Recently, Masayume Berry released her latest single, Catching Lights, an upbeat and fun pop song sung in English.
This song has an indie rock feel, and is a song of positivity and looking forward, and the English lyrics compliment the music well.
I am very impressed with Berry’s English singing voice, as I had only previously heard her singing in her native Italian. She has a cute and playful voice, and I enjoy it very much.
At the start of the year, I said that Berry was my one to watch for 2024, and once again, it’s another fantastic release this year.
If you haven’t heard the song yet, it’s available on Spotify, and the music video is available on YouTube.
Former Morning Musume and BABYMETAL member Riho Sayashi recently released a new EP, titled “Hi(gh) Life”.
The EP features 3 tracks, including the title track,, “alchemy -special ver.-” and “Melt & Simply Me Mashup”, but it’s the title track that is, naturally, the stand out song on the release.
In my opinion, the title track, “Hi(gh) Life”, is the strongest track Sayashi has released since she started releasing solo singles following her departure from BABYMETAL, where she performed as a back up dancer.
The EP as a whole has a certain vibe to it, and the vibe is, in my opinion, a “summer vibe” as you can easily see this being a set of songs that will definitely make it into a lot of peoples summer playlists, mine included.
Riho Sayashi’s solo output has been incredibly strong in my opinion, and she honestly has not released a bad song since she started doing so. It’s a real shame in my opinion that she often gets overlooked and forgotten in the J-Pop world in favour of the more popular artists, she doesn’t get talked about nowhere near as much I feel she deserves to.
I really recommend checking out “Hi(gh) Life” and giving Riho Sayashi’s solo work a chance if you haven’t already, because you are really missing out if you are.
Long time readers of Play Beat Japan will know my thoughts on Wasuta, personally, I think they are a bit of a “hit or miss” idol group, some of their output is fantastic, but some of it isn’t too great, in other words, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I find that Wasuta can be a bit inconsistent at times.
Looking ahead to the release of the upcoming new physical single ” Eikyu Muchu de Koshinchu!” on February 21st, I’m going in with quite a bit of optimism, admittedly, I kind of fell off when it came to Wasuta after the release of their last full album, the first album post graduation of Hazuki Sakamoto, which may have taken some wind of the sails of the group, as the following album was pretty mediocre in my opinion.
However, more recently, I have been enjoying Wasuta’s more recent output, especially the single “Melo Melo! Love Rock”, which was released last summer, and also, the title track of the upcoming single, which was released separately at the end of last year.
It seems to me that Wasuta have finally found their feet again after Sakamoto’s graduation, which admittedly, was quite a while ago now. As I said earlier, I didn’t listen to Wasuta for a while after the last full album, so fans that have listened to all the releases since then may not share my opinion on whether the group “lost it” after Sakamoto graduated, but, as someone coming back to the group after a bit of a hiatus, it seems Wasuta are back with some consistent good releases, I certainly hope it continues.
Following on from an initial announcement last year, the tour dates and locations for Hikaru Utada’s upcoming 25th anniversary tour of Japan have been revealed.
The tour, titled “SCIENCE FICTION”, starts on July 13th 2024 at Marine Messe in Fukuoka and goes all around Japan before ending at K Arena in Yokohama on 1st September 2024.
Masayume Berry has released a new song, but it’s not a stand alone single, it is a song used on an Italian compilation album called “Women’s Empowerment”.
The song is called “Sospendimi” (Suspend Me in English) and definitely fits in with the theme of empowerment that the compilation album portrays.
It’s quite a simple pop song, with a fun and positive message, sung in a dreamy way by Berry in Italian of course.
I like the song, but I don’t think it’s quite as good as her last single “Planetary Rendezvous”.
I recently discovered Puchiko, and this is my first review of her content, a collaboration single with DOKI called “J-POPPE”.
Incidentally, this is also my first exposure to DOKI’s content too.
