TRIGGER brought legendary composer and keyboardist Daisuke Asakura to work on “EVOLUTION”, song that, within 3 minutes, completely threw out of the window the group’s growth and maturity it had undergone in the past 2 years.
Title: EVOLUTION Label: Lantis Release date: 18/09/2023 Genre: J-Pop/Dance
Tracklist:
1 - EVOLUTION
Track analysis:
1 – EVOLUTION
TRIGGER celebrates its 8th anniversary with the release of “EVOLUTION”, song bringing to the spotlight something new to the table through the hands of legendary composer and keyboardist, Daisuke Asakura (best known for his work with T.M.Revolution).
And while the addition of Daisuke Asakura could have brought something impressive to the table with his synthpop experience, what we get in “EVOLUTION” is, looking back at everything that TRIGGER has been releasing as of late, a dark horse that doesn’t really fit well in the group’s repertoire.
The song kicks off with a dreamy soundscape in which slow-paced strings and atmospheric synths as TENN (CV: Soma Saito) lead the way with his vocals.
However, if you are familiar with Asakura’s compositions you know well that this song won’t be quiet and calm. Quite the contrary. As soon as the high-tension synths kicked in, TRIGGER brought an intensity that they never had in their career so far, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Not only does “EVOLUTION” sound like a song taken from a late 90s T.M.Revolution album – don’t get me wrong, his music is amazing, and much of the pop that is performed in Japan is based on his work – but in this case, it sounds dated and, yet again in comparison with what the group has released so far, it sounds far from being an improvement as there’s less focus on the vocals and more on the instrumental – something that was never a thing for TRIGGER.
Continuing the review: the verses have a comfortable tempo, with the electric guitars leading the way as various synths are added to the background. From the old-school, high-pitched ones going on in your left ear to the bass synth lead going on in front of you and the atmospheric synths in your right ear, a lot is going on in here.
The electric guitars shredding in the background as rhythm and solo were a nice addition to this song – something that ends up shining in the outro to this song.
The tension rises with the entrance of orchestral hits – brass and timpani – taking the listener to the chorus. And oh boy. This chorus.
Honestly, I was expecting this as soon as I saw who was composing the song but what the hell… TRIGGER sounds completely out of place with this sound. Even their singing had to shift in style to fit the intensity – not only in the tempo or tone of the song but also by how high the sound levels are for the synths.
As a result, we get a lazy unison chorus that is there to counter everything that is going on in the background – which, need I remind you, is a lot.
As soon as the chorus kicks in, it sounds almost like a song belonging to a different 2D music project and group – which I won’t name – and despite all the effort on being exciting and interesting, it is frustrating how lazy the whole chorus sounds like.
The song doesn’t really get up on its feet with a second verse and subsequent chorus. The bridge may impress newcomers with Daisuke Asakura doing what he does best – going crazy on the synths – and delivering a cool synthpop solo that, once again, takes the listener back in time.
And the last drop in the lazy composition/lyrics for this song comes with the “la la la” part in the outro which didn’t add anything of value to the performance, instead just adding more and more to a song that really needed at least a moment to breathe.
As far as the vocals go, there’s barely any trace of the style and poise that TRIGGER has in their performances. That went out of the window for this performance, completely stripping TRIGGER off of its strength – unique vocals and performances.
As a result, this performance is the blandest I’ve ever heard from TRIGGER and this is frustrating as hell as this is, single-handedly, my favorite 2D group of all time, a group that was, up until now, on a roll with amazing performances that showcased their growth and maturity, setting them apart from all 2D groups out there.
TRIGGER singing “EVOLUTION” or any generic 2D pop group out there doing so wouldn’t make a difference. The song doesn’t sound like anything TRIGGER could or would release – even taking into account their roots in EDM pop or even their growth towards jazz-pop or funk-pop in recent releases.
This is a massive miss in terms of tone and vibe for the group and in no way showcases TRIGGER’s strengths.
“EVOLUTION” is a frustrating single release by TRIGGER, one I wish hadn’t happened, tainting a near-flawless repertoire. This goes to show that bringing “star” power on the composition end may not be the best answer to improve a group. Had this song been composed by Shinnosuke (“Last Dimension”, “Crescent Rise” or “Beautiful Prayer”), who better understands the group’s sound and has been around since the start, we would have gotten a massive hit song focused on highlighting the vocals.
The sound in “EVOLUTION” is exactly what happens when you hire a composer – regardless if it is a top tier one or someone just starting out – who doesn’t understand the group they are composing music for nor has taken the time to check their previous work to ensure the new song they are composing offers “continuity” – even if changing a little the sound the group would have for this song – in the best way possible.
