Hiroyuki Yoshino is back with a new single. “Bye-Bye☆セレモニー” (Bye-Bye☆ Cerimony) managed to grab our attention with its bundle of interesting and well crafted songs.
Title: Bye-Bye☆セレモニー Label: Kiramune Release date: 29/03/2017 Genre: J-Pop/Rock
Tracklist:
1. Bye-Bye☆セレモニー 2. 空耳クリスタル 3. 1st String
Track by track analysis:
1. Bye-Bye☆セレモニー
With a classic touch, Bye-Bye☆セレモニー is a playful jazz song that resorts on exciting brass, funky guitar riffs and splashy mid-tempo drums. This simple formula is enough to make the instrumental standout. It’s melodic, fun and overall incredibly entertaining. The vocal performance fits with the song’s mood, sounding energy while grabbing the listeners’ attention without sounding over the top forced in his interpretation of the lyrics – something that usually happens whenever a song tends to go towards a more playful jazz route. We can only say this is a strong start to this single. Solid song. 4.5/5
2. 空耳クリスタル
Relaxing a bit after all that dancing, we’re presented with a 90’s punk-rock song. Fast guitar riffs and strong drums lead the way in this emotion packed song. The guitar work on this song has that 90’s skater punk-rock touch that bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182 used to have back in the day. As everyone might know, punk-rock is usually a really simple music genre that relies more on repetitive melodies, sometimes speed or power rather than on technicality or complexity. It’s a rather simple song with interesting bits that might interest you – especially if you’re a fan of the music genre. Yoshino‘s vocals are surprisingly good for this song, maintaining good control over his tone and adding a lot of energy to the song with his performance. 4/5
3. 1st String
To complete this release we’re presented with “1st String“, a mellow acoustic-driven ballad. With an acoustic guitar at its core, this song slowly grows on you as we progress from the verses to the emotional chorus in which electric guitars, snary drums join in and delicate strings join in. This simple song packs a lot of emotion – something that Kiramune artists have excelled in in the past few years -, and Yoshino was up to the task of delivering a solid performance that wouldn’t make this song fall short. 4/5
Final rating: 
Yoshino presents himself in an interesting fashion with this single. “Bye-Bye☆ Cerimony” is a robust release with lots of exciting and surprising bits in the mix. The instrumentals are engaging, fun and entertaining, most of the times conveying well the emotions in the lyrics. Each song delved into a different music genre keeping the whole release diverse and fresh. Jazz and punk-rock were certainly some music genres that we weren’t expecting would fit well with his vocals. The control over his tone displayed in this release is something commendable, especially when he was so unstable during his debut years.
“Bye-Bye☆ Cerimony” might go unnoticed to most people, but it’s in our books a release definitely worth a look.
“Bye-Bye☆ Cerimony” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.
