The Music Station web site started posting what songs the artists will be performing again. Rejoice! Let’s get into it…
NYC “Yuuki 100%”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCVObkaCpl8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Be wary of any musical group cobbled together for the sole purpose of performing the theme song to a volleyball tournament. Last year, Johnny’s Entertainment took two members of tween-heartthrobs Hey! Say! JUMP and joined them with some other dudes to form NYC boys. Billed as a temporary outfit, NYC boys existed to provide the theme to the FIVB World Grand Prix, held in Japan that year. The track, cleverly titled “NYC,” became popular enough to warrant this boy band’s continued existence. Now minus the “boys,” NYC are back with…another theme song!
I understand somebody out there has to come up with theme songs, but when they take on a life of their own divorced from the show they soundtrack they open themselves up to this sort of axe-hitting-an-apple criticism. “100% Yuuki” — the theme for a ninja cartoon pictured above and on everyday after I get home from work — boasts all the faceless features of a Johnny’s single backed by a Europop bounce veering dangerously close to Pigloo territory. It’s a song aimed at pre-pubescent kids which also happens to lack a single iota of charm those Aflac Duck ads got. NYC will sell though, and some high school-based J-Dramas gonna be making bank when they nab the right to their third single.
Kou Shibasaki “ホントだよ”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu4iSxhdLYM&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Geez, the creepy killer girl from Battle Royale grew up to sing…nice enough J-Pop. This is the sound you expect to hear in a dentist’s waiting room, all pleasant vocals and easy-listening string swells. It totally relaxes you in the moment but will be forgotten about once the appointment wraps up. Shibasaki’s latest single manages to touch on some great sonic ideas: the horn deep in the mix, the string plucks and wavy synths during the bridge, the way the various voices sort of wind around one another to up the overall prettiness. None of these details get enough time, though, and all the meh parts take up the bulk of the track. Pleasant but hardly memorable.
Though you have to give that video a watch. Seeing the lady who once gunned down a bunch of high school students on a deserted island helping people out is kinda surreal.
Ayumi Hamasaki “楽曲未定”
I can’t find this song. Is it the clip below maybe? Of Hamasaki pretending to be Lady Gaga, but in support of a song that sounds like that one instrumental from Wavves first album looped over and over again. Maybe. Maybe she’ll fight Lady Gaga on the show that would be something.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Eiq_gcLCc&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Perfume “不自然なガール”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y13poaezWDI&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Site preview time…you can expect a full review of Perfume’s latest single in the coming days. Surprise surprise. No need to waste words on this post when I’ll need them later on. To bide your time, here are some zany Perfume-related April Fool’s jokes.
Lady Gaga “Telephone”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMIT6toyOFE&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Yeah, I’m not posting that 10-minute monstrosity of a video.
“Telephone” has the unfortunate timing to be the first Gaga single to follow in the wake of “Bad Romance,” an absolute beast of a pop song (it took a lot of time and bad karaoke to come to this point). It’s an OK enough song…Lady Gaga doing the club-pop she’s built her name on…but pails in comparison to “Bad Romance” or most of her other singles catalog. I think even she was aware of this – just watch that Miracle Whip-laced video for “Telephone” and see how the song isn’t even a second-thought, but more like a fourth-thought somewhere between cigarette glasses and Beyonce’s “acting.” Sorry to dwell on it, but the “Bad Romance” crammed all the bizarre imagery people expect from her but still managed to put the song up front. So basically…”Telephone” isn’t “Bad Romance.”
But I bet she’ll wear something CRAZY on Music Station right guys???
Winner Of The Week – It’s so obviously Perfume. I’m just not going to tell you why.