CANDYGIRL - BLUEBERRY / redberry

Three years on from their stunning debut album How is the ALt universe? the question is how would CANDYGIRL follow up on an album intended to break the mold of pop and challenge conventions about music? By releasing a concept double album, of course.

In this current music environment where physical albums have been abandoned for constant drops of singles and EPs designed for playlists, which is how most people listen to music nowadays, CANDYGIRL have once again defied expectations and released two albums back to back, BLUEBERRY and redberry. But rather than being two albums, they are two completely different sides of a record that mirror one another, right down to the artwork and titles (uppercase for BLUEBERRY and lowercase for redberry). And without coincidence, the number of tracks and run times are the same between the two, 8 tracks for 19 minutes each. Everything is intentional, nothing is vanilla.

To clue you in on each album, they both have a roughly 30 second track that explains the sound direction (in music, not words). BLUEBERRY has the track “POLICY B”, which features electronic sounds, samples that have been warped or reversed, and a moody atmosphere, while redberry has the track “policy r”, which is bright, airy, and epic in feel, almost like a Sigur Ros track. Light and dark, major and minor, two halves of the whole CANDYGIRL experience.

BLUEBERRY was released first and that’s where you should start listening. This represents CANDYGIRL’s club and electronic influences, and stylistically it’s a natural progression from How is the ALt universe? It’s also a reflection of the trends of today, with “EYE” having a UK garage rhythm and “OUT OF THE BLUE” being a 90’s new jack/boom bap throwback (complete with old school fade out), and it’s very natural to include these in DJ sets for various vibes. They’ve always been keen students of music, they even throw in a Missy Elliott reference to “Work It”, complete with flipped and reversed lyrics. With their deep knowledge and technical skill, it’s easy to imagine them being able to crank out an album of indie pop or alternative R&B hits if they wanted to. But you never get consecutive tracks in the same style with CANDYGIRL, they’re simply too restless and have too much curiosity and appreciation for all kinds of styles.

At the same time, producer detch used to be in a band and his roots lie in rock as well. In How is the ALt universe, the one crunchy guitar track kind of stuck out, so on redberry they basically made a rock album to shake it all out. On first brush it might remind you of anything from Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, or Olivia Rodrigo all the way to Radiohead, but it’s very self aware, like CANDYGIRL see what you did there and are trying to twist it or mess it up. There’s no way they would add in an asinine “put your hands in the air” or the refrain “don’t say girls don’t cry” (which is the cue for the fans to scream along) without knowing what they were doing.

You see, CANDYGIRL songs are never what they appear to be, and if you try to follow the lyrics then you understand, because they don’t make any sense. It seems to be a CANDYGIRL thing, or perhaps lyricist and vocalist ferrry’s thing, but “as usual” there’s a mash of Japanese and English with French words thrown in, and a preference for sounds and syllables than proper sentences. A single line requires a dictionary to break down and even then it’s hard to tell what they’re trying to say. “Neumann A, 中盤 hey, 無矛盾性”. It sounds great but are they talking about microphones? Consistency of sound? Probably no other band would rhyme zirconia with inspire, or pescatore with road movie, but here we are. “Out of the blue, baby blue, aventure, poker face”. Analyze this at your own peril. Maybe that is the point, that music is sound and doesn’t require comprehension. But ignoring the lyrics does you a disservice, because they’re actually really intricate, and being cryptic is an antidote to generic love songs and mindless party anthems.

The final track of redberry might be the only song where you can try to break through the fog. Titled “life”, they sing more conventional lines, questioning the meaning of life (what else would you expect?). They express a struggle to find the courage to keep going, and they feel like throwing away hope and giving up. It’s possible that this might reflect their feelings on being a band and being committed to zagging while everyone zigs, but fortunately they resolve to live on (because I also wouldn’t forgive them if they quit!), acknowledging there is no right answer.

CANDYGIRL might not be the Beatles or OutKast, but full credit to them for being bold and having enough creative ideas to put out a double album in this day and age. It even works for the playlist age, there’s bound to be a song in here that you’ll love, whether you like pop rock, alternative R&B, or garage, each with its own CANDYGIRL twist. And if you like all of the above, you’ll love every second of BLUEBERRY / redberry. Vive la différence.

Tokyo ON also recommends: CANDYGIRL - How is the ALt universe? sui sui duck - Long Time No See

Royce Leong