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!