New Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: “Yume no Hajima Ring Ring”
If every artist has to have a “sakura song” – a single (usually) that comes out around the time the cherry blossoms bloom and EVERYTHING CHANGES (school graduation, company reshuffling) – might as well not make it suck. Most J-pop artists stick to tepid ballads for this season, so thank goodness we have Kyary Pamyu Pamyu to make it bounce a bit. It’s her most reeled in track yet, which is appropriate given it is a song about graduating (“goodbye teacher/my friends”), but never melodramatic, just sort of resigned. But chin up. Plus, that understated guitar.