Release Date: November 5, 2024
Track Listing
- Identity
- RUNWAY
- Wah Wah Wah
- Baby, I’m Good
- Daydream
- NEW LOOK
- Jealousy
- Misty (MINA)
- Money In My Pocket (MOMO)
- Mirage (SANA)
Review
In the summer of 2023, TWICE’s Japanese line debuted as the group’s first sub-unit, MISAMO. Their EP Masterpiece had the trio experimenting with different styles of music that their parent group typically doesn’t touch.
Over a year later, MISAMO returned with its second EP, HAUTE COUTURE. This album features Identity and New Look as its title and sub-title tracks.
New Look was the first pre-release song to drop. It is a cover of Namie Amuro’s 2008 theme song for “Premium VIDAL SASSOON” from her ’60s,’70s,’80s single. Since official Amuro content is wiped from the Internet, finding high-quality versions of her songs and videos for reference is problematic.
However, many YouTubers have taken the time to archive such things, so thank God for them for keeping her stuff alive in some manner. Going back on topic, the original version of New Look is in the ’60s girl group style and contains samples from The Supremes’ Baby Love.
The MISAMO version is a more modern take on the song, leaving much of the retro feel to the imagery in its music video. However, the underlying catchy ’60s girl-pop vibe is still present in this incarnation. The difference is it’s presented in a much more subtle way compared to Amuro’s version.
Identity is a new original song from MISAMO. It is the album’s second pre-release song. It screams self-empowerment and love right from the start.
The instrumental fits the song’s theme without going overboard and drowning the lyrics in a wall of bombastic sounds like similar songs. But, like many modern pop songs, it’s too short and stops just before it climaxes appropriately, which is the only real fault I can find with this song.
The remainder of HAUTE COUTURE sees MISAMO cut the variety of Masterpiece in favour of a primarily streamlined chilled sound. While that may not make for the most exciting overall listening experience, it does prevent the album from veering too far off course.
The group album cuts that caught my ear were RUNWAY, Baby, I’m Good, and Jealousy. I mostly had RUNWAY and Jealousy on replay because they had more groove than the other album cuts.
Like on Masterpiece, each member of MISAMO gets a solo song. The best ones on HAUTE COUTURE are MINA’s and SANA’s. Mirage slightly edges Misty out for first place if I were forced to choose one out of the two songs. MOMO’s Money In My Pocket is laughably bad in a driving-by-a-car accident way. You can’t help but rubberneck and go, “WTF?”
Despite not being as adventurous on their second at-bat, MISAMO has released a decent album. There’s enough on HAUTE COUTURE to make both TWICE and MISAMO fans happy. If you’re more of a casual listener, you’ll have to go into this with caution and see if anything sticks with you.
Stream on Apple Music
Stream on Spotify