In a year in which TRIGGER released the massive tunes “Beautiful Prayer” and “BE AUTHENTIC”, “EVOLUTION” arrives to leave a sour taste on what was going to be a flawless 2023 for the group.
TRIGGER is:
TRIGGER consists of Gaku (CV: Wataru Hatano), Tenn (CV: Soma Saito), and Ryunnosuke (CV: Takuya Sato).
“EVOLUTION” is available for streaming on Spotify.
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Puedo decir que me encanta toda la discografía de TRIGGER, es mi grupo favorito de i7, y AMO cada canción que sacan porque sé que será genial. Estuve esperando tanto su canción de aniversario 2023 (después de la joya lanzada en 2022) y en cuanto le di play al MV… me sacó de onda ;-; Tuve que escucharla varias veces para que me termine gustando, a día de hoy me sigue pareciendo más una canción de IDOLiSH7 que de TRIGGER (si hablamos sólo de esta franquicia). EVOLUTION hizo que mi “TRIGGER nunca decepciona” se fuera por el caño.
Eso es lo que pensé cuando escuché esta canción. La canción de 2022 fue perfecta – incluso si sonaba completamente diferente de lo que el grupo había estado haciendo hasta entonces. Sonar diferente y tener un concepto de “sonar como un grupo diferente” está bien y es bastante interesante. Pero esto era extraño. Se sentía extraño. Si escuchas todas las otras canciones de aniversario de 2023 de todos los demás grupos, esta fue la única que sonó… completamente fuera de lugar.
TRIGGER era perfecto hasta ahora. “EVOLUTION” es difícil de gustar, al menos me resulta difícil de disfrutar.
Pero está bien no ser o sonar perfecto. Es parte del crecimiento de un grupo. Y disfruto de este tipo de “subidas” y “bajadas”. Hace que el viaje sea más agradable.
Disculpas por cualquier error en mi español, no soy fluida. Gracias por el comentario y por traeres un punto de vista diferente a esta conversación!
The whole point of 2023 annis was old genres. That’s why it may sound out of place. It’s a good song, if the song was actually bad, bandai wouldn’t release it.
Yes, I get it. In a way the 2022 anniversary songs were also exploring old music genres (disco, funk, etc). As for classifying a song as “good” or “bad”, that is subjective. Some artists have, in the past, released amazing CDs yet fans hated. And others released subpar CDs and fans loved them. It really boils down to personal preference. In this case, Bandai, of course, only releases what is good. Whether fans will like it or not is a different thing.
I understand your point but once again, this is a review, which means it is subjective. As I said to other commenter, I stand by what I wrote as for my tastes and taking into account everything I mentioned in it, I feel this song is subpar in comparison to everything else the group released. And as I said in the review, I love TRIGGER to bits (my all time favorite 2D group, mind you), but let’s not assume everything is perfect. Artists have ups and downs, it’s part of the journey. As fans it’s okay to say you don’t like a song and especially like I did, giving good arguments why. Whether you agree with those is a different thing and I respect you if you don’t agree.
Thanks for the comment and for being civil in this conversation. I appreciate it!
did you have an issue with the other three groups’ songs too? the entire point of last year’s anniversary songs was that they sounded different from the idols’ usual songs. of course trigger wasn’t the exception… there wasn’t meant to be continuity. the difference between re:vale’s ‘your rhapsody’ and ‘now & then’ is just as stark, but it was supposed to be that way. after the previous three 2023 anni songs, i don’t know how you still went into trigger’s expecting it to have the same sound as the rest of their discography.
So far, I haven’t listened to any other songs in the 2023 anniversary series. I’ll eventually find time to review those! (I would have appreciated no spoilers here in the comments though as I like to go in blind to the reviews, even if the songs were released long ago).
And yes, I was aware that the point was to sound different. Every year, the anniversary songs have sounded different from their usual, which is quite awesome. But this time around this was way off path in my opinion, even if the concept was to sound different.
“after the previous three 2023 anni songs, i don’t know how you still went into trigger’s expecting it to have the same sound as the rest of their discography.” – it just so happens that the songs all groups released in 2023 actually felt like a natural growth and maturity in their sound. If you think of anniversaries as times to celebrate the past but also looking forward to the future (like it has been for the IDOLiSH7 franchise), those songs didn’t feel all that different or disruptive. They felt right.
In this case, in my opinion, TRIGGER’s “EVOLUTION” has cool ideas but lacks their “identity”. Yes, the point was to sound different and they achieved it. Does the song sound good to me? Nope. Does it add anything of quality to their repertoire? Honestly, I don’t think so. Can other people love it? Yes.
It’s okay to not agree with my opinion – that’s perfectly valid -, as we all react to music in different ways. But I would appreciate it if you, at least understand where I come from in this analysis.
Thanks for the comment!