PURE is out! Thoughts?
I have to say I like the second half of the album much better than the first. Gogo 8-ji, Portman, and Pure are all great and having them one after another is reeeally nice. Gogo 8-ji and Portman are both such dreamy ballads with insanely earwormy choruses and amazing production. Pure is so funky and just so happy, I love it.
Other than those songs, I like Reset, Gimme, Siren, and Break up (it's so obviously a Taku Takahashi production and it's great that Taichi sounds so at home with this sound). Some of the other songs might still grow on me (I'm still not sure if I like Ego or not), but after a few listens, there are still quite many that didn't leave much of an impression (Secret, Agony, Answer) and a few I just straight-up don't like (Crazy is still annoyingly blah; Haters actually has a nice sound but my mind just sours as soon as he starts singing about haters).
Overall, I find the album much weaker than BLUE, but still decent and with enough songs I love to keep me happy. But I'm also starting to think he needs to change things up; earlier this year,
Yoake was talking about missing his more experimental songs, and I'm starting to feel the same way. Too many of the songs on this album were just too unremarkable and felt like they didn't have much to say. I thought this was mainly the case with the upbeat songs; I keep eating up his ballads and slow r'n'b numbers. I hope he can bring back some edge and experimentation in the future.
BY THEY WAY, something no one here has discussed yet: I CANNOT BELIEVE (ok fine, I can but don't want to) the sweater he's wearing on the album covers, it must be one of the ugliest goddamn garments I've seen in my life.
But I guess it fits the hipster-chic image they seem to be going for.