I keep telling you guys, if it’s not already Wagamama Rakia’s moment, it’s happening. To celebrate their second anniversary as a group, and to show off the new-look-four-member lineup, they dropped a song that I’ve already played twice and will continue to repeat as necessary:

I love the little trip down memory lane, with the old outfits etc. They’ve come so far and now, two years on, are ready to go.

The neat thing about Rakia is that they’ve actually always been good, just kind of struggling at times to stand out in a crowded Osaka scene and possibly reminding some people too much of another particularly successful Osaka unit. Which, fair enough, and I love me some PassCode ballads, but I’m not sure if they’ve hit one out quite so well as this. Like, yes, I’m always going to go weak in the knees for piano-intro’ed idol tunes, but go ahead and tell me that you don’t dig this so that I can call you a liar to your face and challenge you to pistols and swords at sunrise. When that beat drops at the end of the last chorus? /kisses fingers

This isn’t the first time hearing Layna in the group post her NEVE SLIDE DOWN days, but it’s the first seeing it, no? Like in a controlled way; I remember my own posts, ya dinks. Not every new member in every group, even as notable ex members of notable ex groups, brings a ton to the table, but I think this Layna thing is going to work out without necessitating changes to how the lineup works. This is hand-in-glove stuff.

I’m rooting really hard for Wagamama Rakia. There’s a surprising amount of room for that flavor of digitized idolcore right now, and I hope they can fill at least some of it.