WACK and Avex’s collaborative group (no, the other one) have decided to get a little 70’s to switch things up and boy do these EMPiRE SOUNDS feel SUPER GOOD.
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EMPiRE
Perfect Vibes from the Latest EMPiRE
“Oh gee look at all of these draft posts to try to address this morning” I said to myself as I flipped over to Twitter about 15 seconds after this hit the top of the timeline:
2 Hours Later…
“This is EMPiRE SOUNDS”
プレミア公開https://t.co/KOnDTarSbB#超ひんやりEMPiRE pic.twitter.com/xtVJzPMgIn— EMPiRE OFFiCiAL (@EMPiREIDOL) July 11, 2020
Plans? Canceled. Other than a very quick crash course from Kerrie and Cal, I’d managed to avoid just about everything WACK in the past few weeks — by choice, mind you — but this aesthetic, coming from EMPiRE, clearly an MV, subtler reasons galore, you follow me yes of course I shunted my other plans aside and gleefully steepled my fingers in anticipation.
This is from EMPiRE’s upcoming new EP SUPER COOL EP (bless them), and it might not be my favorite song or video by any means, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hit in exactly the right spot at the right time: Continue reading
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A WACK Way to Deal With Cancelled Shows
If you’ve been keeping up with the news, both regular and idol, you’ll probably know that Abe Shinzo issued a countrywide order temporarily banning all large scale public entertainment events because of Novel Coronavirus fears. ZOC cancelled their entire FINAL INNOCENT ZOC tour, Aya Eightprince cancelled a smaller public appearance and Pour Lui cancelled the shooting for her upcoming idol group’s music video to name a few. Things have been cancelled harder than a celebrity who’s angered a kpop fanbase.
Currently, WACK are meant to be embarking on their nationwide WACK FUCKiN’ PARTY tour but alas even Watanabe Junnosuke who has objectively more clout than the prime minister can’t get around a ban on public events.
Just kidding, yes he FUCKiN can!
2/29 18時〜 WACK TOUR 2020 “WACK FUCKiN’PARTY” NO AUDiENCE LiVE 生中継ニコ生で行うことになりました。プレミアム放送はなくどなたでも見れます。
— 渡辺”ジュンジュン”淳之介 (@JxSxK) February 27, 2020
よければご自宅でお楽しみいただければと思います。3月1日も何かしら用意できたらと動いております。
よろ。https://t.co/G2t3FpWPcp
This Saturday at 6pm JST, the show will go on! NO AUDiENCE LiVE is exactly what it sounds like – nobody is going to be there. You can’t cancel a public event that isn’t a public event. The entire thing is going to be broadcast on Niconico so everyone will be able to be there in spirit. A premium subscription is only around $5USD too, so hey, if you’re spending your time indoors as a health precaution why not spend it with the idol fanbase’s favourite women’s prison colony?
It’s been a rough week for a lot of people on Earth because of the you-know-what, but in a dire time things like entertainment are what make it manageable! So, cast aside your worry, wash your damn hands regularly and enjoy your time at home.
And if you’re in need of a little something extra, BiSH and EMPiRE made a few previously limited broadcasts available on their YouTube channels as a sorry for cancelled shows too.
Remember, while this is a lot of fun content for us overseas, fundamentally it’s a sorry to people living in a country that’s tightening it’s grip attempting to deal with a pandemic, so remember to be respectful! Or if you’re living in a country that’s going through the same thing do what you want, we’re not the reaction police over here.
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This Is My Favorite Kind of EMPiRE Song
Next up in the Brief Run of Posts So Maniac Can Feel Better about Himself: EMPiRE! Who released this latest MV from their new album and went the extremely easy-but-effective-because-this-is-how-idol-works route with it. Wherein, in fact, key schisms within Team are laid bare, as Kerrie was like “oh you can just put that in the Weekender, it’s just one of those member retrospective montage things” and I was like “what’s that? I was too busy crying into a pillow to hear.” Yes, I happen to love these kinds of videos, and with them exactly this kind of song, which I believe is now canonically known as The ODD FUTURE Method.
The new album is out! The tour is wrapping up! WACK has things cooking and we’re only hours away from something that’s probably going to make people mad! It’s only a week until Christmas!
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[Insert Joker Reference Here]
Did anyone else forget that EMPiRE have an album out next month? What is probably WACK’s most polished unit have been so busy lately that it can be hard to keep track of them. They only just released a single two weeks ago and they’re already promoting “The GREAT JOURNEY ALBUM” through limo rides (yes, really) and a premature music video for album opener “Have it my way”.
