Release Date: October 12, 2016
Track Listing
- Holiday
- Ordinary Girls
- Love Wonderland
- Always
- JUICY LOVE
- Seek A Light
- Bright Blue ~Watashi no Ruri-iro~ (Kawamoto Ruri solo)
- Dancing in Solitude (Kawamoto Ruri solo)
- Autumn Autumn
- Come Come
- Show Me Your Heart
- Born to Be Free
- Sexy Young Beautiful
Review
GIRLZ N’ EFFECT is the second album from E-girls unit Happiness. It features two solo tracks by Kawamoto Ruri, the theme song for the Samantha Thavasa Autumn-Winter 2016 CM (Love Wonderland) and the theme song for the movie Itazura na Kiss THE MOVIE ~Part 1 Haisuru hen~ (Always).
4 years between albums has brought some change within the EXILE sister group/E-girls unit Happiness. In October 2012, MIMU left to focus on her education and in April 2014, MAYU left to pursue a modelling career with a different agency. They also gained 2 members in May 2013, with performer Suda Anna and vocalist Kawamoto Ruri joining the group.
What hasn’t changed is their overall sound. That is still very much within the wheelhouse of saccharine dance-pop, even though the opening tracks, Holiday and Ordinary Girls, with their harder edge, might fool you into thinking differently at first.
Of the six new songs on this album, the 2 solo ballads by Kawamoto Ruri stand out the most. Both follow the tried and true EXILE template and nicely showcase her vocal abilities. The light dancehall-inspired Autumn Autumn and the pounding dance floor feelings of Show Me Your Love also demand immediate attention.
Being the youngest group (average age of 17.14) in the E-girls collective, the youthful energy from their first album, Happy Time, has carried over into GIRLZ N’ EFFECT. The only minor quibble I could find with this album is that the songs on it may sound like they bleed a bit into similar ones that other E-girls units (or the E-girls as a whole) have done in the past. With that said, there’s still enough here for Happiness to present itself as a stand-alone group away from the pack.
