Not Yet ¡°Already¡± (Nippon Columbia)

The sun isn¡¯t quite setting on the AKB48 empire, but 2014 has so far shown that things might be slowing down a bit for the army-sized pop group. Its singles still top the Oricon chart, but last year the group could move more than 1 million units during first-week sales. Now, it takes longer to do that.

General search-engine interest in AKB48 has also dipped. One possible reason for this could be over-saturation, in which case subgroup Not Yet might be paying the price. The quartet¡¯s debut album, ¡°Already,¡± suffers artistically from this ¡°omnipresence¡± strategy and comes off like a boring collection of previously underwhelming ideas used in AKB48 tracks.

Not Yet features AKB48 members Yuko Oshima, Rie Kitahara and Yui Yokoyama, along with HKT48 standout Rino Sashihara. As a four-piece, they gain the advantage of not having to compete with 25 other women singing at once, which gives Not Yet¡¯s songs a chance to breathe. However, that¡¯s about the only sonic improvement from the standard AKB format. Tracks such as ¡°Peraperapera O¡± and ¡°Hirihiri no Hana¡± stick to the tested uptempo mix of guitars and synth flutters ¡ª the main ingredients in most of the mother group¡¯s more mediocre singles. The back half of the album slows things down and features a surprisingly OK solo turn by Yokoyama (the springy ¡°May¡°), but still nothing exciting. The closest thing to a success on ¡°Already¡± is ¡°Uminari yo,¡± which trades in the upbeat carnival pace for slithery R&B. Almost every song features a different producer, but you¡¯d never be able to tell without liner notes.

¡°Already¡± is the sound of a side project given zero original ideas, cruising forward on old fumes. Far more interesting would be to read up on Sashihara, the AKB-universe¡¯s most interesting member. She won the AKB general election last year . . . 12 months after being shipped away from Akihabara for breaking the group¡¯s controversial dating rules. She¡¯s reveled in her position since, brushing off critics and making money for the team. She¡¯s a confident, subversive performer, I only wish someone could have carried her personality into this snooze of an album. (Patrick St. Michel)