KFC ain’t even turned on the fryers to cook the Christmas chicken bucket orders yet and we’ve gotten a Christmas Day announcement of a new single from Crystal Kay.

Crystal Kay’s first single for 2024 is titled “That Girl” and is produced by ☆Taku Takahashi of M-Flo.

This is great news for M-Flo and Crystal Kay fans alike, as Crystal Kay and M-Flo are such a big part of one another’s histories. Crystal’s first M-Flo affiliated release was “Ex-Boyfriend” for her second studio album 637 -Always and Forever- back in 2001, which featured Verbal. And from that moment on Crystal Kay and M-Flo would continue to work together in different capacities, whether it was Crystal working with M-Flo as a unit or just one of the members.

Crystal last worked with Verbal in 2009 on BoA’s song “Universe”, which the trio had performed live together on a couple of occasions. And she last worked with ☆Taku Takahashi in the same year for her song “Over and Over”, which was a new recording for her best album Best of Crystal Kay. I still play “Over and Over” to this day. It just gets better with time. Such a great song. Why the hell was it not a single?

Gurl. Fire the whole management and marketing team.

The quality of Crystal Kay’s singles over the past couple of years has been a little all over the place. So my expectations for “That Girl” aren’t exactly high. But I’m just stoked that she and ☆Taku Takahashi have worked together again and actually putting the shit out. Because I recall them being in the studio together some time ago, but we never got to hear what they worked on, IF they worked on anything at all.

According to Billboard Japan, “That Girl” will have a Jersey Beat flavour to it, so I am definitely intrigued. ☆Taku Takahashi producing a Jersey Beat joint makes complete sense given his style and it also makes sense for Crystal too. So hopefully “That Girl” will mark the start of Crystal finding her way back to fun, sounds that work best for her and say more about who she actually is as an artist. Dance and club music really suits Crystal, but her forays into it haven’t always been great.

Crystal Kay hasn’t made big news since her stint on Masked Singer Japan. And she’s done a bunch of things since then.

So hopefully her reuniting with ☆Taku Takahashi of M-Flo gets some people outside of her fanbase talking, because Crystal Kay and M-Flo was a whole moment and one that many still hold dear.

2024 will also mark Crystal Kay’s 25th anniversary in the music game. So what better way to kick the year off than with a ☆Taku Takahashi production. Let us all bow our heads over a KFC bucket and pray that it is good.

“That Girl” releases on January 29th, 2024.