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CMU Approved
Approved: Charisma.com
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 23 March 2017
Totally ignoring the New Music Friday rule, pop-rap duo Charisma.com returned earlier this week with ‘Not Not Me’, their first full album since signing to Warner Music Japan.
The record sees them team up with various songwriters and producers, including Shachou from Soil & ‘Pimp’ Sessions and Cibo Matto. This continues a deviation from the sound they’ve developed across earlier releases, which began with last year’s ‘Unpop’ EP.
The most notable change is the introduction of more live instruments. For the most part it’s a success (probably best to skip ‘Lunch Time Funk’), and the record features some of their best work to date, like ‘Miki Miki More’, ‘Chicken Boom’ and opening track ‘#hashdark’.
Explaining the lyrical inspiration for the album, MC Itsuka says: “Not not me. In other words, me. If I act like I don’t notice the things that inconvenience me or hit the nail on the head through my own instinct of self-defence and instead take a step forward, I feel like I can unveil about five layers”.
“But I can’t do that”, she adds. “Being human is difficult. But I’ve always thought that I’d like to be in that state of mind. Keeping the possibility of good and bad things to yourself I think is a wonderful thing. That’s the kind of album this is”.
Check out the dizzying video for the albums’ title track here:
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