I’d been very curious about what Melon Batake a go go were going to do with their next (major) release. At first, those thoughts centered around the whole business of their recent international work — what’s well and truly next at that point? Where do you take things? Where do you aim? Within the concept, what’s possible?

Well, the new single is out in June, and the MV is here, and now we know:

I’m entering this weird spot with Melon, who I adore conceptually and whose music I by and large support — they’re one of my at-work soundtracks lately, and I turned a friend on to them recently specifically because I thought that he’d enjoy their music — where I like everything but find myself loving it less. I didn’t really understand why until this very song right here, which falls prey to the same structural weakness that so many musical things, not just idol, fall prey to, but I’ve used critically on everybody from Zenkimi to MBG to BBTS: At way too high a level, it’s way too similar to way too much of their other work.

Is it fun? Sure! Enjoyable? Absolutely! But particularly moving? Therein lies the trouble. I get that not everybody is going to release as diverse a catalog as, say, Necroma, but please please please mix it up a little bit. In this case, despite some flavor in the tune and added effects, it’s more “just” a Melon song rather than being A New Melon Song. It can be comforting to have that reliability from something you love, but it’s also frustrating when you know the potential to go much higher and farther is sitting right there, unused. And yeah, to get back to the lede, it’s entirely possible that this is a logical business decision in context, to stay right on a narrow definition of the brand as the fandom develops. That doesn’t mean that I, personally, have to love it for that purpose.

For what it’s worth, I put the onus for that on the label, who I’ve suspected for a while picked up a pretty out-there chika project as much for its components as for its specific self. I mean, you have a cool concept driven by creative people led by one of the real genuine artistic forces in the underground. Why not use that for something more than hitting the right notes on a ready-made formula?

At any rate, the single’s out in a month, so prepare to acquire. And stay tuned for not one but two Melon-related interviews in the very near future, one by Kerrie with Yuffie from Indie, Idol & Infamous, and another by Chris with the whole group from the Monster of Dolls show in Italy. I haven’t seen any transcripts yet myself, but I was involved in building out the questions, and there was no shortage of tomfoolery. They’re gonna be pretty good!