Yukika- Yesterday review

Yukika should be bigger than she is. Or, she should’ve been bigger 5 or so years ago. Either way, her career took many an odd twist and turn until she landed where she is now. A Japanese woman, slightly past the acceptable pop singer age for females in Korea, singing city pop (a Japanese music genre)…in Korean. Oh well, achieve your dreams I guess girl. She burst onto the scene last year with the effervescent ‘Neon’ (honestly a banger. Check it out right now. I’ll wait. Go watch the MV. Cute outfits right?) and then kinda…went. She dropped another single, the not so catchy but passable ‘Cherry Jubilees’ but didn’t promote it which led me to believe her label had deemed her unprofitable musically, and would allow her to ride out her contract doing…whatever pop flops in Korea do (not much by their Instagram’s?) But then, to my and about 3 other people’s joy she announced a FULL ALBUM?! Look I ain’t complaining but they’re gonna make about £500 profit off it if they’re lucky.

But anyway, full album incoming, pre-release single Yesterday dropped 08/07. And it doesn’t disappoint, as I was scared it would following up such pop perfection. It starts out with a slight shift from the pure 80s vibe of Neon, evoking a more 90s JPop sound. It actually reminds me a lot of Hikki’s Automatic. Now that’s a damn good start.

From there the song flows into a dancey, groovy vibe. Yukikas vocal here isn’t quite as cutesy as it was before, which is refreshing in the world of Kpop helium voices. The choir of backing vocals is a lovely touch, to give it a little oomph. Chorus kicks in, with almost a bird tweet. She honestly is a human Disney princess. It wouldn’t surprise me if little blue birds dressed her every morning. But then….she raps?! Kinda. I didn’t know she rapped, I thought she sang or whatever…I almost thought it was a feature but no, it’s all her. As much as I loved Neon, it did not give me any indication she had this kind of range. Good on her.

From this, she delivers an authoritative ‘You wanna dance?’ I mean…yeah but do I have a choice? A dance breaks leads to a repetition of the lovely chorus, not enough to get you pumped but very easy to listen to, to vibe to and hum along to if you’re driving to work, taking a little sunset walk, or even just sitting looking out your window living your full cute girl aesthetic life. It ends with what almost sounds like a transition into another song, reminding me this full album is coming and I for one am excited, and think others should be too.

To conclude, I thought this girl would be a one and done- she would drop a great, unknown, underrated track that she would never top and that would be it. That she somehow got her hands on a peak pop song demo as her first single and that would be all she needed. But the tonal change in Yesterday, whilst still maintaining a dreamy sound, leads me to believe this may be an artist with more to offer than first thought.

3/5

Yukika 1st album out 21/07