There's a formula for perfect bubblegum music and for those of you who have been living on Mars or at least not living in Japan, Tomoko Kawase, bored and frustrated with her nine-to-five as lead singer with dull-as-fuck J-Pop drone-peddlars The Brilliant Green, came damn close to hitting on it with the creation of her alter-ego Tommy February. It was so close to perfection that it was almost painful to watch, it was cheap, analogue, colourful, clean, saccharine and innocent yet with a mischievous undertow. Make no mistake, Tommy understood the metaphor behind the term "candypop". She failed, however, in two key areas. Firstly she was a solo singer rather than a group. Secondly, she wrote her own lyrics and controlled her whole goddamn image. Good for her cred but true bubblegum needs a sinister, machiavellian pop impresario pulling the strings. Can you imagine early Kylie Minogue without Pete Waterman, imagine Aya Matsuura without Tsunku?

Tommy knows this. She grew up with Rick Astley and Kylie and while she gears up for the release of her next solo single she has taken time out to step behind the scenes, take the puppet by the strings and give us The Tommy Angels. A heroine-worshipping four girl group (my favourite's Ai and if you think that doesn't matter then you don't like pop music and should think seriously about killing yourself) in drab schoolgirl togs who sound exactly like Tommy February but rectify their idol's faults by being a group and by being totally, one hundred percent manufactured.

So the song then. It's likeably retro eighties synth-pop following on directly from the last couple of Tommy singles (excluding the one-off Tommy-does-goth misfire that was Tommy Heavenly) "Love Is Forever" and "Je T'Aime Je T'Aime" but, perhaps as an inevitable side-effect of the new girl group set-up, the sound has moved fractionally but uncomfortably towards typical, karaoke-friendly J-Pop. The B-side contains a whiplash-enhanced (don't ask) cover of original Tommy February single "Everyday At The Bus Stop" which drives home the fact that since the unforgettable triple-punch of the first three singles, nothing has quite reached the same heights. The Beatles-esque backchat of the last couple of tracks is a deliciously lame touch but the lack of an accompanying DVD or enhanced video content is a shame.

A promising B-minus for their first semester. -Ian Martin, Jan.06.04

Tommy Angels   Tommy February⁶   The Brilliant Green

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