Tsukino-Pro‘s golden unit SolidS is back with their 5th single. “RED” is fiery and passionate from start to finish. With a powerful title track followed by yet another couple of well composed tracks with fitting vocal performances, SolidS seem to once again shine throughout this single.
Single: RED Label: Tsukino-Pro Release date: 25/03/16 Genre: J-Pop/Rock
The tracklist is the following:
1.CRAZY BABY SHOW (SolidS) 2.Roug:e (Takuya Eguchi & Yuuichiro Umehara) 3.CRAZY BABY SHOW -off vocal- 4.Roug:e -off vocal- 5.COLOR [mini-drama] 6.そりらじ特別ミニミニ編（ver.RED）[mini-drama]
Track by track analysis [drama tracks won’t be reviewed]:
1 – CRAZY BABY SHOW
With a powerful bassline as the main appetizer, “CRAZY BABY SHOW” is one hell of a fun track where strong and technical guitar riffs, powerful drums and brass gather to make this track one of the most exciting in SolidS repertoire. With the low notes provided by Takuya Eguchi and Yuuichiro Umehara, the dazzling, ethereal high notes by Natsuki Hanae and the mid-tones with hints of falsetto provided by Soma Saito, the quartet perform this track with a mix of sexiness and power that will grab your attention right from the bat. “CRAZY BABY SHOW” could have easily been a track performed by GRANRODEO if only the guitar work had been a bit more classically technical – but this just shows how great of a track it actually is. 4.5/5
2 – Roug:e
Takuya Eguchi and Yuuichiro Umehara team up for this song, the duo mainly responsible for all the low notes in the group tackles “Roug:e“, a track where progressive techno meets rock in a one of a kind mix. The instrumental in itself relies on lots of dirty synths and pads, a repetitive guitar melody playing in the background for the majority of the track while the synthetic drums lead the way into one of the best choruses this unit has performed so far. Listening to Eguchi and Umehara mastering rising those notes in chorus as well as building up the tension for the final chorus, left a satisfied smile lingering on our face. Exciting track with a chorus that won’t disappoint you. 5/5
Final rating: 
If there’s something SolidS are good in it’s on their rock sound. They often might mix it with classic jazz elements and synth pop but in the end it stands out naturally. Lately it’s a difficult task to find rock tracks that fail to impress with their composition and arrangements. “CRAZY BABY SHOW” is yet another example to put together with the likes of “ロミオ -ROMEO-“, “真紅の恋、凛と惹かれ” and “フレア -FLARE-“.
Although there were some awful singles in the beginning, the unit has grown to be incredibly consistent, showing not only great improvement instrumental wise but also with an improved chemistry and hamonization between members.
If you’re in doubt if this single is even worth to listen to, we can vouch for it: it’s entertaining and won’t make you bored for even a second. And if you’re into the whole mini-drama shenanigans then you’ll like it even more.
“RED” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.
