The Daily Spin, July 27
Kohmi Hirose | Winter High!!
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Winter High!! (2014)
Artist: Kohmi Hirose
Link:
This just doesn’t really do a ton for me.
One of my favorite video game soundtracks is Persona 5 Royal, one hundred songs of bombastic jazz-influenced tunes, and those in that soundtrack that feature vocals remind me a lot of the tunes seen in this album.
I hate that my reaction to hearing a j-pop adjacent album is to be like “oh wow that’s persona music”, but observing the catalogue of what I listen to, it’s far and away the closest analogue I’ve got.
My biggest gripe with this album is that the vocals do nothing for me, and that’s an issue when they’re routinely center stage. At no point does the album feel like it tries to innovate on a formula that frankly doesn’t excite me, and so it’s over an hour of pretty samey-feeling pop that, over time, steps on itself frequently enough that it gets really old.
Rating: 6.8/10
Best Tracks: Friday Call Me
Worst Tracks: LUCKY GIRL