If I were to be totally honest, I think Suiyoubi No Campanella and their hectic mish-mash of genres started feeling a little overexposed this summer. Not necessarily their fault — being in the spotlight at all times is practically a demand for ascendant J-pop acts — but following the (very good) UMA I would have been happy to take a break from house-inspired rumblers shouting out auto-lock brakes.
Then the back half of 2016 happened in Japanese pop music, and it has been nothing but a celebration of older artists wielding way too much power over J-pop. Forget about music quality — I haven’t gotten around to Fantome yet, so I can’t judge. But boy, endless coverage of SMAP and Hikaru Utada and X Japan? Nothing wrong with appreciating what’s come before, but god when you position them as the most important thing happening now? Bleh.
So yeah, thank fuck Suiyoubi No Campanella’s newest single just dropped, and the trio are zipping ahead with “Aladdin,” a twisty electronic featuring a lovely amount of pitch-shifted vocal touches and lyrical nonsense (touching on the titular story and, like, home centers). Like most of their best work, it’s gleeful and focused on movement, every syllable dripping with excitement, the big hits sprinkled throughout only pumping it up further. Keep driving towards the future. Listen above.