Mrs. GREEN APPLE -- Magic

 

First off, a short bulletin from me. As expected, there have been some additions to the 74th Kohaku Utagassen on New Year's Eve, so I have updated "The 74th NHK Kohaku Utagassen Lineup for December 31st 2023"（第74回NHK紅白歌合戦）.

One of the bands that will be showing up for the first time on the White team at the Kohaku is Mrs. GREEN APPLE. I remember writing about them back in 2019 while I was watching the anime "Fire Force" since they were responsible for the first opening theme "Inferno"（インフェルノ）, and then earlier this year, I noted their "Dancehall" from 2022 because of the guys going for a more Jackson 5-type of approach.

Well, thank you Weathernews Live once more. The YouTube broadcast from Makuhari Messe has been doing its "Weather Music" segment where I've been hearing both the new and the old over the past several weeks. This time, I heard Mrs. GREEN APPLE's recent digital single "Magic" which was released in June this year and it's a very upbeat and encouraging song about coming up from the dark depths of despair into a happier and recovered state. "Magic" is indeed magic thanks to vocalist Motoki Ohmori's（大森元貴）words and music. Come to think of it, Ohmori does sound a lot like the amazing Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）of Sing Like Talking here.

"Magic" peaked at No. 4 on Oricon's digital song rankings. It's also a track on the band's 5th album "ANTENNA" which was released in July 2023 and hit No. 2 on the album charts. Just another FYI, I did mention that yesterday's "Dreamland" by Bennie K was used for a Coca-Cola commercial; well, so was "Magic". I wonder whether this song will be performed on New Year's Eve at the Kohaku.