Tsubaki Factory – Ishiki Takai Otome no Dilemma/Dakishimerarete Mitai

Track Listing

1. Ishiki Takai Otome no Dilemma
2. Dakishimerarete Mitai
3. Nineteen no Shinkirou (Reg A only)
4. Hair up Sora e! (Reg B only)
5. Ishiki Takai Otome no Dilemma (Instrumental)
6. Dakishimerarete Mitai (Instrumental)
7. Nineteen no Shinkirou (Instrumental)

1. Ishiki Takai Otome no Dilemma

As the leading A-side of the single, Ishiki Takai Otome no Dilemma is kind of an odd one for me because it does start off like a ballad (with similar piano skips like in Momosu’s “Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe”.  At least that part is nice and I really love Kishimon’s high notes in the pre-chorus.  Though the chorus because more upbeat and danceable that sort of reminds me of “Fuwari, Koi Dokei”.  Putting that together, it’s kind of not a memorable song for Tsubaki unfortunately and it just fees like fluff to me.

2. Dakishimerarete Mitai

The other B-side also kind of feels similar to me, especially when this reminds me of “Junjou cm”.  Not sure what the style they were going for here, but I do enjoy hearing all 9 members singing here which is always decent for me.  I think it’s also a bit of a wintry song with some of the jingling I hear through the chorus (which we already had with “Teion Yakedo”.”.  I don’t know, but this one did fare better than the leading A-side so I suppose that’s good?

3. Nineteen no Shinkirou

So if you don’t follow the group or just not in the in, Nineteen no Shinkirou is a song that was released digitally, already last year, but that was tagged as a special version primarily due to Kiki’s absence.  So on this single it’s touted as the complete version as Kiki’s returned.  The song itself hasn’t changed and the presence of Kiki really doesn’t move things as much as I expected.  It’s still a song that feels better hearing live rather than getting a studio cut.  It’s upbeat, rockin’, and full of energy, but it’s just kind of how I feel about most of these songs.

4. Hair up Sora e!

Didn’t mention this but the single is split into editions of course and Regular A had “Nineteen no Shinkirou” while Regular B came with this track!  I’m pretty surprised it took them this long, but this song is the ending theme to the TROLLS cartoon in Japan (if you recall, “Mou Saikou!” was the opening theme).  I do prefer this over the aforementioned as it’s not as super girly and the kind of danceable feel mixed with the ~buhhh-da-daah~ is really nice.  Though it does feel like it repeats a lot.  Still, I dug it.

 

 

I’m gonna say it, but this is probably my least favorite single out of Tsubaki Factory so far.  When the TROLLS song ends up being my favorite out of the single it’s definitely a problem.  Ishiki Takai Otome no Dilemma and Dakishimerarete Mitai really don’t bring anything new to the table and they just feel like safe songs that really didn’t make them stand out (especially since it’s been almost a year since their last single, “Sankaime no Date Shinwa/Fuwari, Koi Dokei”.  As for Nineteen no Shinkirou, I think it was just a bad idea to have released a Kiki-less version and then to re-update it on this single, especially since the song is kind of throw-away.  Unfortunate single here.