Perhaps, Egw Eimi could have been another band with only one release. In 2014 their bassist left the band and the remaining members didn’t know what to do next. Fortunately, the crisis ended in 2016 when the current line-up was formed. Since then, Egw Eimi have slowly been gaining speed. Why is this good news? Well, the reason is the band’s music has a rare ability to touch the heart and stick in the listener’s mind. Their second mini-album, titled Soredemo Nanika wo, is another great example of this.
One of the most peculiar things about this release is that you may not understand it at first, especially if you’re familiar with the band’s previous tracks that sounded like a nice indie rock/dream pop mixture to make you dance. Soredemo Nanika wo, on the other hand, preserves Egw Eimi’s familiar features but sounds more mature, deep and emotionally heavy. It might be hard to get what the mini-album is trying to say after the first few listens, but after a day or two you’ll notice that Happy End, the first song of the release, is playing in your head. From this moment, consider yourself trapped.
Happy End evolves slowly up to the chorus but after that the high-pitched voice will crush the listener with emotions. Chie’s vocals are doing a perfect job: it sounds imploringly touching. This effect will become even stronger if you combine audio with video, especially the final moments of the MV.
The following SPLASH lightens the mood a bit with its melodic sound and plays well on the contrast with the first track. Shitto softens the atmosphere even more with a delicate rhythm that perfectly underlines the vocal. And 4/18 reminds of previous Egw Eimi songs: it’s fast, dynamic, and it’s calling you to dance.
To wrap up the release the band prepared a slow lingering track, Soredemo. Listening to it is like tumbling in a bed trying to fall asleep. This track is filled with sadness which grows stronger, heavier as the song moves forward. It’s like scrambling through a sleepy voice, losing yourself in a long shoegaze-ish instrumental part, only to get to the end of the road where the music suddenly stops and the final “nanika wo”, heard in an absolute silence, softly pushes you into the bottomless abyss.
For now the only flaw in Egw Eimi’s music is that the band doesn’t have a lot of songs, although the second mini-album helps with this a little. Soredemo Nanika wo offers five brand new interesting tracks where the familiar features are mixed with fresh ideas, creating, perhaps, the most emotional Egw Eimi release to date.
