CHECK-IN

"Fembot Airlines now welcomes passengers boarding at Gate 10"

PASSPO☆'s 2nd album - and their "major label debut".
Which means better production, better outfits and every album from here on gets an introduction piece! For CHECK-IN, we kick-off with Boarding; a quick bit of nothingness where White introduces us to our flight on PASSPO☆ airlines and I wish I could understand more Japanese so I knew what she was saying. But that's par for the course with LOGMAN and PASSPO☆.

We get things going proper with PASSPO☆'s biggest hit, 少女飛行. I can understand why it was hit, but then I also think PASSPO☆ have many better songs. Like the next one - キス=スキ. Why didn't you love this one more, Japan? And everything else PASSPO☆ released? Then they wouldn't have disbanded and I would be going to see them live instead of doing this marathon!

Hello is kind of just about at that point of being a typical dancey-idolish song, but without being terrible and is more just fun. Street Fighter is where I'm starting to hear their individual voices a bit more. Like, I can totally pick some solo parts from White and Yellow. They're the only ones, but it's a start! Turn Around is kinda more of the same. This is the downside of a major label debut; they want more commercial stuff, so you get a few filler songs. And less pop-punk awesome. Luckily, the next song is マテリアル Girl - not a cover of the Madonna classic - and we're back to rockin' the party. And I'm back to sulking that I never got to see Band PASSPO☆ rock this out live.

ウハエ！is still pretty rockin'. I can imagine this would have all the idol otaku doing all sorts of chants. I'll never understand that. Probably because I don't know the chants so feel left out. After a bit more of the usual with Starting Over, we move back closer to the 'idol' sound with ViVi夏！except this song is actually great - an excellent example of how you blend idol pop with pop punk. So is じゃあね… , but ハカナ takes it up another notch. I actually forget about this song, which is crazy because it's one of the best on the album. PASSPO☆ are at their best when their hitting the power-pop-punk styles, and if you wanna throw in a cool dance beat to really lift the mood, then I won't stop you. So long as it turns out like this.

ROCK DA WEEK is still pretty rockin', before we slow things down a bit with See You Again. The main guitar melody line in this song is killer. And then 晴れるよ sends us home with good vibes.

I felt like I didn't have a lot to say. This is actually my least listened to PASSPO☆ album, which is really bizarre because there aren't any bad songs. It just all feels kinda... safe. The ones that are great, I tend to forget about. I need to remember this album exists more often, because while it's not a pop-punk masterpiece like their later works, overall it's pretty consistent and a great upbeat listen.

Highlights:
少女飛行, キス=スキ, マテリアル Girl, ハカナ

Lowlights:
None

4.5 / 7 Glowsticks