Soda Pop Fanclub 3 – Cidergirl

Do you ever just hear something that reminds you of why a genre is so great? The moment I played this album, I felt like I knew it would be special. In a tight 36 minutes over 10 tracks, Cidergirl does a brand of pop-rock that makes me remember what I love most about the genre. Although a lot of the sound treads familiar ground, it makes you feel sky-high for the entire duration of the album. The choruses are addicting, the overall atmosphere is so uplifting, and the small flourishes of a glissando, shining synth, or beat switch are just enough to keep you engaged the entire runtime. Like many other pop-rock albums, there’s a clear set theme that never deviates too far but has enough variation to keep the flow of the album going. A little piano section here, a little ska-influenced progression there and I never found myself bored of the ideas that Cidergirl put together.

It’s the little things that accumulate together with this bold sound that makes it so enjoyable to listen to. The vocal harmonizing is done well and the instruments are balanced perfectly in a way that vocalist Yurin can float along effortlessly to. You can tell that Soda Pop Fanclub 3 is a step-up from their previous work in the quality of mixing. Whereas the first two Soda Pop Fanclub albums would have much more echo and reverb with the vocals, this album feels like it has a distinct sheen to it that sounds much more like a commercial mix with an emphasis on removing any harshness or artifacts.

At times, the mishmash of ideas can be a detriment to the vision that Cidergirl have set out for themselves. The abrupt stops in certain songs with record scratches do feel like an awkward interruption of the momentum that the album has laid out. Thankfully, these moments are few and in between because just as quickly, Cidergirl jump back into that pure burst of energy again. On Soda Pop Fanclub 3, Yurin really stands out as a vocalist and the overall album feels much more focused than their previous work. Pop-rock as a genre has often been criticized due to its slick, commercial sound but on Soda Pop Fanclub 3, Cidergirl takes that in stride and focuses expressly on the feeling their music brings. It’s not a perfect record by any means but much like Carly Rae Jepsen’s E•MO•TION, the album rushes to a climax and never comes back down.

Favorite Songs: クライベイビー, 飛行船, クローバー

86/100

About the Author

Jeff

I turned my incoherent ramblings on music, anime, and video games into an entire blog.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may also like these