Up-Front and the Hello! Project have filled the gap in their release schedule with solo videos from two of their more popular idols and two full-length videos for ad campaigns. Let’s start with the most recent and work our way backwards. Morning Musume and H!P leader Mizuki Fukumura gets her first proper (digital) solo release, a cover of KAN’s “Extra.”...
It’s been nearly a year since I reviewed PINK CRES’s major debut single, “Roulette,” and the tl;dr is I loved the song and performance, but hated the mix. HATED it. The vocals sit so deep in the mix that it’s almost impossible to enjoy, and it’s the second time PC has suffered this fate (the first being “Bukiyou na Jibun.”)...
PINK CRES. – “Roulette” PINK CRES has finally grown up. I know it seems odd to say that a pop group consisting of 24 to 27 year old women has “grown up,” but that’s how I feel listening to “Roulette,” the A-side of PINK CRES’s major label debut single. Whereas “Tokyo Confusion” was an inspired teenage rebellion against two albums...
If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already aware that Up Front has decided to pull the plug on Kobushi Factory. Their final single, “Seishun no Hana / Start Line,” will be released on March 4th, with their farewell performance set for March 30th. And as one would expect of KF, the announcement was released amid a fog of rumored...
Not sure how this release passed me by — this being the Foremost English Language PINK CRES Blog, and all — but I’m glad I found it. I’m happy to report that PINK CRES has finally arrived to the current day music scene! After two full albums of mostly re-hashed 3rd-wave Kpop, our girls have traveled home to a decidedly...
Remember 2017? It was a particularly painful year for fans of Hello! Project and associated acts, which was made to feel even worse as it followed one of the absolute best years in 2016. This plugged-toilet of a year saw the end of C-ute’s 15-year run, the Country Girls/KSS Divestment Draft, Kobushi Factory pushing the absolute limits of how much...
The follow up to their “Etcetera” video, “Bukiyou na Jibun” finds PINK CRES in a more comfortable place with this R&B-tinged ballad. This is pretty much a Hikaru feature, which is a nice surprise, particularly because she makes the most of it. I had no idea she could sing this well, but she really does have a nice tone. The...
PINK CRES has dropped the video for “Etcetera”, the first video from their forthcoming sophomore album of the same name. The K-pop R&B that PC toyed with on crescendo is back, and once again it’s a bit dated, although perhaps not so much as before. It’s a nice hard-R&B stomper with a catchy chorus and a legitimate rap, but it’s...
Hello! Project fans of a certain age (old) will remember a time when the ultimate dream of H!P-group idols was to one day debut as a solo artist. To be sure, this was always more true of Morning Musume than other groups, but Berryz Koubou and C-ute were both hatched at a point in time when solo idols were still...
So the cover art for LoVendoЯ’s come-back mini-album Яe:Start has been released, and the girls look just like… an idol group. Here, bask in the plenary pinkness of Reina’s rock band: The only things missing from this cover are Sayu and Koha, and it encapsulates the problem I’ve had with LoVendoЯ from the start: this group has no focus. Note...
Hmmm… And now Momona is leading ME:I I suspect HP scraping the bottom of the barrel is why ambitious talents…
Well! Fukumura is graduating, but only at the END of this year - LOL!
Fukumura and her cahoots are doing everything they possibly can to prolong their idoling careers. There's a certain amount of…
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