My thoughts on “Baby baby Cupid”, the latest single from Seireki13ya.

Release Date: June 17th 2020

Tracklist

1. Baby baby Cupid
2. Blindly Dreamin’
3. Baby baby Cupid (Instrumental)
4. Blindly Dreamin’ (Instrumental)

For me, one of the most impressive developments to come out of this whole COVID/lockdown/we all might die thing is how codomomental have turned their business into a live streaming and merchandise machine. I’ve lost count of how many streams there were at this point, each with a vast array of items to be purchased should you choose to indulge. Some at some rather eye-watering prices too might I add, still it didn’t stop them from selling all of it out pretty much every time though.

It’s back to regular business now though, well kind of at least with the company’s newest group Seireki13ya being the first to broach the topic of a new CD release since everything went down. Not really sure how that’s going to work when it comes to stuff like promotional events and what have you but I guess since most of us aren’t in Japan that’s not something that we really have to worry about too much. Who knows, maybe they’ll figure out a way to live stream those too and make even more of a killing than they already have.

So here we have “Baby baby Cupid”, the latest single release from Seireki13ya. I gotta tell you, that title and the cover really aren’t doing much to get my hopes up here folks. I know you should never judge these things prematurely but man are they making it easy to with this one. Still, I’d been coming around to Seireki and their music recently and they did some interesting stuff on their previous single “Aiuta Nichiya” (review here) so hopefully some of that carries through to this release too. I can sit here and speculate all day if I wanted to, but the best way to see what we’ve got here is to dive right in so let’s do that.

Indeed, you should never judge a book by its cover as “Baby baby Cupid” certainly doesn’t sound anything like the single’s cover or the song title itself might suggest that it would. A vaguely tropical themed synthesizer instrumental is the note that we’re starting things off on, with a bit of a glitchy dynamic and a bit of Funk being added in for good measure. It kinda reminds me of a CY8ER song I think, but I can’t put my finger on which one. Vocals enter the fray after a time and it’s that mildly vocoded, fairly high pitched style of delivery that the group has shown on several of their previous releases so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to hear it again here. The instrumental flips more towards that glitchy side as this is all happening, which compliments things rather well I think. I do kinda miss the vibe we started off on though, and they make me wait a while to hear it again as things get even more glitchy and distorted as we move into the track’s first chorus and then continuing through the middle portion of the song or so. The lyrics are pretty catchy throughout though which is great, and the vocoding definitely helps provide a strong melodic element that would otherwise be missing. Then we get to the bridge which reintroduces a more pronounced tropical flair and we run with a mix of both styles until the song reaches its conclusion. Pretty fun stuff, though a few elements of the track might be a bit harsh to the ears for some. At least it wasn’t a Ballad though, right?

The opening, rather City Pop inspired, instrumental of “Blindly Dreamin'” kinda caught me off guard there a bit I have to say. Didn’t ever really expect to hear this sort of influence on a Seireki track. We don’t really stay in that lane for too long however, with the addition of some extra synths and a drum machine beginning to take us down more of a Chill Hop sort of path. A little bit of a shame in my personal opinion, but I also enjoy a bit of Chill Hop from time to time as well so I’m not exactly complaining too much here. The track has a nice vibe to it and again I’m somewhat reminded of CY8ER in a few ways, especially once the vocals come in in that very familiar sounding vocoded style. They have a nice flow to them and a catchy hook or two along way as well so it’s a very enjoyable listen. Things do pick up a bit for the middle third of the song, which sees a tempo increase and a bit more emotion and energy behind the lyrical delivery to match that. Could have done with a bit more singing personally, but the synthesizer melody was pretty cool to listen to in its own right…though I’m not sure you’re looking for it in a song that started out like this but oh well. Coming out of that we’re back to that more relaxing style before we hit a middle ground between both for the last 30 seconds or so of the track where they tie it all together rather nicely. Enjoyable stuff, though maybe borrowing just a tad too many lines from the CY8ER playbook on this one.

I feel like “Baby baby Cupid” or its b-side could be pretty huge songs for Seireki, assuming they can get them featured in the right places. Both tracks have a style that is contemporary and most importantly very popular right now. There’s definitely something to be said about how derivative some of the elements of each track are, but if you’re looking for a couple of fun songs to put on your summer playlist (and like CY8ER I guess) then these should slot right in there.

Seems like codomomental are positioning themselves to start getting behind Seireki in a big way with this release. I could of course be reading the room completely wrong, but that’s what it feels like. A lot of groups are going to need big releases like this to recover from the effects of the pandemic and while we’re yet to hear much from their older sisters, it would appear that things are off to a very good start on that front coming from the codomomental camp. Exciting times, I hope!