xYZ by ExWHYZ (Album Review) ▸ J-Music Exchange/Rate
Of course we start off the year with some idol music 😋
Hello and welcome back to another installment of the J-Music Exchange/Rate, and also welcome to the very first review of 2024! Glad to see you!
In case you’re not familiar with what this is all about: basically, this is a segment I do with my good friend/fellow Japanese music fan Leap250 where we take an album from our respective libraries, exchange and listen to ‘em, and then later review on own blogs. Now going into our fourth straight year of reviewing albums, this has been a great opportunity for both of us to widen our horizons/tastes when it comes to the Japanese music scene. And we hope that you can experience the same, whether that be finding a brand new genre or artist to check out!
And as always, Leap and I base our album choices on a specific theme every month. It was Leap’s turn for January and as a good way to start off the new year, he thought it’d be cool to talk about underrated artists that should get more attention/exposure (we also came up with the stipulation that our chosen artist must have under 10,000 monthly listeners on Spotify). No doubt are there a ton of great talents that may not have the amount of attention that they deserve, so we just wanted to spread the word for a couple of those artists!
That said, here are our choices (which both also ended up being idol-related, coincidentally): Leap went ahead and tossed over the first full album from alt-idol group ExWHYZ, titled xYZ; while I gave him SANDAL TELEPHONE’s 2022 release in REFLEX.
ExWHYZ is a Japanese alternative idol group, produced by WACK and Avex Trax. Consisting of six members in yu-ki, mayu, midoriko, maho, mikina and now; all of the featured members were formerly a part of a unit called “EMPiRE”, and at their disbandment concert in June 2022, it was announced that they would be rebranded into what is now known as “ExWHYZ”. Their activities as a new unit started in August of that year, when they released their debut single, Wanna Dance, as well as them announcing a future album release.
Since their debut, ExWHYZ has released two full albums, a mini-album and ten singles. The group has also performed at various events, such as holding a one-man live at the famous Nippon Budokan, as well as performing overseas in London, England.
(info sources: ExWHYZ official website, WACKi Wiki)
Tracklist
xYZ
D.Y.D
STAY WITH Me
Obsession
4:00 am
WEEKEND
Wanna Dance
Aishiteru / あいしてる
You & Me
Higher
Universe
Released: 2022.11.02
In the advent of K-Pop's (specifically K-Pop idols) popularity growing exponentially in the last couple of years, one question I've had at the back of my mind was, what about J-Pop/Idols? Of course, I'm in some ways far from being an advocate for J-Pop/Idol as a genre myself so I can't say too much on the matter (lol), but I do genuinely find it thought-provoking how K-Pop ended up being received so well by the average consumer outside of its home nation compared to J-Pop/Idol. The quick and easy answer is that K-Pop embraces the universality of its fandom whereas J-Pop/Idol couldn't care less. At least that's the general consensus. However, what happens when its the Japanese consumer that partakes of the overseas product? What does J-Pop do once K-Pop bleeds into Japanese mainstream consciousness and we start to see its influence in Japanese media? Does the same still apply? No, or at the very least I don't think so. That being said, you also can't change J-Pop/Idol overnight. Rather, given Japan's resilience to change, it actually makes for an interesting quandary: how can J-Pop address K-Pop without having to change the traditional J-Pop/Idol sound? There, in my opinion, lies the beauty of Alternative Idol.
What used to be the refuge for uncanny and edgy music stylings, Alternative Idol (or "Alt. Idol") is now perhaps the perfect avenue of expression that goes against tradition. At the very least, that's what I see Alt. Idol group ExWHYz doing. Obviously ExWHYZ's music is not completely K-Pop, as you'll hear in xYZ here, BUT there's a lot of clear takeaways from K-Pop applied to their sound to say that it's VERY much inspired by it. First and foremost is the focus on a slower and more subdued EDM (kinda leaning towards Trap almost) which, while you do hear Electronica in spots in J-Pop/Idol, is never really at the core of their music like it is for ExWHYZ here. It's also not very bright like most J-Pop/Idol is and is instead more on the darker/warmer side. The vocals aren't as forward as with J-Pop/Idol which isn't something fans are generally used to either. I could list more but all in all, ExWHYZ have an interesting take on the genre here and if you're looking at xYZ thinking it's gonna be your standard J-Pop/idol affair, well you're in for a (hopefully) pleasant surprise.
1 ▸ an idol’s take on electro music
Nowadays, the connection between idols and electronica/synth pop music doesn’t seem too foreign of concept. While it may be overshadowed when compared to the more general/conventional sound of idol music, the two have worked well together in the past, with the more prominent example *probably* being Perfume and how that trio has helped popularize the electronica genre in Japan (although it may be a tad bit controversial to label them as ‘idols’ but that’s a whole different discussion). Even something like the D4DJ multimedia franchise, at least to me, has expressed the idol-like performers/EDM music combination superbly with fun groups like Photon Maiden and Merm4id. It’s an idea that doesn’t seem all that prevalent, but when it does come up, I’d say that it’s usually executed pretty darn well.
All that being said, I do feel like the artist/album we’re talking about today is another great example of that. ExWHYZ does a fantastic job displaying an electronic-based sound in their 2022 release in xYZ; but rather than it being focused on one singular or specific style, they give us a good variety of subgenres, melodies and tempos to enjoy throughout its tracklist. Please do understand, though, that I am absolutely not the best person to be talking about electronic music (lol). While I’ve heard these various styles of EDM before within certain popular songs, I’m not that familiar with what each of these genres are specifically, so bear with me when I go through some of the tracks on this album.
