Like once a week, I worry that I’ll run out of things to post about. I had that feeling this morning. As usual, that was stupid.
While doing a YouTube check to make sure that I wasn’t missing something with Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da, I had one of those awesome stumble-upon moments and found myself staring one very ambitious YouTuber’s work in the face. Vgotho, aka the source for like all of the Fruitpochette I otherwise probably never would have found, relatively recently added some B-sides of PassCode’s. Let’s listen and be hugely critical!
The actual literal companion track to the very good “Never Sleep Again” single, which I felt was a lot like a companion piece to their staple, “Club Kids Never Die.” “Rize!!” on the other hand, sounds a lot more like leftover track from All Is Vanity, and not least because it sounds like it was written within minutes of them finishing “Seize the Day!”. Which I’m not saying is a bad thing (all heretofore mentioned tracks are very good), but it does speak to the reality of B-sides and why a lot of them tend not to wind up making the cut for full albums. All in all, okay song, and obviously part of a finishing process.
I was just getting to know PassCode when “Now I Know” was released, and I’ll be the first to admit that it took some listening to get into; I didn’t get it. This, “Seek out the Truth,” is a good companion to it, though it’s a little bit disjointed and, what the hell?, in a way very similar to “Rize!!”, it reminds me of a combination of early drafts from “XZY” and “Nextage.” Out of the three songs here, I think I like this one best.
Oh, good, a B-side that lines up well with the single it paired with! “Shake It up Tonight” is … what’s with these songs that feel like early drafts of other songs? This reminds me a lot of “Club Kids,” too, but at least the timeline would make sense in this case. Hell, you know what it really sounds like? Go listen to All Is Vanity and then this. Yeah, it would kind of fit, but like as one of those recap-medley things that bands perform at awards shows.
That was a lot of fun! Unless you’re able to buy up all of the single releases by idol groups, it’s easy to miss out on some of their less well-known material, and, much like physicists and the Higgs boson, I was only aware that these songs should exist but had not yet observed them until now. And the gods help you if you try to buy up all of your favorites’ old releases, even from things like CD Japan; you start off like “wow, $10 for a CD!” and then the shipping kicks in but you’re too invested to not complete the purchase and you wind up pawning minor valuables from around the house.
