CD Regular
2 CDs Limited
AKIHIDE's last studio album release was 2020's LOOP WORLD .
The CD regular version of UNDER CITY POP MUSIC includes a bonus track Clapping in the Rain .
Songs in UNDER CITY POP MUSIC which featured AKIHIDE singing in them :
- UNDER CITY POP MUSIC ; 1st released digitally on 12th Oct
- Dennou Shojou ; 1st released digitally on 19th Oct
- Akai Torikago
- Sakasama no Tsuki
- Setsugetsuka
- Clapping in the Rain
Videos were made to promote UNDER CITY POP MUSIC but are not included in the physical release of the album :
- UNDER CITY POP MUSIC
- Dennou Shojou
- Akai Torikago
AKIHIDE is featured briefly in Akai Torikago video
Approaching a decade since AKIHIDE started his solo career in 2013 , his latest studio album UNDER CITY POP MUSIC is 1 of his most unique musically drive solo releases to date .
Every solo music release AKIHIDE put out from the start is great but what makes UNDER CITY POP MUSIC stand out is how drastically musically different it's & when UNDER CITY POP MUSIC (the song) was 1st released digitally before the physical album , that's already evident .
There are many sample sound source subscription services made available online now that're created by many musicians . From there , AKIHIDE extracted sounds that he perceived as city pop .
Even though AKIHIDE created UNDER CITY POP MUSIC entirely by himself , it felt like he was having many recording sessions with the people who made the various sample sound files , whose faces and names he don't even know .
In addition for once there's only 1 proper instrumental song in UNDER CITY POP MUSIC (excluding the opening & closing instrumental no.s) ie. Spy Summit which happens to be 1 of my favourite tracks in the album .
That's not to say the other songs that AKIHIDE sung in them are bad . They're all equally great & Akai Torikago is somewhat the odd 1 ouf the lot as this could have been something included in AKIHIDE's debut solo album Amber , likewise for Sakasama no Tsuki .
Overall UNDER CITY POP MUSIC is another great release from AKIHIDE & knowing that next year will be a decade since he 1st started releasing solo music , it's so surreal & I really can't wait to see how he will celebrate his milestone anniversary as a solo artist .
Knowing how ridiculously creative & talented AKIHIDE is , I'm sure I will not be disappointed .
CD
1) Wish
2) Mirage with Shiro SAGISU
3) Wish -TV size-
4) Wish -Instrumental-
5) Mirage with Shiro SAGISU -Instrumental-
CD + Blu-ray
1) Wish
2) Mirage with Shiro SAGISU
3) Wish -Instrumental-
4) Mirage with Shiro SAGISU -Instrumental-
Promo wise , Wish was chosen to be used as the ending theme no. to promote the Berserk Kogane Jidai hen MEMORIAL EDITION anime .
Before the single's physical release , the A-side was 1st released digitally on 1st Oct .
Mika wrote both Wish and the B-side Mirage + this's her 1st single to get a Blu-ray version .
Videos were made for Wish & Mirage but both are not included in the physical release .
This's 1 of the rare times that I like the B-side a bit more than the A-side which happened on 1st listen but this has since shifted as I find myself enjoying both songs co-currently with each other .
It's interesting both songs in the single contrast each other quite differently . Wish is quite a standard Mika mid tempo ballad but something about Mirage is just haunting & it's quite Halloween inspired too .
With 2022 coming to an end soon it will be interesting to see what Mika plans to do next year . For her to release 1 of my favourite albums of the year ie. her 1st self titled album I , I really hope Mika can consider to release another self titled album if not mini album .
CD
CD + DVD
1) Introduction -Morning Routine-
2) Ato Susenchi
3) Koigokoro
4) Be one Feat NITE FULL MAKERS
5) Genkai Toppa
6) 12 Gatsu Tsuitachi
7) Chichi no Kokoroe
8) Accessory
9) SELFISH
Hilcrhyme's last album release was last Sept's FRONTIER . SELFISH was released on the same day as frontman TOC's 3rd solo album FOOLISH .
2 songs were released digitally prior to the physical release of SELFISH :
- Ato Susenchi ; released digitally on 22nd June ; used as the ending theme song to promote the new drama Senpai, Danjite Koide wa!
- Be one Feat NITE FULL MAKERS ; released digitally on 5th Jan
TOC used to be part of NITE FULL MAKERS .
- Koigokoro ; ending theme no. to promote the Peter Grill to Kenja no Jikan : Super Extra anime
This's the 2nd time Hilcrhyme provided their song to promote the Peter Grill to Kenja no Jikan anime franchise after 2020's Yoridokoro
A picture video was made for Koigokoro but it's not included in SELFISH's DVD .
On the surface SELFISH looks underwhelming especially since this's Hilcrhyme's shortest studio album to date .
With SELFISH being so unusually short length wise , I thought this should have been another mini album release instead .
Despite this , SELFISH is generally not bad & my favourite album track is actually Koigokoro which in a way it's not surprising as I also liked Yoridokoro .
That said I do hope that Hilcrhyme can consider to slow down their pace of releasing studio albums as usually when this happens , the quality of an artiste's music tends to suffer as I saw that happen for other artistes who release albums on a yearly basis .
I rather see an artiste take their time to release a proper good album instead of chunning 1 on an annual basis for the sake of doing so .