angela×fripSide - Boku wa boku de atte

The collaboration fever that gripped the J-pop world in 2016 wasn't limited to individual artists working together, nor to solo artists working with bands. For instance, in August, vocal duo ClariS teamed up with GARNiDELiA to record clever for anime series "QUALIDEA CODE". Then, in autumn, duos angela and fripSide clubbed together to devise not one but two theme songs for "Ajin". The first of these, Boku wa boku de atte, was released on October 19th.

Not to be confused with Wada Koji’s song Boku wa boku datte, Boku wa boku de atte opens with a quick blast of what is its greatest asset: the anthemic chorus. The vocalists — angela's atsuko and fripSide's Nanjo Yoshino — sing alternate lines during the verses instead of attempting to harmonize. The wisdom of this is borne out by the chorus, in which Nanjo may as well be singing backing vocals — such is the power of atsuko's performance. It can't have helped that, like most angela songs, atsuko was involved in composing the song, and is thus inevitably more suited to her vocal abilities.

On the musical side of things, the influence of Nanjo's fripSide bandmate Yaginuma “sat” Satoshi is a good deal more noticeable, having co-arranged the track with angela's KATSU. Though the principal melody is heavy on angela's preferred mix of classical and rock instrumentation, there's a scattering of techno flourishes and sat is also afforded a synthesizer solo. Hopefully Nanjo's fans won't be too disappointed by atsuko's choral dominance, but should they be, they can rest assured the duos' follow-up collaboration, the Yaginuma-composed the end of escape, is as quintessentially fripSide as this is angela.