Mega-Update?!
So... yeah, I was going to hold off until Sunday. But then this strange Vocaloid Renaissance happened. The start of the week was filled with amazing songs from the usual crew, a whole selection of fantastic, and that padded out my list dramatically. Then came the new ones! A sudden frantic rush to provide songs for Miki, Sensei and Loli has caused singing robots to take over the charts and completely flood nicovideo.
Thus, fair warning: this post is pretty enormous. I've pruned as much as I can but there's just so much good stuff, so rather than having a chunk of videos above the cut I'll just make a couple of cuts based on whether they're the established robots or the new robots singing the songs, but rest assured: every single track this update is absolutely gorgeous or at least warrants a very close look. For the sake of my damn sanity, I'm not even going to list these in something approximating the order of how much I like them as I normally do; just dump and go.
My personal favourites? For the old robots, *tear* completely steals the show, while Good Bye Monochrome's intro and general style gives me goosebumps to listen to it. For the new robots, there's simply nothing that can beat samfree's fantastic and hilarious followup to their previous eurobeat spectacles, Miki Miki * Romantic Night. But do be sure to watch Jewelfish and Abandoned Days to see what sensei does on his day off. Edit: Not to mention I'm now completely addicted to B-Life...
The Current Crew
【鏡音リン】自由気ままのB級人生【手書きPV】
(An Unfettered B-Grade Life (keen), Rin, Pop)
A cute video accompanies a high-paced strings and piano pop song that sounds a whole lot better than that sentence does. Tremendously joyful and careening along at a breakneck pace, the music matches the premise perfectly and is an instant toe-tapper and head-bopper.
【初音ミク】good bye monochrome【PV付オリジナル】
(good bye monochrome (164), Miku, Trancepop)
An absolutely gripping track, full of gorgeous beats and soft lilting notes. Miku gets a little high that it can get painful, but that can't stop an amazing chillout song from launching into an angstful, teary chorus. Fantastic, and the video is so damn pretty.
初音ミク オリジナル曲 「積み木の人形」
(Building-Block Doll (wowaka), Miku + Gumi, ???)
Wowaka, he of Reverse Lovers, brings us another breathtaking if ever so slightly creepy and weird track. If you've heard any of his other work you'll know exactly what you're in for - possibly too much so, as his songs kind of tend to bleed together to my ear. Can't deny it's good, though, and Gumi on backup at least makes for a neat addition.
【鏡音リン】 *tear* 【オリジナル曲】
(*tear* (DATEKEN), Rin, Two-Step Pop)
Another chillout track, this is two steps (ahaha) away from being a full on two-step dance track. Slow but with a strong focus on beat, this gorgeously soft tune relies on flute and drums and iconic catches to get you carried away with it, and succeeds admirably.
【初音ミク】TaLK * CoMMuNiCaTe【オリジナル】
(TaLK * CoMMuNiCaTe (U-ske), Miku, Jazz Pop)
CaN We IntEResT yOU iN SoMe JaZz StyLInGs ToDay, SiR? ToP NotcH PiAnO EnSureS MaxiMUm SmOOth FaCToR.
【初音ミク】 にじいろのへび 【オリジナル曲】
(Rainbow Colored Snake (kiichi), Miku, Easy Listening)
In case you weren't completely chilled yet, here's a delightful bit of slow brass band pop with a soft motif and video to match. Not anything to stay awake to, this; rather, it's more a gentle casual drift-along.
初音ミクのオリジナル曲 千夜一夜千日手 -Full ver.-
(One Thousand Senseless Repetitions (Deadball), Miku, Pop)
A furious pop song to wake you up now. Though there's nothing explicitly new here, the breakneck pace and general feel of this track makes it stand out somewhat from the mound of generic Mikupop. Well executed with a certain amount of style it's a good finisher for the normal robots this week.
【初音ミク】ねこみみスイッチ【紙PV】
(Nekomimi Switch (daniwell), Miku, Pop)
You've almost certainly heard it before in some version or another, but it's a good opportunity to wake you all up for the new robots and to show you the absolutely adorable video that's been made for it - full of papercraft animation and a joyous energy, it's very impressive work indeed.
