I found the time to listen to Suiyoubi no Campanella's new release Galapagos today and... goddamn, I love it, they did it again. Their choice for the musical direction of the EP completely blindsided me in the best way. I've always loved their more melodic, atmospheric, calm, pretty songs, so of course I loved this. Kenmochi, the producer, described the EP as chill and spiritual, and it's dead on, I think they nailed the mood they were going for and made some amazing songs while at it. I wasn't hyper about the pre-release tracks (Mizaru Kikazaru Iwazaru / Three Mystic Apes, Matryoshka) when they came out, so I was very pleased to discover that I loved all the completely unheard songs on the album. KOM_I was actually SINGING on Itoshii Monotachi e / The Sand Castle and she sounded so
beautiful in all her vocal imperfections and she gave me my whole entire life. I'll have to listen to this EP some more to get a better feeling for it in the context of their whole discography, but so far, it's one of their best. I'm very happy to be surprised like this.
Of other things to come out this week, I still need to listen to Taichi Mukai's LOVE and KOTOKO's tears cyclone (please leak already) for the first time and Hikaru Utada's Hatsukoi as a complete package. I've only listened to some of the new tracks of Hatsukoi one at a time so far, and they've been a bit of a let-down. Good Night and Yuunagi struck me as being good, but the rest of the songs all had something that didn't sit right with me. I still need to experience the album as a whole though.
Also, I can't with Perfume's upcoming album being titled Future Pop. Perfume's sound hasn't been futuristic in years, and this era especially has been nothing but painfully-2016-sounding empty Nakata-EDM songs with the dullest pop drops plaguing every song. Nakata needs some new inspiration because he is not good at EDM. Nevertheless, I hope the new album has at least one killer hit like Miracle Worker.