Though they’re not exactly the same, I like to think of Mrs. GREEN APPLE and Official HIGE DANdism as parallel artists. Both have seen an incredible rise in popularity over the past five years with a rock sound that embraces hearty melodies and cathartic energy. Both have powerful vocalists at their helm. And, both have strange band names. To be honest, “Mrs. GREEN APPLE” initially repelled me from getting to know this group better. It sounds like something out of a nursery rhyme.
Beyond the hit singles, I still haven’t done a deep dive into Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s music. But I can safely say Magic is the best track I’ve heard from them yet. If you’re in need of a musical boost, hit ‘play’ and make sure to turn up the volume. Magic is four-and-a-half minutes of pure, optimistic joy. It wears its effusiveness proudly on its sleeve, yet retains enough personality to keep from feeling like a cheesy commercial jingle.
Much of that character comes from the instrumental, which has a strong Celtic feel. The instrumentation is robust and exuberant right from the start, perfectly supporting the sky-high melodies. This is no more evident than during the song’s final chorus. I love how the instrumental swells here, pausing to deliver a flourish of strings that act as a surprising climax. This echoes Ohmori Motoki’s vocal performance, which feels like a big, beaming smile. He matches the intensity of the anthemic melodies, marching forward with wide-eyed wonder. And with pop hooks this strong, the band has plenty to celebrate.
| Hooks | 9 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 9 |
Grade: A-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
the fact you’ve given more jpop songs 9’s than kpop songs on here 😩😬🥴🙃
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I remember Nick saying something about this. J-Pop gets higher marks mostly because he reviews songs when their videos come out; however, with how J-Pop promotes by the time the video finally comes out he will have heard it for a while already, giving the song time to reveal itself and fully grow on him.
That said, I don’t think there are a lot of K-Pop songs lately that have grown into 9s…
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The review schedule can definitely play a part in the rating, though not as much this year as in years past. It just so happens that most of my favorite music from 2023 is coming from Japan. If I take a quick look at the number of 9-rated tracks so far this year, I’m at about 16-17 for J-pop compared to… 3 for K-pop. I wish things would balance out!
The coolest thing about my 9-rated J-pop tracks is that very few of them are similar. Many genres and sounds are represented, but they have a few things in common: strong melody, great production and an idiosyncratic perspective. Also, I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that most have only one or two songwriters/producers listed in their credits…
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Mrs Green Apple always seemed less “prestige” to me than Higedan, idk. Inferno is a hit for me but Dancehall was terribly cheesy.
Just a heads up that Sakurazaka has a new song! It’s an atmospheric, thumpy EDM track that reminds me of Keyakizaka. The dance in the video is excellent, if nothing else
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Yes, Higedan is definitely the “prestige” act of the two! I liked Dancehall, though it is definitely on the cheesy side.
I listened to Sakurazaka’s song this morning. I like it, though not as much as their last one (at least on first listen). It’ll definitely be part of my round-up on Sunday.
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More to the parallelism: if you slow down the intro and transpose it, you get something that vaguely sounds like the intro to Higedan’s “Pretender”. Haha.
In all seriousness this is great!
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Oh! I didn’t expect for Nick to talk about Mrs GREEN APPLE on the blog. I’ve been listening to them since 2017 and though I think that ever since their hiatus from 2020-2022 and the exit of two members (even a little bit before) their music has become a bit stale and sterile compared to their more rockier past, this song is quite pleasant. It has that grandiose and larger than life sound that I really like from some of their best songs.
I reccomend listening to Party, StaRt, Stardom and ‘Twelve’ is my favorite album!
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Mrs. Green Apple is good. Folktale and Boku no Koto are my ults. I prefer to listen to their Live Performances tho.
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Ha, this one is a big bundle of fun. A big shout Hey! to start the chorus is so old fashioned but so effective.
I don’t listen to much jpop outside of this blog as it is unobtanium on my usual go to platforms. Listening to this song here, I thought that THIS is what Lucy should be doing in kpop, swap the guitar out for the fiddle.
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My god, his voice! I’m going to be obsessed with this and probably go down a rabbit hole.
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