Like family, no one can agree.
[Video][Website]
[4.86]
Iain Mew: In past singles, Kyary’s vocal limitations have mostly been outweighed by enthusiasm and by Nakata’s work to flip around around the weaknesses. His productions have taken the form of complex machinery as support to melodies that worked best delivered by the world’s sweetest vocal battering ram. The chiptune trills of “Family Party”, though, don’t sound so much built around her voice as cast in its image. The result is a song which teeters between TOO MUCH! and not enough throughout its course, but works thanks to the moments when one or the other takes a clear lead.
[7]
Patrick St. Michel: There was a list going around on Tumblr last month pointing out the many product references hidden within Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s music. It’s less a smoking gun and more a gateway to talk about the differences between the Japanese and American music industry. Whereas in the US, Tegan And Sara try to woo people who unironically use the word “brand” to have their music licensed in commercials, Japanese companies approach artists for songs, and that’s how many singles are born. “Family Party” exists because a new animated film needed a theme song, and it does the job as well as something that has to be peppy for toddlers can be, a bouncy melody and a jumble of glitchy 8-bit plops. It’s a fine enough tune…and a vast improvement over the last time producer Yasutaka Nakata phoned in music for the end credits. I’m giving this one extra point because Nakata was also clever enough to make this song fit within the persona of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu along with a 2-D family, as this song’s “family through thick and thin” ties in with what sounds like an at-times tough childhood.
[6]
Alfred Soto: A family party spent playing “Zelda” and “Simon Says” — the cheerfullest chipmunks ever.
[3]
Anthony Easton: The eight bit of chiptune wanders into the futuristic potential of 16 bit, with the vocals suggesting that chiptune could be short for microchip or chipmunk.
[4]
Jessica Doyle: This is my idea of a good animé ending theme. Which shows you my Western-centric (old-fart) limits. Outside the US, Crayon Shin-chan is all over the place, and providing the end theme to one of the movies — according to Wikipedia, there’s been one every April since 1994 — a time-honored tradition. To my ears “Family Party” doesn’t have the energy to match its background chirps. I don’t want to replay it. But it works for celebrating the defeat of Dr. Wily, or the conclusion of a pleasant movie.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: I’m not immune to the charms of J-Pop, but this isn’t a song; it’s barely the theme to a children’s video game.
[1]
Brad Shoup: Lovingly programmed, and equipped with a lyric that allows hardly a shadow. It’s chirpy, it’s blithe, it’s the whole clan gathering around Super Smash Brothers. With sweet countermelodies!
[8]