It’s pretty atypical that we have ourselves a good ol’ fashioned think piece for the weekend, but the Mrs. Maniacs are visiting and I’m actually writing this on Wednesday night to give you, dear readers, something to tell me I’m wrong about when I’m in no position to defend myself.

You jerks.

I’m obviously a little bit smitten with this new idol project that looks more at home at some chic coffee shop in the trendy part of town than in dark, tiny clubs and sounds like the misplaced bastard child of 1990s Seattle. It’s just, they’re good:

But that’s not why I think they’re perfect.

Yanamyu stepped into a world tailor-made for their success. This whole alt-idol thing is so verifiably a Thing that it’s being deliberately included in some of the biggest musical festivals in Japan; the rock sound and its variants are arguably becoming a preference for idols in general. These cool art-house idols were created as little sisters of scene-toppers Bellring Girls Heart, almost like a lab project, hitting as many right notes as possible along the way.

That was just a few months ago, and here they are, already on the eve of the release of their second EP:

【11/26(土)発売 2nd EP お知らせ①】
タイトルは「Sealing EP」4曲入り1000円！

更に！CD発売に先行して、

11/12〜11/25の期間限定で！
OTOTOYにて全曲無料配信(mp3版)が決定しました！#ヤナミュー pic.twitter.com/l6o5vivbRg

— ヤなことそっとミュート (@YanakotoSM) October 20, 2016

Joining their big sisters and GANG PARADE for a legitimate event:

11/5
大阪CONPASS
【MAD SATURDAY!】

BELLRING少女ハート
ヤなことそっとミュート
GANG PARADE

OP17時ST18時
前売2500D別
※ベルハー、ヤなミュー運営予約残りわずか！
※conpass会場予約終了しました。 pic.twitter.com/S0RGFW3sY2

— モチヅキシンノスケ (@omochi1980hige) October 24, 2016

And getting into Bouquet’s latest IDOL ROCKS! event:

IDOL ROCKS!〜忘年会スペシャル〜（12月3日開催 at 味園ユニバース）追加出演者発表！Cure。／ヤなことそっとミュートです！チケットは発売中！見逃すな！https://t.co/4Nzozm4p0T

— BOUQUET 編集部 (@bouquet_2015) October 29, 2016

A lot of idol groups are created especially to take advantage of trends (see: BiSH), and a lot of idol groups shoot into relative prominence via a lot of means, but something feels different about Yanamyu.

It’s similar to how Yukueshirezutsurezure followed Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da’s lead of adding sonic intensity to emerging yami-kawaii and, a year later, feel like they’re on the verge of something big; for Yanamyu, they’re doing heavy art rock and putting on highly precise live shows that meet expectations for idol done at a higher level. They’re like idol’s best possible college act (so, like, REM?), riding waves and trends laid out well ahead of their debut: They were born into a world that was ready for them without realizing it, and now we get to watch the process of their emergence unfold.

And with their big sisters going on hiatus, a lot of fans and a lot of management energy are going to be directed toward them. I hope Yanamyu’s as ready as they seem to be, because 2017 could be their year.