Jupiter raise the bar with “Over AGAIN”, single that easily takes the crown as the unit’s best release to date.
Jupiter consist of Takuma Terashima, Daichi Kanbara and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka.
Title: Over AGAIN
Label: Lantis
Release date: 17/01/2018
Genre: J-Pop
Tracklist:
01.Over AGAIN 02.Reason!!（Jupiter Ver.） 03.Over AGAIN -Instrumental-
Track analysis:
01 – Over AGAIN
As soon as “Over AGAIN” kicks off, Jupiter envelops the listener in a sweet instrumental, one in which acoustic guitars, mellow piano melodies, slow paced drum samples and gated synths create a perfect harmony. Putting synths in the background and taking a minimalistic approach in their usage – more focused on creating ambient sounds resorting to soothing pads and a slightly bright looping synth hit in the background – seems to have worked out incredibly well for this instrumental. The spotlight is handed to the melodic acoustic guitars that created such a sweet and warm melody, one of the greeting cards on this release. With an instrumental this good, what do we find on the vocal department? More quality. One can’t help but to be immersed in Jupiter’s performance. Their vocals are consistent and versatile and, despite everyone having their own charm during the solo parts, they sound best when performing together. Their harmonies, solo parts, choruses, every little bit of their performance was flawless. There’s no need to hide it, this is Jupiter’s best song to date. 5/5
02 – Reason!! (Jupiter Ver.)
We’re not getting into too many details on this song as the full version (with the 6 main Idolmaster SideM units) has already been reviewed. “Reason!!” is the song released last year that got the first RIAJ Certified Gold record to this franchise. The song is bright in its essence, a characteristic that might not fit that well with some of the groups that originally performed this song.
After listening to almost all attempts at this song, Jupiter’s the most natural. What do we mean by natural? It seems as though the instrumental, progression and vocal directing for the 315 STARS version was all created around Jupiter’s vocals. When listening to this song you’ll notice that this is the version that sounds the closest to the 315 STARS original. The vocals are all around consistent and the performances are engaging. A solid performance. 4.5/5
Final rating: 
Jupiter’s “Over AGAIN” thoroughly impressed us. The title track is the best song part of THE IDOLM@STER SideM’s Animation series, at least so far (there’s still a couple of releases left for us to review).
Over AGAIN‘s instrumental instantly envelops the listener in a sweet melody, delivering and warm, gentle vocal performance on the vocal end. It’s such a simple formula but it was extremely well executed, taking this song to new heights, instantly making it this single’s highlight. This is quite possibly the most consistent song in the Animation series, there was literally nothing amiss on their performance.
Terashima, Kanbara and Matsuoka showcased their chemistry on both songs. Not only were their vocals totally in sync, but their harmonies were rich and engaging. There wasn’t a moment in which we thought something was going or sounding wrong. Whenever they were prompted to perform solo parts, each one of them performed those comfortably.
There’s not much we can add about this release. Jupiter raised the bar and with ease, embracing sweet pop sound and investing a lot on consistent and complete vocal performances, delivering one of the best songs in the SideM franchise as well as the group’s best song to date. A solid release in our books, one we highly suggest you to give it a listen.
“Over AGAIN” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN.