What immediately stood out to me and what I was also pleasantly surprised about is that the song is in Japanese, and the reason I was surprised is that most overseas / kaigai idols I see sing in English, so it was nice to hear something different in that regard.
The song itself is an upbeat and fun song with both girls giving good vocal performances in Japanese with good pronunciation too. However, without a translation of the lyrics, I can’t say exactly what the song is about at this stage.
Overall, “J-POPPE” is a fun song with a catchy tune and chorus that i’m sure fans will be singing along to, even if they can’t understand the rest of the lyrics.
For my first review of 2024, I’m reviewing Masayume Berry’s latest single “Planetary Rendezvous”, released in late 2023.
This song was actually the first time I have heard any of Masayume Berry’s releases, and to say I an impressed is an understatement. She is clearly on a higher level to some other overseas idols out there, which I will explain more about shortly.
“Planetary Rendezvous” is an upbeat and cheerful synthpop track that puts a smile on your face, accompanied by Berry’s bubbly and fun vocals, delivered expertly. Berry has a fantastic singing voice and genuinely is one of the best I’ve heard in the overseas idol community.
The production of the track is also great, it’s not muddy, and the vocals are clear and crisp, it’s clear that a lot of time, effort and care went into making this the best it can be.
I’ve actually been aware of Masayume Berry for quite a while, but it’s only now that I have taken the leap into her original music, and, although it would be unfair to say that this is the best song i’ve heard in 2024, as the year has only just started, it’s definitely my favourite song of 2024 so far (even though the song was released in 2023, I know).
I will say that Masayume Berry is my One To Watch for 2024, if she continues to release songs of this quality, she is in for a fantastic year.
My score for “Planetary Rendezvous” is 8.5/10, an expertly crafted synthpop track with fantastic vocals and a stellar production for a release of this type.
J-Pop legend Hikaru Utada made their debut 25 years ago today, on December 9th 1998, which their debut single “Automatic/Time Will Tell”.
As announced in a press release on the artist’s website, a 25th anniversary greatest hits album, titled “Science Fiction” will be released in 2024, which will include “a treasure trove of songs encapsulating the essence of the artists sensational career”.
Alongside the announcement of the album, Utada announced that they will embark on their first national tour in 6 years, titled the “SCIENCE FICTION TOUR 2024”. The tour will be held across Japan in 2024, and, at the time of writing, dates and exact locations have not been revealed.
In addition, the exact release date of the greatest hits album has also not been revealed at the time of writing.
Following on from today’s debut performance of the new lineup of LADYBABY, which the group call the “4th Term” of LADYBABY, it was announced that the first one man live featuring the new lineup is scheduled for March 21st 2024.
The live, aptly titled “FIRST”, also includes LADYBABY’s band, known as “The Chaos”, and takes place at Club Asia in Shibuya.
There are many ticketing options available for the live, including a VIP ticket, an “S” ticket and a general ticket.
At the time of writing, LADYBABY have performed the debut live of the lineup, and performed a new song, titled “Gatcha Nippon”, which as of writing has not had an official release, but it is known that a music video for the song has been completed, so the song and music video will probably be released in the near future, look out for a review of the song once it is available for the public.
The lottery period for tickets begins at 20:30 JST on December 1st and runs until 23:59 JST on December 4th, so it is a short window if you wish to apply for tickets.
Today, December 1st 2023, Play Beat Japan announces an upcoming interview with Swedish underground idol Eburin.
The upcoming interview will not be a written interview released here on the Play Beat Japan blog, but rather, a recorded interview that will be released on the Play Beat Japan YouTube channel in audio format.
Eburin is a big fan of what she calls “Retro” idols, which are idols from the 1980’s, she models herself after these retro idols, and not on the modern idols of today, which most overseas idols tend to do.
Please look forward to the interview when it releases, and in the meantime, you can follow Eburin on X (Twitter) here : https://twitter.com/Eburin_desu
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