#yoakemae

To be completely honest with you, I’m very torn towards this song. On one hand, I really like the overall tone of it - it’s cheery, something more and more common in LACCO songs as of lately which I truly appreciate. Keisuke’s vocals are surprisingly fitting and very uplifting, the guitar is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL, and the lyrics are, as always, poetry. There’s this almost epic undertone to it and it really helps the song kind of unique. Which brings me to the part I don’t like that much: this song shows LACCO’s most prevalent problem, repetitiveness. This may seem contradictory, but I’ll explain it later. As soon as the song started I immediately noticed how similar it was to Amenochihare, until it dowright began using the exact same backing vocals. You know, the ones at the beginning and choruses of Amenochi? They’re literally the same. It really put me off, especially since I’m not the biggest fans of those in that song either. Add how keyboard progression is almost carbon-copied, and Yoakemae (up until some point) seems more like a remix or alternative version of Amenochihare sound-wise. Sure, it changes things up a bit as the song goes on, but I couldn’t stop going back to Amenochi. Or at least not until the guitar solo, bridge and last chorus came around. And this is where the song really shines, when it deviates from everything we’d heard before and it sounds like a completely new track. Excluding the backing vocals, that is. Heck, Kei even used falsetto, which is so rare I legit can’t remember another song where he does it. This last part is where the song becomes memorable and, in a way, “unique”; however, it pales in comparison to others like Yuugao or Hakkaame where the song as a whole is groundbreaking, not just a relatively small chunk of it. And that’s where I’m conflicted. On one hand, I really appreciate the parts of the song that are new and fresh, as well as Keisuke’s approach with the vocals and the atmosphere the drums and guitar create, but on the other it reeks of the overused “modern LT” formula that made Shinzou Bunko such a boring album (sans Mirai Zen’ya and Hotaru).