namely the song that got me hooked on their music, Kisetsu wa Tsugitsugi Shindeiku, but it's still pretty damn good.

Now onto the best track of the week, Co Shu Nie's awesome new track, Bullet. This song is the ED for the third season of Psycho Pass (which I haven't seen yet as of this writing, watching it after the movies) and if the show itself is as good as this ED, I've got high hopes. Co Shu Nie has been on fire lately. They've gained newfound attention after getting signed under a major label and finding their brand of meticulously crafted, powerful math-rock tied to popular TV anime Tokyo Ghoul re and Yakusoku no Neverland. What the switch to Sony Music also entails for the band is their long-awaited upcoming first full-length LP, Pure, coming out next month. I'm ecstatic for this, to say the least. I fell in love with them through Tokyo Ghoul and quickly learned that they've never made a bad track, with several great indie mini-albums under their belt already. Back to Bullet, this song is great. There's these really cool distorted guitars at the beginning, lovely strings accentuating the song, and Nakamura Miku kills it on vocals, as she usually does. The whispering she does after the instrumental break made me ascend to another REALM on first listen. Great job, Co Shu Nie, and the album should be great. Can't wait to cover it.

That about wraps it up for this week. I know there was more that i didn't cover this week, but from here on out I'm going to be a lot more organized about what releases are out each week to save myself headaches going forward. I'll drop down a list below of what I'll be covering for the rest of the year, which is likely to change as I find even more interesting things to cover. The first one I rushed to get done before the end of Wednesday, but I won't be doing that with these next installments, as you can tell by this one being out on a Thursday in my timezone. I may not have time to finish writeups by the end of Wednesdays, particularly as I start covering full albums which will need a bit more time to sit with me and have enough thoughts on them to put to digital paper. In any case, I do want to do these more often, especially with an exciting December ahead of me. I'm gonna be talking about HELLO PROJECT for the first time ever on this blog, that should be interesting. See ya soon.

Sneak peek at what I'm reviewing next.

This Wednesday in Music #1 (10/9/19)

Before we get into this, this won't be a weekly series. It just so happens that Wednesday is when Japanese music comes out, and some pretty cool stuff has come out that I wanna talk about, so why not cover it? If there's enough new stuff that I have something to say about on a Wednesday, I'll do one of these.

The Pillows have been having a big year, with 2019 being their 30th anniversary. The band are celebrating in style, as Sawao Yamanaka wrote for a feature film, Osama ni Nare, featuring a wide variety of Japanese alt-rock greats. The pillows also released an album to tie in with the film, but they're not resting on their laurels just yet. Today they released Happy Go Ducky, the OP for the new TV basketball anime Ahiru no Sora, only a week after the show itself started. Shockingly, the song is also on US Spotify, which is a good sign that maybe more of their music will be released on there soon with time. The single itself is a very solid upbeat track. It certainly reminds me of the sounds they were going for on their 2016 album Stroll and Roll, my candidate for the best album they've worked on this decade. I'm even more interested in the B-side, Night owl. This one is a little more laid-back, with a catchy hook. You know I'm all for the pillows doing laid-back songs like 1989 or That House, or at least you would if I actually tried covering them on here. I will someday, promise.

JYOCHO released a new 4-song EP, Kirei na Sankaku, Asahi Ningen (A Perfect Triangle, Rising Sun Human,) almost a year after releasing their full-length debut album. As I have noticed with every Jyocho release so far, I don't really have a favorite picked out from early listenings. It's all about the experience of listening to a Jyocho EP, taking it in and being wrapped up in it as a whole before I start picking out any particular noteworthy tracks. It's not as standout as my initial impressions of the  full album and earlier EPs were, but I still really enjoyed it.

To round off the list, NMB48 has released full music videos for their 22nd single, Hatsukoi Shijou Shugi (First Love Supremacy Rule) and one of the coupling songs, Acting tough. Hatsukoi Shijou Shugi is pleasant enough with a decent hook. I haven't been crazy about any of the NMB A-sides this year, but they've never been too bad. This is another case where I'm more interested in a B-side than an A-side, because Acting tough is GREAT. This is Ota Yuuri's graduation single, and this was a great sendoff for her. The string section in this song really helps bring out the emotion. The MV is really good too, continuing where the Hatsukoi Shijou Shugi one left off, as Yuuri rides off on a bus all by herself. It's a strong mood piece that creates an atmosphere equal parts comfy and deeply sad. I'm really sad to see Yuuri go, she was my favorite NMB member with Sayanee gone, but at least she got to leave on a high note.

