New releases EVERYWHERE again

Monobright - 英雄ノヴァ

Genre: new wave, alternative, nerd rock
Song style: no-frills, simple melody alternative rock that drills through

I'm not very into this new single by Monobright that comes out today, "英雄ノヴァ". The song is very mediocre, normal alternative and Monobright has done much catchier, unique stuff. But the video itself is really interesting! Where did they find all this bizarre footage, and how did they get it all to be timed in sync with the song?

斉藤和義 (Kazuyoshi Saitou) is also releasing his new single "ずっと好きだった" today but I find it so average and poppy (and the clip online is only a short segment), that it's not even worth embedding in this blog. But there is one new release I'm really excited about, which I will blog about later in the evening (hopefully before midnight)!

Catchy music from dramas: Samurai High School

Monobright - 孤独の太陽

Genre: nerd rock, alternative
Song style: a slow-paced but guitar-filled vocal-melody driven song

The reason why I like this song is that the vocal melody is such a Japanese melody (you'd never find this in an American song). I tend to really like these melodies that fluctuate through many notes within minor / Japanese scales. But what really gets to me is that the singer looks like he is in such pain, making the visuo-audal combination of the song slightly tedious. I promise you, their other songs are more fun and dance-y. This song goes along with a drama I really enjoyed over Thanksgiving break (I know, so long ago! But a good counterpoint to the end of spring break) called "Samurai High School". It's a light-hearted high school drama about a talentless student with a split personality as a samurai from many centuries ago. The show brought a lot of laughs. Monobright gained a lot of fame creating the theme song for this show (it got them in the Oricon charts), and has a new single anticipated for mid-April so we'll see if they can keep up their popularity!