Single Review: Kumi Koda – Black Wings

So here we are y’all. Kumi Koda back with another single. And if you listened to “Black Wings” and thought ‘Wait. Why does this sound so familiar?’. It is because you may have heard it before. In more ways than one.

“Black Wings” is the full length version of the interlude of the same name which featured on Kumi Koda’s EP Wings, released in January 2023. This is great news for fans who liked the interlude and were craving a full length version of it. Me? I was not a fan of it. Sometimes it’s fine for a short interlude to just stay as a short interlude. Especially when the full song doesn’t offer anything more than just an extended runtime. There is no cool switch which occurs in the song. There is no amazing middle 8. There is no killer verse. Kumi should have just had “Black Wings” be a song which she performed for her angeL + monsteR tour. Because sometimes it’s also fine for a song performed for a tour to just stay unreleased as a song which was performed on a tour. Kumi Koda’s tour at the very least provides a context for “Black Wings” and justifies it in a way that making it a sole single release does not.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of these sorts of songs from Kumi. They are always so messily produced and messily mixed. They are just a mess to listen to. And each instance of these types of songs sound the same. “Trigger”, “XXKK”, “Killer monsteR”, “Insane”, “Who”. All cut from the same worn out piece of cloth. But the bigger problem with these types of songs is that they just aren’t a good showcase of any part of Kumi as an artist for the frequency at which she keeps doing them. There is nothing wrong with a lil’ ratchet club jam. Beyoncé will always give you a song or two in this vein. But it’s not ALL that she does. She isn’t releasing entire albums and strings of singles of this style. And Beyoncé at the very least manages to give you something. A part of the song that’s catchy. A switch up in flows. Cool production choices. Something that she’s not done before. Something you can work with. Between “Drunk in Love”, “7/11”, “Shining”, “Apeshit”, “Thique” and “America Has a Problem” Beyoncé is tapping into the same part of herself, but pushing it slightly in different directions in each instance, and within a different set of sounds. Kumi on the other hand is just doing the exact same thing every time on the same type of beat. And I use Beyoncé specifically as an example, because she is the closest comparison in terms of a mainstream pop singer who also raps on songs and has done so consistently for a while now. And whilst none of these songs from Kumi sound like anything specifically that Beyoncé has done, I do think her I Am… Sasha Fierce album was an inspiration for Kumi’s W Face, and this alter ego thing that she’s been running with ever since.

Kumi Koda – Black Wings | Avex Entertainment

I get that there is a persona that Kumi inhabits with these songs, which is a big part of the whole angeL + monsteR deal that she’s still on at the moment. But there are other music styles and sounds she could tap into in order to soundtrack this ‘monster’ side of her. For instance, she could play with rock. A genre she’s dabbled with numerous times over her career and done amazing things with. Rock really suits Kumi’s voice because of her tone and the energy she’s able to give. And there are so few girls in Japanese pop who still have the platform and audience that Kumi has who are doing rock, so it’d be a good look for her. Even Ayumi Hamasaki isn’t as on it as she used to be, and she no longer seems to have the voice for it anyway.

I get that Kumi probably feels that rock isn’t hip enough or not what ‘the kids’ are into. But her fans are not kids anymore. They are grown. And I am not going to sit here and talk on behalf of a whole fanbase. But I do wonder how they feel about Kumi Koda constantly releasing these YG Entertainment wannabe sounding songs which are not showcasing any of the charms or talents of Kumi Koda whatsoever. And Kumi saying ‘Fuck it, I’mma bring rock back’ could create a moment and a story, and be something musically that she could own. Throughout her career, Kumi has always released music of a sound which is off the back of whatever is popular, and never been able to own them. At one point it was R&B. Then it was whatever Ayumi Hamasaki was doing. Then it was dance music. Now it’s YG and Blackpink’s brand of K-Pop. The pop rock angle for Kumi is right there for the taking. She could take this whole black and grey hair, monster shit and create a whole album around this, where the foundation of her sound is rock. Pop rock. Rock&B. Power ballads. And she would sound great and look great doing it. But instead she wants to just flap around to tuneless songs comprised of 808s, airhorns and ‘Na-na-na-na-na’s.

A massive issue I have always had with Kumi Koda is her lack of growth and an awareness of what does and does not work for her. For the past 10 years Kumi Koda has been releasing songs like “Black Wings”. We got it with W Face. We got it with And. We got it with monsterR. We got it with Wings. And now here we are again. And nothing is changing. The formula isn’t getting better. She is still shouting over the music. Still auto-tuned to hell. Melodies are still taking a back seat. These songs are just loud and noisy, and nothing else. I am truly wondering who these types of songs are actually for and the purpose that they serve for Kumi to keep doing them. Maybe she just really likes these songs. This has to be the reason. Because I’m stumped on anything else.