3 out of 5

Label: Avex Trax

Produced by: ?

This is… one song. It’s a good Vickeblanka song, definitely more of his dance pop variety – it’s got a club backing for the beat – but it’s not a great song. And in terms of the single CD, it is, again, really only one song. Fair, sometimes we buy singles for a track and, say, a remix, but this isn’t even that – this is the single, and then one track isolating Vicke’s vocals + music, and one track isolating Akitoshi’s vocals + music, and one instrumental. For a good not great song, that’s a bit much.

I suspect if I spoke Japanese, the half hour “commentary” track (perhaps while the duo play a video game…?) would be more amusing, but it’s also not the most lively thing; the chatter is pretty tame sounding. Still – I don’t speak the language, and this is 30 extra minutes of content.

化かし Hour Night has a toe-tapping chorus and a good melody like most Vicke tracks, though it lacks a really unique hook. While Akitoshi’s vocals are less nuanced than Vicke’s (so his vocal only track is even furthermore not a big bonus), he’s a good hype man and backup for the song.