My thoughts on “Hatsukoi Addiction”, the second in a series of digital singles from Baby ♡♡ Holic.

 
Release Date: April 1st 2021

Tracklist

1. Hatsukoi Addiction

So, as we all know things have been a little slower in the Idol scene as spring has been unfolding. Now of course there are still plenty of groups putting out new music but as far as the more tenured ones are concerned its been a bit of a lull while contracts, budgets, tax returns and all of that good stuff have been worked out. As such, I’ve had to broaden my scope when it comes to groups that I’m writing about here on the site, as you might have noticed lately, and I have to say that the results have been rather positive so far in my opinion.

Baby ♡♡ Holic are one such group that I featured on the site recently, having already taken a look at their “Tokyo Mystery Tour Land” digital single that came out a little while ago. The group itself has existed for a while now but have only really just settled on their current 3 person line-up in the last month or two and the aforementioned single along with the one that I’ll be talking about today are part of the process of getting this current system off of the ground. Boring insider talk about things nobody probably cares about, yay!

“Hatsukoi Addiction” is the song in question this time out and I already kinda like that they’re tying in the group’s “addictive” concept with the title of one of their songs. The group’s incredibly cute, over the top brand of Bubblegum Pop probably isn’t going to make this single appeal to everyone (assuming that’s what they’ve gone with for this outing too) but if you’re into that mid-2000s anime vibe then maybe we’ll have something here that might appeal to you. Read on to find out my friends.

Much like the last song we checked out from Baby ♡♡ Holic, “Hatsukoi Addiction” starts off on a very bright and positive note with a bubbly Synth Pop instrumental with a little bit of guitar going on in the mix as well. Pretty noticeable anime feel to this one as well which isn’t a bad thing at all but I was reminded of a couple of songs from that sphere of Japanese pop culture that I’ve enjoyed over the years while listening to this one. Very soft, warm feel to the tone being presented and while the energy is more dreamy than high tension there’s still a rather catchy beat to go along with it all which makes for easy and pleasant listen. Wouldn’t have hated if they’d maybe introduced a bit more energy for say the choruses or something but perhaps not the best fit for what they were going for here.

Vocally things mesh very well with the instrumental as the members of Baby ♡♡ Holic pull off a very dreamy sounding tone to their performance, with a bit of that exaggerated sugary sweet style also being made use of to keep that theme going. This type of thing can get a bit pitchy at times for me but here I think they kept everything pretty well under control for the most part, even if they did end up getting up there a bit more when the choruses hit. Catchy lyrics, brimming with personality and just a very enjoyable listen on the whole. Hard to really pick out much to complain about with this one, it just depends if it’s your thing or not I guess.

For me personally, I think I prefer “Hatsukoi Addiction” to “Tokyo Mystery Tour Land” but that’s more to do with what I tend to enjoy from this pastel, Synth Pop style more than anything. That said, if any of the stuff I said in this review to describe the track resonated with you then I’d definitely encourage you to check both it and Baby ♡♡ Holic in general out as I know there are a lot of people out there to whom the group’s style will definitely appeal to. I’m not sure how many of you are reading my site but hey, you never know until you put it out there.

So another pretty successful experiment in pushing myself out of my usual comfort zone then. Baby ♡♡ Holic might not be a group that I would typically go for when it comes to their concept or sound but I’m glad I did check them out in the end as I had a fun time with these tracks of theirs and if they put anything else out I’ll definitely give it a listen and probably write about it here again too. It’s never bad to try new things folks.