nmigime

I’ve only been a fan of nagareyama righteye for about a year now but wow what a year it’s been! Early in 2025 they released an album, then an EP in late 2025 that I really enjoyed, and now we’re treated to their newest album, "all quiet in the nagareyama city”! Let me begin with a quick discussion about the opening song “quiet”. It has this percussion heavy, shoegazey abstract 80s quality to it that made me feel like I was about to be in for a vocaloid laced album that would pay homage to Tears for Tears, Phil Collins, and Enigma….. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, but I did want to mention it because I really loved that sound from nagareyama and I’d love to hear an actual album from them like this because they totally have the musical chops for it! Now for the actual album itself: it’s great! It sounds like a total distillation of everything I loved about their last EP and upped the production. As before, the quality of the vocaloid chosen here is really astounding. When I first found out about this band I was convinced it was an actual person, and I still feel that way even with this new release. As there’s a ton of vocaloid products on the market I’m really happy they decided to go with this one (which I don’t know the name of, sorry). I’m also really vibing with the instrumentals here as well. I suppose I wasn’t too far off with my initial impression from the intro song as many here feel like they could easily have hit the Billboard rock charts in the 90s. The fourth song “湘南新宿” almost sounds like a U2 release from this period on top of exhibiting other shoegaze and soft rock elements of the time. Still though, the songs have modernized Jrock compositions at times which contrasts nicely against the 90s throwback sound that is interspersed as well. These two sides are actually balanced very well and make for an album that has a surprise around every corner. While this is already a fairly short album at 29 minutes in length, I never felt like any of it got stale or went on too long. All that to say, I think this is a great release from nagareyama and I’m happy to hear a band evolve and develop their sound on a subsequent release as always. I’d still love to have that late 80s throwback album I mentioned, but I’m happy enough as it is with an album like this!