Release Date: June 20, 2018
Track Listing
- Bangin’
- BLING BLING MY LOVE
- Fashionable
- Super Hero
- Soushisouai☆destination
- Mr. Platonic
- Kiss Me Babe
- Mr. Blue Sky
- Crossroad
- Koi no Roadshow
- Synchronized ~Synchro~
- Let It Go
- HEY HEY ~Light Me Up~
- ALIVE
Review
Fairies have been active for 7 years and in that time span they have released only two studio albums. Compared to similar types of idol groups who also debuted around that time period their output is rather minuscule. So while they are not as prolific as others they do at least manage to get some material released every year.
That brings us to Jukebox, Fairies’ second release in 2018 after their single HEY HEY ~Light Me Up~. It is an album that is akin to their self-titled debut from four years ago. It is high on older material but this time out there are five new songs (Bangin, Fashionable, Mr. Blue Sky, Let It Go and Alive) compared to just one from the last outing.
These songs are mostly representative of the mature dance/pop sound Fairies has been championing since 2016’s Crossroad with the exceptions being Bangin’ and Mr. Blue Sky.
Bangin’ takes the group into Hip-Pop territory and is a good example of the group’s average age finally catching up to the age their music makes them sound like. Mr. Blue Sky on the other hand is a little more like a K-Pop lite type of production. It starts off sounding like a rather generic almost SNSD styled pop song but kicks into something much more interesting once the chorus kicks in.
It is on the final song Alive that Fairies sound like they are seriously entering a new musical phase. This EDM influenced production has a serious feeling that makes it stand out from the upbeat pop oriented material before it.
As a whole Jukebox shows that Fairies are aging out of the idol styled music of their past and are transitioning to music with a little more mainstream appeal. That can only mean good things for them in the future as they get older.
