Remember the city pop revival? That buzzed about thing from the first half of the year? Perhaps the latter half of 2016’s sudden shift to ’90s reflection jarred you out of those smooth sounds, but regardless of how many weeks Fantome sits on top of the Oricon Charts (a lot!), the bands from that boom period are still going. Cicada long skirted the line between city pop devotees and something more outright contemporary — teaming up with, like, Parkgolf will do that — and now they have a major-label debut on the way. “Yureru Yubisaki” highlights both sides of Cicada, with its slow-moving tempo bringing to mind bayside-worthy shufflers of yesteryear, but featuring splashes of electronic hums and something approaching rap. Similar to a Parkgolf or Seiho, elements of jazz and funk are being reshaped to something a bit different, albeit on the opposite end of the speedometer. Listen above.
