Monthly Archive: May 2021

Single Steps Forward

TSUBAKI FACTORY – 2nd Step For their first three years as a major act, Tsubaki Factory had been the model of stability and consistency within the Hello! Project, in terms of both song quality and lack of group drama. But a week prior to the release of their seventh single, someone discovered and made public the secret Instagram account of...

Angerme v2.0 (stable)

ANGERME – Hakkiri Shiyou ze / Oyogenai Mermaid / Aisare Route A or B? Up-Front dropped PVs for all three tracks of Angerme’s forthcoming single today, nearly a full month ahead of its release date (June 23rd). I like that Hello! Project releases are not tied to predictable patterns of promotion — Kobushi Factory’s fun skits for “Oh No!” and...

Angerme Rips, Tsubaki Factory Teases

It’s New Release Season at the Hello! Project, and we have radio rips of all new songs from the forthcoming Angerme single, and official teaser videos featuring all new songs from Tsubaki Factory’s new album, which is only two days from dropping. Without getting too far into the weeds on either release, let’s see what we’ve got. TSUBAKI FACTORYTsubaki Factory’s...

Living For The City Pop

JUICE=JUICE – DOWN TOWN / Ganbarenai yo If anyone is curious as to what motivated my recent four-and-a-half month hiatus from blogging, this single did. More to the point, the events leading up to this single being pushed back a month to facilitate the erasure of former member Sayuki Takagi from the single and the group going forward. All because...

Sweet 16

MORNING MUSUME ’21 – 16th ~That’s J-POP~ The Fukumura Era of Morning Musume (2014-present) has been mostly frustrating for me personally for several reasons. From a production standpoint, their recordings have relied heavily on sounds and techniques established during the Michishige Era (2012-2014), even to this day. I’ve found the catalog during Fuku’s leadership to be spotty compared other eras,...