J-Pop: Eri Sasaki - Colon (2021)

67 / 100

Colon marks a stylistic shift toward modern electronic pop, showing Eri Sasaki’s willingness to experiment.

Feeling satisfied enough with Period, I initially planned to move straight on to Colon, released in the summer of 2021—but my expectations turned out to be slightly off. That’s why I temporarily ran to another playlist out of reluctance. Only after listening to her third release, Comma, did I finally decide to come back and start this album properly.

Alright. Here, Eri Sasaki presents a more modern pop approach, largely driven by electronic/electronica influences across most tracks. One of the most eccentric examples is “British Robot”, with its iconic lyric, “meow, meow, meow”—not unlike “Shampoo” from the previous album. However, the track that fits my ears best is “Majstång”, with its clear house-music groove.

There’s also a particularly unique song that uses German—or at least a closely related language. When searched, it appears in both romaji and Latin script, yet unfortunately Google Translate fails to interpret it. It's “Dai vo Lhizer”, which serves as the opening theme for the RPG Super Neptunia, showcases the album’s strongest progressive/jazz flavor, with a lighter counterpart found in “Fireworks.”

The two indie Yuru Camp songs I mentioned earlier are also included here, complemented by mellow ballads and more conventional tracks such as the opener “Beep Beep Beep,” “Harukanarutabi,” “Part of Me,” “Time to Wake Up,” and “Tamashi no Heya." Their placement closely mirrors Period, mostly occupying the middle to lower half of the tracklist.

So yes—overall, Colon feels less emotional and, unsurprisingly, less suited to my personal taste. The tracks worth considering are those already mentioned above. Does Colon deserve to sit at the bottom among Eri Sasaki’s three albums I’ve tried so far? At this point, I think the answer is yes.