Welcome to the twenty-ninth (irregular) Music Highlights post!

For this Music Highlights post, I'm picking songs from the end of 2022 to around early February 2023. The theme of this post... is just some of my favorite things, alongside several unexpected releases I found.

Now, let's talk about music!

#1: By My Side (feat. Nini Yuuna)

Yeah, Yuuna. This is the fourth Yuuna song I put in this blog. Before I talk about Yuuna, though, let's touch a bit on the entire Prisma (vol. 1)album.

The first Prisma album itself kinda came out of nowhere, being suddenly announced by brand-new circle ALLMYFRIENDS. This album's artist lineup is stacked, from rejection and Mameyudoufu to Android52, and, of course, Synthion.

Honestly, I cherish this song a lot, because it makes me remember the times I first discovered rhythm games, and especially SOUND VOLTEX. To me, this song like is like a combination of my favorite rhythm game songs. This is also possibly my favorite song with Yuuna vocals ever. Her voice in this song is just... pure comfort. Also, I want to give special attention to how Synthion executes the vocal chops in the second drop. Rhythm game memories, again...

#2: Cinderella Magic Stage (Aura Lily cover)

If I had a nickel for every time I got to post a Denonbu cover by a VTuber in this blog, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. It's also by an Indonesian VTuber too, which is even more surprising.

The song selected to be covered is Cinderella Magic Stage, composed by irucaice and sung by Kayano Futaba. The song itself is a pretty chill idol pop song, and I think pretty fitting for this particular VTuber. I'm just surprised that an Indonesia VTuber covered a Denonbu song!

#3: Kiraitonesu

This song is produced by PSYQUI and sung by Amakawa Hano. I wondered where PSYQUI went. One day YouTube just randomly recommended me this, and when I heard it, I realized that something was familar (and it was a PSYQUI song!). Otherwise, this is a nice, garage-y song (SPDGAR-style?).

#4: Persona

Wild uma vs Morimori Atsushi spotted! hololive chose very interesting music producers for their talents. The lyrics also apparently reference Jungian psychology, so that's also interesting. In "rhythm game music" fashion, there's also combinations of genres here! Super interesting song, overall.

#5: Top of the Tops

Hayashibe Tomonori making a K-pop-ish song! Again! I mentioned IIIX's previous song Bang Bang on post #26, and I think I like this song much more! I find the sounds it uses pretty interesting, compared to Bang Bang. This song I think really is a refinement over Bang Bang, and possibly one of my favorite Hayashibe Tomonori tunes, up there with the song they produced for Coconatsu.

#6: Beat Opera op. 1

bermei.inazawa is an artist with a long history, but I first heard of them during SOUND VOLTEX VIVID WAVE's release. True to its name, the song features "opera"-like vocals, although I don't think it's sung by a human, similar to their SDVX song. However, this song is much more orchestral in nature, incorporating pianos and violins into the song.

#7: Spinel

Ah, penoreri, one of the artists propelled to legend status because of SOUND VOLTEX. I didn't expect to see them at Rotaeno, though. A surprisingly emotive rhythm game song, with an amazing intro, and quite powerful melodies.

#8: Maihime

This is one of the more surprising releases coming out of the D4DJ project. For the second season of the D4DJ anime (All Mix), TAKU INOUE was commissioned to make its opening song. This is one of the few times a TAKU INOUE song is put as an anime opening (this is probably the third or fourth time it got there). This song has a "house" structure, and has a style reminiscence of something like Starlit Season's Dance Dance Dance (especially around the second drop). Compared to the first season's opening, Maihime just wins hands down, with very danceable groove, and much cleaner sound. More isn't always better!

#9: Capella

It's the Kou (Winter) song! I don't know if I like this song because of Kou (Winter), or I like Kou (Winter) because of this song. This song is also a very emotive rhythm game song, In this case, it reminds me of childhood, somewhat? ARForest sounds are also some of my favorites in rhythm game music too, so I really enjoy this song.

#10: Starchild

Now, a Denonbu song. From the first time I heard it during Reina's set in ENTAS 4th Anniversary, I'm already really liking this song. A pretty chill house track, Starchild is a collaboration between Denonbu and BOOGEY VOXX, with Ci also singing and Fra rapping. This is probably one of my favorite songs in the current Season 2 40-week releases.

That's it for this Music Highlights post, see you in a month or two!