Monthly Listening: Feb 2023

[adevyish]

A bit of January catchup as well.

• Sakana Nikki / Mayonaka no Circus
  • Finding hope with gorgeous layered vocals.
• Fake Creators / Far Dreams feat. Misi Ke (CW: flashing, mild horror)
  • Dé Dé Mouse (and Lite) working with Misi Ke? Hello!
• Helsinki Lambda Club / New Heaven ★
  • The cover image is a floatie in a pool, and that’s what this song is: fifteen minutes of floating in a pool to psychedelic indie pop.
• Laura day romance / Toukakansei no yoru (CW: flashing)
  • Piano pop that tries its best to avoid a keyboard (and occasionally turns a guitar amp way up).
• Pop Never Dies (Pop wa Shinai de) / Medusa (CW: flashing)
  • The latest Wednesday Campanella song is mid, so I’m glad PND is bringing the weird sing-rap energy to their pop rock this month.
• kinoue64 / Sotsugyou Mae no Yuuutsu (Depression before class)
  • Kinoshita Takuto is back with more dreamy vocaloid shoegaze.
• Regal Lily / 60W ★
  • This starts off where you’d expect a Regallily song — cheery, fast-paced folksy pop rock — but the middle eight was not what I expected! Would love to see them develop more in that direction.
• Czecho no Republic / emotional girl
  • Pop punk but it’s post-punk. A great song to rock out to in a crowded living room.
• Itsumade / Yoin Aikousei (CW: flashing)
  • Rock song with the vibe of an underground demo tape from the late 90s.
• Lily Fury / International Lily White (Part B)
  • Given the first four minutes of this song and the title of the album opener, I am 99% sure this is a Weiß kreuz reference. Wow — that was a long-buried musical memory.
• mekakushe / Diorama
  • Stuttery soft pop that reminds me of mid-00s anime endings.
• Ohira Mizuki / Lovebirds ★
  • Pop&b. Definitely a bit predictable, but the guitar detail is nice.

Appendix: Boyband Catchup!

• Be:First / Boom Boom Back (CW: motion sickness)
  • The most interesting song on B:F’s debut album was cypher “Milli-Billi” (CW: motion sickness, flashing), and this latest single builds off that by going very 90s. To the point where all the caps and tuques makes it difficult to ID members sometimes! The video editing is super fun but also a lot.
• Gen’in wa Jibun ni Aru. / Infinite Cynicism (Mugen Shinishizumu) (CW: a lot of flashing)
  • A darker tone from their previous singles: a little bit more Sheena than Gesu. The architectural shots are a nice touch.
• Ozone / Sparks (Huǒhuā)
  • I first heard this late last year when their debut EP came out. It’s now the 4th single from the 4 songs on that EP. The devil works hard but Sony works harder. In fact, Sony Taiwan worked so hard at replicating K-pop they shipped Ozone to South Korea to film this MV.
  • I have developed a bias. Alas.

Comments

[superborb]

Oh wow, I get the Weiss Kreuz reference as well! I didn't expect to, as I'm not very musically inclined, though it may be because of your prompt...

[adevyish]

They had some good music! They also had some bad music haha.