Laidback summer vibes take over the WORLD TRE@SURE series with its newest entry.
Title: THE IDOLM@STER SideM WORLD TRE@SURE 05 Label: Lantis Release date: 05/12/2018 Genre: Pop
Tracklist:
01.ALOHA! HAPPY CREATOR! 02.MEET THE WORLD!(HAWAII Ver.) 03.ALOHA! HAPPY CREATOR!(Off Vocal)
Track by track analysis:
01.ALOHA! HAPPY CREATOR!
Hawaii invades the WORLD TRE@SURE series. ALOHA! HAPPY CREATOR! brings to the table playful Caribbean inspired percussion with calypso steel drums and traditional Hawaiian percussion through danceable ipu and uli uli melodies. Vibes, a groovy bass line, trumpets and Hawaii’s trademark slide-guitar licks make this song a bundle of fun.
The vocals will sound a bit off at first, especially when the group is unbalanced – 2 high-key singers and 1 mid-toned singer. Their performance is nothing out of the extraordinary but ends up growing on the listener. Solid performance on top of an entertaining song. 4/5
02.MEET THE WORLD!(HAWAII Ver.)
Built around a playful piano melody and groovy bass line, MEET THE WORLD! takes pride in its upbeat and danceable sound. Atmospheric synths, strings and simple bass-driven drums add the finishing touches to this instrumental, creating an addictive and, at the same time, inspiring sound. Paying close attention to this song, it actually sounds like a throwback 80’s pop tune – mainly due to its piano melody.
So far we’ve listened to 5 different takes on this song, some better than others but all of high quality. Hawaii’s take on this song was rather unique, especially when this trio has a lot of high pitched singers in comparison with previous lineups in the WORLD TRE@SURE series. While it’s not the best take on this song, it is entertaining enough. 4/5
Final rating:
Hawaii takes over this release which means that we have in hands a fun and summer-y tune. ALOHA! HAPPY CREATOR! brought the traditional uli uli and ipu to the spotlight. It was rather interesting the choice for these two instruments instead of the ukelele – easily the first instrument people associate with Hawaiian music. The focus put on the uli uli and ipu showed that Hawaiian music is much more than Ukelele and slide-guitar. The instrumental is addictive and danceable from start to finish. It also features sliding-guitar licks, something that not only is traditional, but also added a nice touch to the song that was mostly bustling with percussion. This song exudes infectious summery, laidback vibes.
Vocally, Hawaii’s team is the weakest so far in the WORLD TRE@SURE series. While Junya Enoki (S.E.M) is a solid singer, Ayumu Murase (Mofumofuen) and Daiki Kobayashi (Café Parade) end up unbalancing this group. While it’s good to have a contrast between high, mid and low toned singers, it’s also good that the singers with any of the tonalities know how to sing. Murase sure does know how to sing (he’s actually a good singer) – and here he is singing in an unnatural tone for him – but Kobayashi, that is known for his high pitched voice, should be comfortable singing in his high-pitched tone however he doesn’t sound good here. His performance passable, not good. And when both high tones clashed with Enoki’s vocals, that’s when you notice that this group is unbalanced.
After listening to this release it’s a pity that the group didn’t have another vocal with them, possibly someone versatile that could balance everyone’s tones. Instrumental-wise ALOHA! HAPPY CREATOR! is an interesting song filled with energy that you should check out.
All in all, the fifth entry in the WORLD TRE@SURE series came a bit short.
“THE IDOLM@STER SideM WORLD TRE@SURE 05” is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
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