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There Are Still Plenty of Hours to Download the New EMPiRE, Which You Should Probably Do
EMPiRE runs kind of hot and cold around these parts, as befits a group that was born to a major label and rarely settles on just one style (preferably loud) for its music, with that often settling for safe avenues toward record sales. It’s the moments when they try something different (or are willing to battle an anthropomorphic butt) that EMPiRE stands out. We’d like more of them, please and thanks.
Yesterday/today/whatever they embarked on their 24 HOUR PEOPLE PARTY performance, a member’s farewell and an opportunity to spin off some other new announcements. And, among them, seeing as how it’s one of the only truly fitting ways to close something like a 24 HOUR PEOPLE PARTY, they’re offering up a new track for free download … for 24 hours. Go get it while the getting’s good!
【新曲24時間限定フリーダウンロード】
新曲『SELFiSH PEOPLE』が
本日14:00より24時間限定でフリーダウンロード‼︎"TWENTY FOUR HOUR LiMiTED FREE DOWNLORD"https://t.co/GNJuFOKEuL#EMPiREIDOL #EMPiRE24時間#EMPiRE宣戦布告 pic.twitter.com/s7p14X1M6H
— EMPiRE OFFiCiAL (@EMPiREIDOL) March 4, 2019
Dang, whoever broke EMPiRE, thanks
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Maybe You Guys Have a Particularly Strong Reaction to the New EMPIRE Song?
Speculative nature of the post aside, I’d completely lost track of anything that was afoot with EMPIRE, such as a single that is also a theme song, which is what this is. Bully for EMPIRE in that case. However, having now listened to it twice and observed its well-composed-but-ultimately-unexciting MV, I find that I have a desire to blog a post about it without having any feeling more intense than “oh, I should blog a post about it” about it. So here it is!
Well gee, that’s as straight-ahead a power pop anthem as you’re likely to find anywhere, isn’t it? Did Kenta write it? It’s packed with Kenta moves, is why I ask. It’s basically “Promise the Star”. Did Aina do the choreography? Those overhead circular movements are an EMPIRE staple going back to when Aina choreographed them. Will this probably sell quite a bit? Probably, or Kentacore would have all but disappeared at this stage in history.
This has been my reaction to the new EMPIRE song.
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EMPiRE Strikes Again and Ruins my Sunday Morning
Man, I didn’t want to do any things today, even with some good stuff in the queue! What the heck, EMPiRE, and your second MV off of EMPiRE originals arguably being the better of the two released so far and definitely being something that used to be more in BiS’s wheelhouse if it just had a little bit more blood in it?
Just couldn’t resist that Kentacore piano break, could it?
Though, I guess given that they’re in position as human blood banks like in Fury Road, the sanguinary concerns are somewhat addressed! Continue reading
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Dang, That New EMPiRE Song Is Nice
How do we feel about EMPiRE now, with the “EMPiRE originals” MV out? I’m annoyed that I only just got to look and listen at this today, though it’s partly my fault because I kind of deliberately set it aside after yesterday’s release. So sue me! I got stuff to do, man. Idol don’t pay these bills!
But let me say, please, that my hedged skepticism is something that I’d like to take back:
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So How Do We Feel about EMPiRE Right Now?
I’m asking this question because we’re coming up on the EMPiREiversary and folks in this community seem to fall on a simple continuum when it comes to WACK’s first explicit collaboration with Avex — people seem to be EMPiRE fans, or they’re fairly indifferent, or somewhere blithely in between. This is relevant because hey, there’s a new EP coming out in a few weeks, and the MV for the lead track is out in a few days, and just kind of let this wash over you:
【「EMPiRE originals」ティザー映像公開!!】
9/5に発売するミニアルバム「EMPiRE originals」からリード曲「EMPiRE originals」ティザー映像、NEWアー写公開!!アートワークや収録曲の詳細は下記URLより要チェック!!https://t.co/63KIUhgHzj#拡散希望 #EMPiREoriginals #EMPiREIDOL #短いから見てね pic.twitter.com/AY8c9LcBJx— EMPiRE OFFiCiAL (@EMPiREIDOL) August 13, 2018
That looks sleek as hell and sounds like it’s either going to be epic or another reductive “Orchestra” knock-off. Neither, for what it’s worth, would be bad in the absolute, but one is seriously better than the other, you know? I also thought that maybe we were looking at clips from at least two total MVs, actual results of course yet to be determined. Continue reading
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