Quick review of the new songs
-Power Flower: kinda still can't believe they start this song with the meme horn that was in every silly YouTube video in the mid 10's. I realize the horn probably wasn't a meme in Japan but it makes the intro jarring meme or not. Otherwise it serves very well as a hype song. Probably my 2nd favorite from the album.
-Stay free & Stay Tuned: gives me 00's nostalgia. Not my favorite song but edges over Summer Challenger by a hair.
-Shichibuzaki no Tsuzuki: The first song they showed live without Kiki, it being classic Tsubaki Factory song was comforting. These kinds of songs make up a big piece of their soul. Loike it.
-EZPZ!!: My favorite song from the album. It's very comfy and reminds me of Pink Cres.'s album etcetera. This album actually reminds me quite a bit of Pink Cres. and I'm not completely sure why. Power Flower could have been a Pink Cres. song too, really. PC. was ahead of it's time. I miss PC. so much I might just be projecting.
-Summer Challenger: I see this as a companion to Nineteen no Shinkirou. I will die waiting for the tape with Kiki's vocals to drop.
we know she recorded for it. I kind of get a feeling I hear her but maybe Shiori is just doing a very good job singing similarly in the latter part of the song.
-Amayadori no Epilogue: Very good song, it reminds me of Yuki no Planetarium. Classic Tsubaki Factory and near the top of this album's tierlist for me.
-Atashi Rhythm: This song strikes me as something from First Squeeze. They do good with it but I can just as easily see this as having gone to Juice=Juice. Either way it's so sweet that Yumeno got to record one more song with them.
-Kimi to Boku no Kizuna: Nice? I treasure this song as my oshi's grad ballad but I don't think we needed another version of it. I get the impression they did it so in the future they can drop off the feat. KIKI
and it works as a little album filler.
-Grad songs: I don't hate that they're here but it makes the length of the 2nd disc feel weak. Realistically, 2nd Step and first bloom only had 6 all-new songs but 4/11 tracks on disc 2 being rehashes and TF still isn't doing shuffles (why?) it makes the 2nd disc seem slim.
If you wanted me to rank Tsubaki's albums you'll have to wait another year or so before 3rd Moment fully settles into my DNA like first bloom and 2nd Step have. 3rd Moment is the most different from the others, and maybe having all the singles on one disc makes the album cascade a bit less naturally. I usually enjoy getting to reexperience the singles in the context of an album so I will miss that as long as H!P does this album format.
Last note: this album is giving me a weird fixation on sunset orange and magenta.
