This Wednesday in Music #4 (Reupload)

I skipped December 4th because I either had nothing much to say about what was out (Lucie,too) or I had problems trying to download around the time I wanted to write (Cyaron) so nothing on that week. Not like that kind of delay matters much now anyway when due to a combo of schoolwork and the usual holiday busyness around this time, I’ve been weeks late. So now it’s this one and then two more of these and I’m wrapping up This Wednesday in Music as a segment for right now. The main purpose of this was to get myself writing about SOMETHING, literally anything this year, and that’s been fulfilled. It’s the type of thing I can pick back up at anytime, so maybe I’ll do it again someday, but no promises.




You know, I never expected I’d be talking about Earth, Wind & Fire on this blog, but I guess I am now, because Little Glee Monster just collaborated with them and it’s actually not too bad. It’s a pretty fun disco track and the Earth, Wind & Fire collab ends up fitting in pretty well into the mix. Most importantly, the girls’ vocals are still as great as ever, but I don’t think they could ever pull off a bad performance if they tried. There’s a really pretty Christmas ballad, Itoshisa ni Ribbon o Kakete, for the coupling song as well. I would say that the instrumental is pretty standard J-Pop ballad fare, with its sweeping string section, acoustic guitar and piano, but something about that instrumental meshed with the girls’ tremendous singing just...works, you know? It’s a very comforting Christmas song and a great way to get me in the spirit of the season.




On a completely different note, the new Co Shu Nie album, Pure, is pretty great! I’ve been waiting a minute for this band to finally get the full album release that I thought they deserved, and I have to say that the wait paid off. A decent portion of the album is stuff you’ve already heard if you’ve been following the band’s trajectory since they switched labels to Sony. All of their anime songs from Tokyo Ghoul re, Yakusoku no Neverland and Psycho Pass 3 are here, alongside the non-anime singles Psychopool - Legopool and iB placed in the album’s midsection to go alongside a new intro and 5 other original tracks. The award for best song has to go to the blistering second track asphyxia, which impressed me just as much listening to it on the album as it did when I first heard it watching Tokyo Ghoul. To me, this is the definitive Co Shu Nie track, going from calmer bits to fast math rock in seconds, all of it with Miku’s amazing singing to round it all out. The drums are fucking fantastic on this song too, so props to Fujita Ryosuke for nailing it so goddamn hard. Even through all the noise, it’s still catchy and gets stuck in your head pretty fast. Speaking of catchy, iB is such an earworm! It’s one of the calmer tracks on the record, serving as the breather after my least favorite song, Psychopool - Legopool (which I would like a lot more if it wasn’t for that annoying distorted hook that sounds like Miku’s trying to sing through an electric fan or something.) It’s got the best bass on the album, thanks to Matsumoto Shunsuke. Unlike the song before it, the hook on this one is stellar and the breathy vocals sound cool, like a nice chill wind coming in on a hot day. Of the non-anime songs, this one is by far my favorite. The other calmer tracks that finish off the album work pretty nicely too, like inertia with its hypnotic percussion and glistening piano. It threatens to racket back up to the noise of many of the earlier tracks for a bit as a guitar quietly buzzes through an instrumental break, but the tracks continues on with its quiet mood. The closing ballad gray gets a little louder than inertia, but decides to amp up the volume through a lovely string section rather than roaring guitars, which I think really works well in closing the album on a gentler note. This is not a release that you want to miss in any way, and I’d dare say that it’s one of the best albums of the year. It’s a fine testament to Co Shu Nie’s growth as artists from their indie days and how their newfound major-label fame didn’t result in a weaker product. In fact, it’s their best release yet. If you’re into math rock at all, you’re doing yourself a disservice not giving this one a go.