Thank You, Kyoto Animation

I remember being 13 years old and watching Haruhi Suzumiya for the first time. I was in seventh grade, my mood having slowly improved after changing schools and even able to make a friend or two. I was fairly new to anime, having only been seriously into it for almost a year at that point and primarily using the then-new relaunch of Toonami and Netflix as a means of watching it. What Haruhi did was mind-blowing to me at the time. The very DIY feel of Episode 00, the concert in episode 12, the Endless Eight, the concept of Haruhi's closed space. I fell in love with every little quirk about the show and its characters. Hell, it was even the show that told me about the concept of moe! For that alone, I'll never forget it!

I remember being 17 years old and watching K-ON for the first time. I was in twelfth grade, spending my second year far away from my hometown as my family had packed up and moved away for elsewhere. The school I moved to seemed much more put together than the last one (the food was more diverse and OH MY GOD all the manga they had at the school library was insane, my old school never even thought about building up a decent library!) Just a few months before, however, the best friendship I had made in this new city had broken apart, and I had begun to lose faith in another friendship I made at the same time. I was already used to not having too many friends throughout my life, but these incidents still hurt as I went into my last year of high school much less optimistic and much more listless and depressed. The school was better, but it still felt like I couldn't truly connect with people and find a tight group of friends that did stuff together and understood each other. It was quite possibly the lowest point I had ever been in throughout my life. After having been charmed by the first volume of the K-ON manga, having read it during downtime on a school field trip, I spent a weekend marathoning the first season and used the second season as a relaxing after-school treat before finishing it off with the movie. It was a type of marathon the likes of which I hadn't done much of in since starting my descent into anime, as I had become more of a seasonal anime watcher. After finishing up the heartbreaking final episode and the film, I was taken aback and stunned that I could still love any anime, no anyTHING as much as I loved watching K-ON! By the end of my watch-through, I grew to love every single member of Hokago Tea Time, seeing their steady development over the course of 2 seasons. I was so engrossed that I felt like I was friends with all those girls by the end with just how lovable and fleshed-out they were. All the songs were great, the voice acting was superb and the animation was fantastic. This show had also started to fundamentally change how I viewed anime. I already liked some slice-of-life shows before K-ON, having already been a big fan of shows like Aikatsu and Lucky Star, but K-ON turned me to a slice-of-life and comedy fanatic and recontextualized the other shows in the genre for me to see them in a new light. It was these types of shows that I had begun to turn to more than ever before. I realized just how important watching shows about pretty anime girls in light, comforting scenarios really was for me, especially as I was leaving high school and entering college. K-ON wasn't a magical tool coming out of Doraemon's pocket to fix everything, however. No matter what, I still felt myself feeling more and more "out of things" and it didn't magically gain me new friends or anything like that. What it did show me was how effective anime could really be as a form of escapism, leaving your daily life behind for a while to cuddle up with a show at the end of the day even when you end up in tears at 3 in the morning wondering why you could never end up having as good of a relationship with others or as fun and fulfilling a life as a main character in a slice-of-life show. But I still can't thank it enough for how much happiness it brought me, even if the new approach I had towards certain shows can lead to sadness after I'm done with them. Maybe what K-ON taught me was how I appreciate anime in the way I do today.

I remember how impressed I was at the swimming done in Free Iwatobi Swim Club.
I remember constantly getting the Lucky Star OP stuck in my head during class.
I remember being shocked when Shoko tries to take her own life in Koe no Katachi.
I remember how warm I felt watching Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon while I was running up a high fever.
The tears rolling down my face watching episode 10 of Violet Evergarden.
The mix of soothing sensations and high-energy comedy with Nichijou.
The stunning action of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid.
Finding out about Homecomings, a band that I now hold dear to my heart that created one of the greatest albums of 2018, through the ending credits of Liz to Aoi Tori.
When I think of Kyoto Animation, I think of memories.

I can safely say that of any of the major breaking-news tragedies I've seen reported on over the 19 years I've been alive, none of them had the personal effect that the story of 34 confirmed deaths in a fire at Kyoto Animation's head studio had on me. Yasuhiro Takemoto, the director of some of their finest works like Full Metal Panic Fumoffu and Lucky Star, alongside several other KyoAni talents, are still confirmed missing. I never believed that something like this could happen to a company like Kyoto Animation, and I'm still in disbelief now. The people there were magic at what they did, and KyoAni changed my life in so many ways. I can only hope that the dead are at peace and that the survivors can use all of their strength to carry on after this happened.