Well, this has got to be one of the strangest major pop releases of the year. It’s not often you hear a pop track based entirely on a classical symphony piece, but Four Musketeers uses Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff as its backbone, complete with copious breaks for a string section and orchestral flourishes. This sounds right up my alley, but the first time I heard the track I was very let down. I’ve loved almost all of News’ past releases, but the underwhelming, almost droning chorus in this song was not what I expected. That said, the second time I listened to this was a bit of a revelation. I’m not sure I’ve ever made such a drastic turn with a song before. Suddenly, it all made sense. Better than that, I greatly admire the fact that this is a very non-traditional single release while still remaining incredibly hooky, albeit with some strangely mellow and almost anti-pop hooks. That crescendo that rounds out each chorus certainly helps, along with the general cheesiness of the song and video.

Yonjuushi Video