Kumi Koda to release 2 mini albums (it's her damn '17th' album) My Name is... angeL + monsteR

Just as I finish reviewing Kumi Koda's entire discography and feel relief, this woman goes and announces some new shit.

Kumi's upcoming release is being marketed as 2 mini albums, but it is basically a damn LP that's been split into two SKU's, because Kumi Koda lives for excess, and it gives her a shot at having multiple positions occupied in the ORICON chart with what is essentially one release. So this shit is basically  Kumi Koda's '17th' studio album. 18th according to me, because Best ~Second Session~ was a damn studio album.

The album is titled My Name Is... angeL x monsteR, with a similar concept to that of the dual disc mess that was the 2017 W Face album; with angeL being the light Pop disc and MonsteR featuring the darker, edgier songs. Both discs will feature 6 songs a piece.

This release will feature the post re(CORD) digital singles "Puff", "Lucky Star", "XXKK" and the song "I'm lovin'" which is the current opening song of the TBS TV show Gutto Luck!, where Kumi made a guest appearance on October 2nd to perform it in what was one of thee most awkward looking performances.

My Name is... angeL x monsteR will release in 3 editions. 

• Both the angeL and MonsteR discs packaged together with a DVD featuring 4 music videos for ¥6,600
• The angeL and MonsteR discs packaged separately for ¥2,750
• A special fan club edition which features 2 DVD's of the music videos and making of footage for ¥11,000. 

Regular and Limited editions of albums are usually counted together. But with one of the editions of Kumi's album featuring 2 separate discs, retailing separately with differing content, they'll definitely be counted separately.

Kumi Koda did not need to release another album this year. And she certainly didn't need to do this split disc foolishness again. It just stinks of her inability to make one consistent body of work without the ruse of dual personas to separate her styles. This should have just been one cute EP with 6 songs. But no. We get this 1 disc edition, 2 separate disc edition, light and dark mess. Kumi is well and truly lost.

The only good thing I can say about this right now is that I really like the images on the covers. As for the music, I can't see it course correcting from what Kumi has given us for her entire career to date, and especially her last 6 albums; the songs that we've heard so far have already shown that. I've reviewed all of her other albums, so needless to say, I'll be reviewing this when it drops. 

My Name is... angeL x monsteR will be available physically and on all music streaming platforms from December 2, 2020.

💿 Kumi Koda album reviews: Affection | Grow Into One | Feel My Mind | Secret | Black Cherry |  Kingdom | Trick | Universe | Eternity ~Love & Songs~ |  Dejavu | Japonesque | Color the Cover | Bon Voyage | Walk Of My Life | W Face | AND | DNA | re(CORD)