Song Review:: xikers: Tsuki (Lunatic): Tsuki (Lunatic) {Japanese Debut}

 

• Release date: 2024 August 06

• Album tracklist: Tsuki (Lunatic), Cool, Are you serious?, Tsuki (Lunatic) - Instrumental, Cool - Instrumental, Are you serious? - Instrumental

• Album runtime: 20 minutes

Look, I know I said that I was only going to think about doing a review on this song because it's in Japanese and not Korean, and I'm not well-versed enough to know the difference with if this is actually considered K-Pop when it's not in Korean. They are a K-Pop group...I don't know. Whatever. It's xikers, and I do actually love them. They need the attention.

Plus, this was the first title track that I didn't immediately feel a little disappointed by! I actually like all three tracks here (unequally), which makes me laugh a little. I'm not head over heels in love, but the fact that it's their Japanese tracks that make me go "Yes, please," is a little ridiculous to my own mind. Much like with TVXQ! for some reason. I like their Japanese releases almost better than their Korean ones. It's just a big, amused sigh on my end. I'll see about learning Japanese after I feel more confident with Korean. If only I'd known in middle school, I'd have taken Japanese instead of French. Alas.

The best part of this is the fact that they gave us the instrumentals for all three songs as well. I love the instrumental inclusions, as well as the fact that every time I have to type a tracklist that includes either an instrumental or an alternative language version, they're never written the same way. As much as I like the song, I cannot listen to it on repeat and it's the instrumentals. It's good for an occasional listen with at least one or two songs in between each listen. The hip hop screeching is unpleasant to hear more than once in a row without something separating the listens. But it feels singularly appropriate for a song about going crazy over love. The only reprieve the listener gets is during the pre-chorus and the bridge. It's less annoying when you're listening to just the instrumental version. Probably because the shouting in the chorus is not there, so the noise level is down.

This is a rap heavy song and it still feels shouty to me. But, and here's why I like it, this is the first title track where we get genuinely interesting things happening in the vocals. There are several instances where we have two of them singing different parts at the same time, but that's particularly highlighted during the last chorus and the outro. However, because we also have the instrumentals that remind me of the Joker a little bit during those times, there is so much happening that I'm left exhausted by the end of the song. Another reason why I can only handle listening to it so much. 

This song is like the less shouty version of We Don't Stop, but there's a transition happening in the standard xikers sound that still catches my attention. (And, with the gift of hindsight, we start to see that coalescing in Witch). But, both Cool and Are you serious? are a lot better than Tsuki (Lunatic). The instrumentals are a lot less straining, and in both instances, the chorus is actually sung. I'm happy that Tsuki (Lunatic) happened so it could be the vehicle to get Cool and Are you serious? out into the world because those are good songs.

The accompanying music video for it is a little strange and stripped down to its minimum. Just them strutting and swaggering, as is befitting a song that sounds like that. It's a good performance video that features a lot of the choreography, which is, as always, fabulous, but it's not a particularly complicated video. The most important part is how cool Minjae's bat hat is.