News - Four Musketeers (Yonjuushi)

Well, this has got to be one of the strangest major pop releases of the year. It's not often you hear a pop track based entirely on a classical symphony piece, but Four Musketeers uses Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff as its backbone, complete with copious breaks for a string section and orchestral flourishes. This sounds right up my alley, but the first time I heard the track I was very let down. I've loved almost all of News' past releases, but the underwhelming, almost droning chorus in this song was not what I expected. That said, the second time I listened to this was a bit of a revelation. I'm not sure I've ever made such a drastic turn with a song before. Suddenly, it all made sense. Better than that, I greatly admire the fact that this is a very non-traditional single release while still remaining incredibly hooky, albeit with some strangely mellow and almost anti-pop hooks. That crescendo that rounds out each chorus certainly helps, along with the general cheesiness of the song and video. All together, it's yet another reason why it's hard for me to go back to western music.


N - Y by Aysohmay