The more I dig into 2020’s Jpop release catalogue, the more I continue to be blown away. While the Korean music industry has been slowly getting back on its feet this month with some truly exceptional releases, Japan has consistently been giving us some absolute show stopping singles. NGT48’s Sherbert Pink was released back in late July but for some reason I only found out about it today. And boy am I glad I did.
Now, we all have our own musical preferences and anyone who’s been following the blog for a while should be pretty familiar with most of mine. But I’ve noticed that I rarely touch on my favourite kind of pop song. I love me some funk, some EDM and especially some retro influence but it’s epic, guitar and string driven hyper melodic pop songs like Sherbet Pink that are the very definition of my music taste. Right from the opening piano riff and bombastic instrumental to the extended guitar driven outro, Sherbet Pink bounds forward with the kind of lightening in a bottle energy reserved for some of the best pop songs. I honestly don’t think I’ve been struck this hard by a tracks opening few seconds since Sexy Zone’s Run (although technically Sherbet Pink came first). In fact, the entire thing feels alot like Run‘s younger sister. And considering you all know how I feel about that song, you know how high praise such a comparison is.
The verses travel forward at breakneck pace, all while the girls give a suitably emotive performance. I know some people don’t really enjoy the rough and admittedly muddled mixing in tracks like this, but for me I’ve listened to so many of these that I’ve pretty much gotten used to it. From here we move onto the real star of the show, the brilliant chorus. It rises and crests at all the right moments and the vocal layering really elevates it into something truly special. The melody is just phenomenal and hits all the right points for me. One thing I’ve noticed after all my years of listening to Japanese music is that Japanese artists are really good at emoting. And while there might be an entire army of voices here, the sentiment is carried through and honestly helps elevate an otherwise strong refrain into a soaring moment that’s bound to resonate with you long after the track ends.
The guitar solo that follows and is repeated multiple times throughout the track carries the same melody as the hook and might just be my favourite part of Sherbet Pink. Sometimes all you need is one perfectly placed instrumental flourish to make a single truly resonant and the guitar loop here is exactly that. I know many will hear Sherbert Pink and pass it off as just another basic jpop girl group song, but for me, this is pop music at its best and right up there with some of the best pop songs of the year.
Verses: 9
Chorus: 10
Production: 10
Performance: 9
Final Rating: 9.5 / 10
KBopped 
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