The New Crew
【miki】龍天に登る【オリジナル】
(Ascending Sky Dragon (yakiimo), Miki, Chinese/Indian Fusion)
My first taste of Miki on nicovideo wasn't exactly what I expected as this little number loaded up, but I can't deny it's freaking cool and really shows off what Miki can do. She matches the mystical flavour of this track perfectly, making for a neat little eye-opener.
【miki】 wish 【オリジナル】
(wish (otetsu), Miki, Pop)
This is more like what I was expecting - a high energy, just slightly manic pure pop song. Unabashed and absolutely certain of itself and possessed of a manic pianist, there's no way I wouldn't like this track, and it certainly seems in a good position to become one of her anthems.
氷山キヨテルにオリジナル曲「jewelfish」を歌ってもらった
(jewelfish (Re:nG), Sensei, Rock)
Who the hell expected sensei was such a rebel? Still, one of his debut nicovideo songs is a stunning rock track, full of pounding beats and fantastic guitar. Sensei's voice is kind of oddly high and just a little strange, but I guess they're trying to distinguish him. In any case, this is a rocking start with an awesome chorus.
【歌愛ユキ】シューティング☆スター【オリジナルグランプリ曲】
(Shooting☆Star (kagome), Loli, Club/House???)
See, this is why loli kinda scares me. One of her more popular songs at present, this is a bizarre if very well-done mash of high-energy styles somewhere between techno and rock and pop. Full of chaotic energy and a pretty snappy video, I still can't quite get used to her. Give it a try.
miki「ミキミキ★ロマンティックナイト」【オリジナル曲】
(Miki Miki ★ Romantic Night (samfree), Miki, Eurorock)
Samfree come out of nowhere amazingly quickly with this - a Miki version of their other eurobeat songs makes for an excellent introductory piece. Miki's influence means this one is rather more poppy and less rocky or dancey than the other two were, but it fits her very well and the quality's exactly as you'd expect.
【氷山キヨテル】 廃日 【オリジナル】
(Abandoned Days (otetsu), Sensei, Rock)
Otetsu's second this update, and yet another sensei-rocking-out track. As hilarious as the premise is, this is also a fantastic track. More angry and more sad than jewelfish, Sensei belts out the angsty metal lyrics in a much smoother and palatable voice, and the tune fairly beats along. Top-notch, and an excellent finisher.
Thus, fair warning: this post is pretty enormous. I've pruned as much as I can but there's just so much good stuff, so rather than having a chunk of videos above the cut I'll just make a couple of cuts based on whether they're the established robots or the new robots singing the songs, but rest assured: every single track this update is absolutely gorgeous or at least warrants a very close look. For the sake of my damn sanity, I'm not even going to list these in something approximating the order of how much I like them as I normally do; just dump and go.
My personal favourites? For the old robots, *tear* completely steals the show, while Good Bye Monochrome's intro and general style gives me goosebumps to listen to it. For the new robots, there's simply nothing that can beat samfree's fantastic and hilarious followup to their previous eurobeat spectacles, Miki Miki * Romantic Night. But do be sure to watch Jewelfish and Abandoned Days to see what sensei does on his day off. Edit: Not to mention I'm now completely addicted to B-Life...
The Current Crew
【鏡音リン】自由気ままのB級人生【手書きPV】
(An Unfettered B-Grade Life (keen), Rin, Pop)
A cute video accompanies a high-paced strings and piano pop song that sounds a whole lot better than that sentence does. Tremendously joyful and careening along at a breakneck pace, the music matches the premise perfectly and is an instant toe-tapper and head-bopper.
【初音ミク】good bye monochrome【PV付オリジナル】
(good bye monochrome (164), Miku, Trancepop)
An absolutely gripping track, full of gorgeous beats and soft lilting notes. Miku gets a little high that it can get painful, but that can't stop an amazing chillout song from launching into an angstful, teary chorus. Fantastic, and the video is so damn pretty.
初音ミク オリジナル曲 「積み木の人形」
(Building-Block Doll (wowaka), Miku + Gumi, ???)
Wowaka, he of Reverse Lovers, brings us another breathtaking if ever so slightly creepy and weird track. If you've heard any of his other work you'll know exactly what you're in for - possibly too much so, as his songs kind of tend to bleed together to my ear. Can't deny it's good, though, and Gumi on backup at least makes for a neat addition.
