Track Listing
- SWEET & TOUGHNESS
- Yume wo Shinjite
- SWEET & TOUGHNESS (Instrumental)
- Yume wo Shinjite (Instrumental)
1. SWEET & TOUGHNESS
Oh hey a debut single right?!? Well it seems so for Canary Club to be introduced through a cover song, this one from Minami-Aoyama Shoujo Kagekidan (mouthful right?). Despite this being a cover of a 1993 song, Canary Club’s version doesn’t really differ from the original beside vocals. I do like the nostalgic 90s feel of the song and it’s just upbeat, synthy, and catchy. As for vocals it feels like Mana Ogawa actually is the lead vocalist here, but almost all members have a solo line (except Riho Sugiura for some reason). Either way, it’s a pretty good song and sticks out for Tsunku-related songs!
2. Yume wo Shinjite
Not surprising that the B-side is also a cover from the same group and it sounds even more old school than “SWEET & TOUGHNESS” did, though unfortunately, the song is sung in unison so there’s not a lot to grasp and even worse I feel like the vocals clash a lot together (as they sound super raw and just offkey a lot of the time. Not all that great.
With this being a love letter to Minami-Aoyama Shoujo Kagekidan, Canary Club (or as they were known only in this single as Canaria Club did a pretty good job for their debut song. It’s a bit sad that this is still my favorite A-side of the 6 singles they released, but what can you do? SWEET & TOUGHNESS is just such a cool and fun track to listen and encompasses what the 90s were about. Yume wo Shinjite on the other hand while still harboring that signature 90s feel, was rough on the group’s vocals. It’ll be interesting to see how I’ll feel for other songs of theirs! Also, to note this group was on my radar initially when I started to get into H!P (though they aren’t technically related except that they were on the same label as THE Possible who used to be under H!P)
Kurayami Monogatari 