Consider yourselves lucky that I didn’t turn this entire post into one long pun on the song title
I’ll be honest with you, folks: I may have shut down almost all of my old barrage of notifications to keep from losing my mind, but I did keep a few on, and one of those was for PassCode, which partly works because their Twitter account is about 10% as busy as most, so you the ratio of quality information to filler schedule stuff is quite high, but this being the season that it is and the environment that it is and with everything else going on, I kept seeing “Anything New” and assuming it was some kind of streamed live event and only realized late yesterday that OMG ITS’S A NEW SONG, WELL THAT’S APTLY NAMED I GUESS, HOLY HELL THERE’S AN MV COMING. And so I did that little nervous hoppy-hand-shaky dance thing in my head and got all het up, so when the sucker came up live on YouTube this morning I could not have been more ready.
Yes. Yes! Ha ha, yes!
GodDAMN it feels good to hear that again. I missed the “STARRY SKY” single that people apparently loved (#1 on Oricon!), so as far as I’m concerned this is a continuation from last year’s releases, going all the way back to the Clarity album in what is in my own personal headcanon the phase called PassCode Finally Broke the Mold and Are Doing Good Grownup Music — YMMV, of course. But yeah, you’re just cruising along in what could pass for a fun. song, get those extremely dance-friendly grooves, they hit you with The Yuna Part, and then it’s basically a feel-good jog to the finish line. Vintage structure, but enough independence in its sound to make it a worthwhile listen.
You kind of wonder what PassCode, now truly seven years into existence and effectively six in its current configuration (RIP Yu-ri), the absolute elder statesidols of their edge of the scene if they hadn’t already been since, like, 2016, has left in the tank, and they keep finding little ways to put just enough spin on the formula to keep you coming back. It’s very good, and I am much pleased! So instead the question that I’ll ask is: How many new moves does PassCode have left? Even if they don’t ever quite make it into a truly international presence like it really did feel like they were on the cusp of doing a few years back, the label no doubt feels that it can wring plenty more content out of the group. And if that’s the case, can they keep making it awesome? I don’t even want to ask questions about the lineup and longevity, but they’re probably in the back of your mind, too — and if certain things were to happen there, is it even still PassCode anymore?
Anyway, you can tell that I’ve been anticipating this release and also need something to do with my brain this morning. Let’s close with: This is awesome, PassCode is awesome, please for the love of all things holy and un let there be plenty more where “SOMETHING NEW” came from.
