Chai - WINK (2021) Hi-Res

The Japanese band Chai call their music "neo-kawaii" as a way of redefining the concept of cute. Singer/keyboardist Mana has said that, in her home country, "People really get hurt by the word 'cute'—if you don’t fit into that, it really bothers them ... It's a huge insecurity." The four women of Chai, who never felt they fit into the traditionally "cute" category, are expanding the boundaries to show it's more an attitude than how you look. That can mean, for them, sporting baby-doll pink—a color you're not supposed to wear after a certain age—or creating songs that play with stereotypes. "Donuts Mind If I Do" and "Maybe Chocolate Chips" are liquid chill, silk-sheets R&B; but the former smashes in reach-for-the-rafters falsetto and that goofball title, while the latter, featuring Chicago rapper Ric Wilson, compares moles (yes, moles) to delicious chocolate chips: "My chocolate chip they can't get a grip/ They can't define you with beauty myths." On the bouncy, irresistible "IN PINK," SoCal trip-hop artist Mndsgn joins in to assure that "pink is the color of the future." With its prowling-cat rhythm and taunting verses, "Nobody Knows We Are Fun," uh, winks at the early-aughts experimentalism of N.E.R.D., one of Chai's influences. You can hear the inspiration of another of their favorites, the Beastie Boys, on the brash, careening "END," while the slip-sliding synths and low whisper of "KARAAGE" feels like classic TLC. (There's a less expected, perhaps unintentional shade of T'Pau in the twinkling disco sheen of "Miracle.") Recorded with "chiptune" band YMCK, "PING PONG!" powers up with retro arcade noises (geek cute); "Wish Upon a Star' sweetly rides an old-school girl-group vibe (retro cute). Chai applies spare electro drums, ice-cool synth and a call-and-response to get across the message of "ACTION"—a song they wrote after seeing Black Lives Matter protests play out in 2020 and getting inspired by the show of community: "Action is more than words/ A-C-T-I-O-N A-C-T-I-O-N." It's a message they're trying to live by themselves.