Sandaime J Soul Brothers’ “THE JSB LEGACY” was the best selling album of March, so I was given the task of reviewing the album for The Japan Times.

Last year, the big battle in JPop was between Sandaime J Soul Brothers and Arashi. You had the more contemporary upstarts battling against the poster boys of the traditional idol scene. This battle is continuing into 2016.

Sandaime J Soul Brothers started off this year much like last year. They were fresh off of winning the Japan Record Award (this time for “Unfair World”), and were readying an album for release. The promo single for “THE JSB LEGACY” was “Feel So Alive.” The song sees the group putting an urban twist on their usual EDM sound, a nice touch that blends that their more urban past with their current pop sound.

The rest of the album didn’t have the same twist though. The EDM portion of the album reveled in a certain dated gaudiness. The ballads were as sappy as ever. And the new songs that were inserted to break up the mellowness of “Unfair World” and “starting over” felt completely unneeded, nothing more than fluff to inject some energy into what would’ve been a downer portion of the album.

My full review can be read here.

Again, thank you everyone for support!