This week’s featured releases come from Afilia Saga, Idoling!!! and Idoling!!! NEO.
Afilia Saga – “S.M.L☆“
Afilia Saga provide our first featured release of the week. “S.M.L☆” is another anime tie-in song, much like how their last single “Neptune☆Sagashite” was. I have to admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of “Neptune☆Sagashite”; it was decent but a bit too stereotypically anisong sounding and nowhere near Afilia Saga’s best work. “S.M.L☆” has a lot more going for it, the vocal arrangement is a lot less flat and more interesting and the instrumentals are pretty catchy in places. I’m a bit iffy on groups having a lot of singles tie in to anime releases (it tends to demand a certain sound) but I guess in Afilia Saga’s case it fits their image and there are certainly worse ways to promote yourself. If you’ve never checked out Afilia Saga before, give this single a try then check out their “Archism” album if you enjoyed this.
Idoling!!! – “Shout!!!“
Next up we have Idoling!!! who release their latest single “Shout!!!” this week. They’re going head to head with Idoling!!! NEO but more on that later. “Shout!!!” is a pretty rocking little number and something a bit different than what we usually get from Idoling!!!. It’s your kind of familiar idol rock song; heavy guitar and drum instrumentals sung over in the typical idol vocals. That’s not a knock on the song by the way, it’s actually really good. I just had to explain it in a way everyone would understand. If you’re into your less traditional sounding idol music then I’m not sure what more you could ask for; it’s catchy, packs a bit of a punch, all that good stuff. If you don’t at least check this song out then I’m not sure why you’re reading this article in the first place.
Our last featured release for this week comes from the aforementioned Idoling!!! NEO, or 6th generation Idoling!!! plus Ito Yuna and Goto Kaoru. They’re having a little sales competition with Idoling!!! proper this week and the losing group gets a nice little punishment game. Should be fun times. Anyway, as you might have expected this single is a bit of a contrast to “Shout!!!”. It’s an electro-pop number and it’s actually a really good electro-pop number. It’s kinda crazy how Idoling!!! have put out two really great songs that honestly don’t deserve to lose to the eventual winner. I personally prefer NEO but I’m not going to say you’re wrong if you disagree. They’re both fantastic singles that you should be listening to this week.
ALSO THIS WEEK:
“Ring Dong” by Dancing Dolls
“Tsuki Koi Regret” by Fleur*
“Tenjou Yuuen” by nanoCUNE
“Love Carnival” by SiAM&POPTUNe
As for this week’s other releases, nothing really stands out that much. We talked about Dancing Dolls on a recent NSK podcast and it was alright so maybe check that out I guess. Otherwise, you’re on your own until next week. Thanks for reading.