The album starts off with its titular track, “xYZ”, being a really sweet introduction into the album and even serves as a cool ‘build-up’ into the first actual song, “D.Y.D”. Just hearing the album start off in a mellower way and it gradually gaining momentum and energy; not only does it do a good job of hyping you up for this album, but also it does give you a decent preview of the overall style and atmosphere of xYZ. As I said earlier, this album does feel like an interesting mish-mash of different EDM styles, ranging from ones that are more on the low-key side to songs that are louder/more exciting in nature.
Some tracks that stood out to me personally: “STAY WITH Me” gives off an atmospheric and upbeat vibe, with its airy synths and awesome beat drops that do feel very familiar, and maybe even nostalgic to a degree. Same can be said about their debut song in “Wanna Dance”, where it’s more on a chill side with deeper synths and a great display of ExWHYZ’s vocals. While on the other hand, tracks like “WEEKEND” that has a more bumping, future house (and even K-pop like) vibe to it, and “You & Me” with its fast and hyper speed… again, I do not know jack about electronic music but based on my very limited knowledge on it, it did feel like ExWHYZ kinda dabbled in a little bit of everything when compiling their first full-length release. Not only when it comes to the electro genre but they also sprinkled in a couple songs that aren’t really EDM-style tracks, such as the super poppy “4:00 am” and “Aishiteru” having a more ballad-like sound to it (thanks to the prominent use of guitars). Although, I will say that those last two tracks served as nice breathers in between the electronic-focused songs on this album.
2 ▸ no shortage of talent
And when looking at this ‘theme’ of variety, I think the reasoning for it can be seen within the list of composers who worked on this album. This honestly might be the first time that I’m going in-depth with the various musicians/composers who have worked on an album, but similar to how Leap has perceived this idea with releases from voice actor/seiyuu artists, xYZ does feel like somewhat of a ‘grab-bag’ of electronic music, due to all the different collaborators who provided compositions on this album. Some notable names being the Japanese dance/electronic duo 80KIDZ producing “Obsession”, Los Angeles-based artist Denny White on “STAY WITH Me”, and even the music of “Wanna Dance” being composed by the famed Osawa Shinichi (or what most would probably recognize him as: MONDO GROSSO). It’s pretty awesome that ExWHYZ got such a diverse group of producers to work on this album, and it does seem even more exceptional that they chose to collaborate with artists outside of the Japan environment. (also was nice to see a couple familiar names such as Michael Kaneko and Shin Sakiura… might’ve been why I took a liking to “4:00 am” and “Higher” specifically lol)
But compared to another point that Leap has said about this concept (at least, when it comes to those aforementioned seiyuu albums and how there isn’t necessarily a consistent sound to them), I definitely do not think the songs on xYZ are that different from each other. Sure, it does convey different subgenres and paces throughout, but this is an ‘electronic music’ album through and through. The majority of the songs on this do a great job showing off that EDM vibe and absolutely makes it coherent enough to categorize it as an electro album. It’s not as jarring as I might have initially thought, since during my later listens, I realized that it honestly doesn’t veer off too far from its core sound.
3 ▸ vocals taking *a bit* of a backseat
In a previous Exchange/Rate review when I talked about an album from another alternative idol group (sora tob sakana’s deep blue), I mentioned how the actual compositions on that record kinda took the spotlight from sora tob sakana's vocal performances. I felt that way since it was pretty strange and fascinating to hear a more traditional rock/band sound on an idol album of all things, and because of that, I was more drawn to that album’s music rather than its vocals.
And as much as I tried to avoid that conclusion here… I couldn’t help but to have a similar opinion on this ExWHYZ album. Not saying that these ladies didn’t do a good job performing these songs; I think their vocals generally fit well with a lot of these tracks and they adapted when needed. I enjoyed their deeper and more monotone delivery in “Obsession” and whenever a track gets to its climax, ExWHYZ adjusted their pitch and energy to fit it appropriately.
However, when you’re being hit with all this electronic music that already has a lot going on in them… at least in my experience, the music itself seemed to be the most memorable part of this whole album. You may think I’m being *super* nit-picky here (and maybe I am, lol) but also considering that ExWHYZ doesn’t have many distinct vocal stylings throughout its lineup… I’m genuinely not trying to sound mean or anything but it’s something that I couldn’t help but to notice.
Despite all the complaining I did in that last section, let me just say that xYZ was a pretty fun album. It has a bunch of well-produced and fun bangers, and while it isn’t as consistent as some may prefer, I do believe that this album was a pretty darn good expression of electronic music as a whole. Whether it’s more on the low-key side with “Wanna Dance” or something that’ll get your blood pumping like “WEEKEND”, there’s a little something for everyone while still maintaining a cool EDM-type vibe throughout. Feel like it’s even more impressive, given that this is an idol group of all things that’s conveying this type of music.
Add on the fact that there were a lot of talented and well-respected producers that helped compose these songs; ExWHYZ’s definitely got something special going on here and it is a bit surprising that they usually only get under 100-200K plays on their music videos + Spotify stats, even after a year or so of being active (not including their previous stint as EMPiRE). With how polished their sound felt on this album, they certainly deserve more attention.
Rating: 8/10
Aaaaand that’s all I got for you today!
Leap really has just become someone I rely on whenever I wanna try out alt-idol music since, if I’m being honest, I don’t really go out of my way to specifically listen to those kinds of groups 😅 But either way, I’m glad Leap’s got some great suggestions in that area of the idolsphere, and this ExWHYZ album was definitely one of those.
And now that you’re done with my review, definitely go head on over to Leap’s blog where he gave his thoughts on the album I gave to him this month: REFLEX by SANDAL TELEPHONE (another idol group). I recently listened to that album after initially discovering them a year or so ago, and they got some rad music so feel free to read Leap’s review on it by clicking here!
Thanks for reading!! :D
-al