[2024.06.12] ANGERME - Bibitaru Ichigeki / Uwasa no Narushii / THANK YOU, HELLO GOOD BYE

[Solarblade]

Announced today during ANGERME's Spring concert, Bibitaru Ichigeki / Uwasa no Narushii / THANK YOU, HELLO GOOD BYE (美々たる一撃 / うわさのナルシー / THANK YOU, HELLO GOOD BYE)

Will be Rikako's last single with the group.

http://www.helloproject.com/release/detail/HKCN-50807/

"Bibitaru Ichigeki" Lyrics by Yamazaki Aoi, Composition by Okubo Kaoru and Hoshibe Sho, Arranged by Okubo Kaoru

"Uwasa no Narushii" Lyrics by Konyaku Nishino, Composition by Ricky Hanley,Caroline Gustavsson,Daniel Sherman, Arranged by Daniel Sherman

"THANK YOU, HELLO GOOD BYE"
Lyrics and Composition by Nakajima Takui, Arranged by Miyanaga Jiro

info from Mr. A from jplop!

[Shoujo Q]

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is peaking my senses. You see a group of not Japanese names and you know you have my attention.

[JPope]

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is peaking my senses. You see a group of not Japanese names and you know you have my attention.

I see a Scandinavian sounding name and just assume I'm getting a Kpop song.

[DonJuan]

Great, exactly what I thought would happen is going to happen. 3 H!P singles in the span of 5 weeks. Pretty sure Tsubaki is going to squeeze somewhere inbetween because of Kisora's grad.

Which brings us another problem: It feels like every single is a graduation single. Some of those are great, I remember Takechan's ballad fondly, but most of the time it's a throwaway song like Mizuki's or Kiki's ballad. I don't even remember the one they did for Kishimon and Riko. "THANK YOU HELLO GOOD BYE" at least has the name of one.

[JPope]

Bibitaru Ichigeki PV



This is basically a mash-up of Garakuta DIAMOND and Wake-up Call, lol!

[DonJuan]

Something about the melody reminds me of an older song. Might have been a Eurovision song? Something 2000s.
Not bad. I think it also showcases that Anju has some great voices.

/EDIT: Haha 2000s my ass. It sounds like an I will surive remix.

[Shoujo Q]

So…. They gave what I feel is a Juice=Juice (And maybe even Tsubaki) song to Angerme. It’s very tame for the group.

Very lo-fi and calming. The MV should be interesting for it.

Looking back at who was in charge of it, clearly not very H!P either. This is an experimental track for the group.

[DonJuan]

It kind of fits Rikako in a way, but feels somewhat surprising for Anju. But I think we can tell the "classic" H!P sound goodbye now.

[JPope]

They kind of hinted at this on Big Love, tbh. I don't hate it, but we already have Juice=Juice, so...

[Shoujo Q]

PV is out for Uwasa no Narushii

[JPope]

After watching this a few times, my reaction to the radio rip remains unchanged, other than the fact that I'm kind of annoyed by it now. The song is fine, as is the arrangement and the performance, but why is this an Anju release? I'm not gonna lie, I even want J=J to avoid this sort of smooth-pop for a couple of singles, because it's getting old even for them. But my main issue is that between "Bibitaru Ichigeki" and "Uwasa no Narushii," Anju seems to have ceded every bit of their own musical identity in favor of dressing up in those of Juice=Juice, Tsubaki Factory and Morning Musume. Starting with Big Love, "Red Line" is the lone outlier, true Angerme track.

One of my last blog posts was my review of Big Love, and this was how I wrapped it up:

I’ve seen some harowota concerned that the generally softer vibe of this album might signal a sound and image change for Anju in their post-Takeuchi form, and while I appreciate not wanting a group to move on from the thing that grabbed you in the first place, the music on BIG LOVE is top-shelf H!P. Change in and of itself isn’t the issue — Angerme was itself a major change from the sugary cute idol-pop of S/mileage — it’s the type of change, and that’s where my concern lies. Because if Angerme is going to sound this much like its sister groups, then what is the point of Angerme?

Yeah. What that guy said.

[DonJuan]

I guess it's one big problem for H!P that several, actually all, groups are in a phase of re-finding themselves. MM seems to go back to disco-funk? At least the dance-heavy EDM seems to end now. Juice jazz has been a thing of the past for some time now, their songs are still somewhat more "mature" but it's different from avengers/shortly after them. The city pop retro wave is also more or less over now so it'd be better if they didn't continue with that too. Anju is what you said, they stopped doing this non-idol positive power stuff. Tsubaki has gone from "uncertain girl in love with soft vibes" to girlboss? Will see what the future brings though. Biyo is slowly leaving the theater-like music behind to become more normal idol styled. And OCHA, to me, was always a bit all over the place.

Well. We will see. We're still just in the middle of the great graduation wave which probably won't stop until Ayumi/Ikuta/Sakura, Kisora/Ami and maybe even Kawamuu/Moe have graduated. And then we continue with MM 12th gen and maybe even the other Biyo members, or Ruru and Rei.