【鏡音リン】 *tear* 【オリジナル曲】
(*tear* (DATEKEN), Rin, Two-Step Pop)
Another chillout track, this is two steps (ahaha) away from being a full on two-step dance track. Slow but with a strong focus on beat, this gorgeously soft tune relies on flute and drums and iconic catches to get you carried away with it, and succeeds admirably.
【初音ミク】TaLK * CoMMuNiCaTe【オリジナル】
(TaLK * CoMMuNiCaTe (U-ske), Miku, Jazz Pop)
CaN We IntEResT yOU iN SoMe JaZz StyLInGs ToDay, SiR? ToP NotcH PiAnO EnSureS MaxiMUm SmOOth FaCToR.
【初音ミク】 にじいろのへび 【オリジナル曲】
(Rainbow Colored Snake (kiichi), Miku, Easy Listening)
In case you weren't completely chilled yet, here's a delightful bit of slow brass band pop with a soft motif and video to match. Not anything to stay awake to, this; rather, it's more a gentle casual drift-along.
初音ミクのオリジナル曲 千夜一夜千日手 -Full ver.-
(One Thousand Senseless Repetitions (Deadball), Miku, Pop)
A furious pop song to wake you up now. Though there's nothing explicitly new here, the breakneck pace and general feel of this track makes it stand out somewhat from the mound of generic Mikupop. Well executed with a certain amount of style it's a good finisher for the normal robots this week.
【初音ミク】ねこみみスイッチ【紙PV】
(Nekomimi Switch (daniwell), Miku, Pop)
You've almost certainly heard it before in some version or another, but it's a good opportunity to wake you all up for the new robots and to show you the absolutely adorable video that's been made for it - full of papercraft animation and a joyous energy, it's very impressive work indeed.
The New Crew
【miki】龍天に登る【オリジナル】
(Ascending Sky Dragon (yakiimo), Miki, Chinese/Indian Fusion)
My first taste of Miki on nicovideo wasn't exactly what I expected as this little number loaded up, but I can't deny it's freaking cool and really shows off what Miki can do. She matches the mystical flavour of this track perfectly, making for a neat little eye-opener.
【miki】 wish 【オリジナル】
(wish (otetsu), Miki, Pop)
This is more like what I was expecting - a high energy, just slightly manic pure pop song. Unabashed and absolutely certain of itself and possessed of a manic pianist, there's no way I wouldn't like this track, and it certainly seems in a good position to become one of her anthems.
氷山キヨテルにオリジナル曲「jewelfish」を歌ってもらった
(jewelfish (Re:nG), Sensei, Rock)
Who the hell expected sensei was such a rebel? Still, one of his debut nicovideo songs is a stunning rock track, full of pounding beats and fantastic guitar. Sensei's voice is kind of oddly high and just a little strange, but I guess they're trying to distinguish him. In any case, this is a rocking start with an awesome chorus.
【歌愛ユキ】シューティング☆スター【オリジナルグランプリ曲】
(Shooting☆Star (kagome), Loli, Club/House???)
See, this is why loli kinda scares me. One of her more popular songs at present, this is a bizarre if very well-done mash of high-energy styles somewhere between techno and rock and pop. Full of chaotic energy and a pretty snappy video, I still can't quite get used to her. Give it a try.
miki「ミキミキ★ロマンティックナイト」【オリジナル曲】
(Miki Miki ★ Romantic Night (samfree), Miki, Eurorock)
Samfree come out of nowhere amazingly quickly with this - a Miki version of their other eurobeat songs makes for an excellent introductory piece. Miki's influence means this one is rather more poppy and less rocky or dancey than the other two were, but it fits her very well and the quality's exactly as you'd expect.
【氷山キヨテル】 廃日 【オリジナル】
(Abandoned Days (otetsu), Sensei, Rock)
Otetsu's second this update, and yet another sensei-rocking-out track. As hilarious as the premise is, this is also a fantastic track. More angry and more sad than jewelfish, Sensei belts out the angsty metal lyrics in a much smoother and palatable voice, and the tune fairly beats along. Top-notch, and an excellent finisher.