Album of the Week 31-2026: Merry – Urbanstyle Circus

Yes, that album title does sound like someone’s trying desperately to win over the hip hop crowd, but don’t let that keep you from missing out on arguably the best album Merry released in two decades. ‘Urbanstyle Circus’ distills the Merry sound down to its best elements: melodies that exude a melancholic sense of nostalgia, rhythms that are reasonably laid-back, yet somehow still powerful enough to firmly place the music in the realm of rock music, and a lively interplay between musicians that never get in each other’s way. ‘Urbanstyle Circus’ sounds pleasantly familiar, but fresh and inspired nonetheless.

The gold standard for Merry’s sound has always been their 2006 album ‘Peep Show‘ to me. That is where they perfected the combination of Nero’s rock drummer in a jazz club style, Tetsu’s uncomplicated, but always melodically interesting bass lines, and the jaunty guitar tapestries by Kenichi and Yuu. Kenichi left Merry six years ago, and the band has wisely toned down weaving guitar parts through each other since, but Yuu does still manage to create a number of interesting guitar arrangements. ‘Urbanstyle Circus’ is genuinely the closest Merry has come to the ‘Peep Show’ sound since, and I applaud that.

Merry is probably the only band from the visual kei scene without any truly underwhelming albums. However, much of their post-‘Peep Show’ output has a handful of very aggressive songs that, while done well, aren’t Merry’s forte. Even when their four most recent albums took a turn for the more retro-inspired sound of their best work – the band once coined the term “retrock” – there was often a chaotic, punky song that disrupted the flow somewhat. By contrast, Gara doesn’t scream or growl on ‘Urbanstyle Circus’, and he barely yells. Even the most forceful rockers don’t seem to pander to the punk and metal audience.

One song that may seem chaotic is ‘Zombie Star’, but it ultimately has too good a chorus to dismiss. Early favorites are the powerful rocker ‘Last Destination’ and the slightly more laid-back, but still riffy ‘Entertainment’, to which a fantastic Tetsu bass line is the foundation. The elegant ‘Caramel Collar’ is another low-key highlight on ‘Urbanstyle Circus’, which contains a few familiar Merry melodies, though they develop in a fairly surprising way. It also contains likely Yuu’s best guitar solo on the album. ‘Cold Fascination’ is a logical choice for the album’s first single, as it is the most typical Merry song here.

Frankly, it’s a very pleasant surprise that Merry still has an album this great in them. Especially just over a year after the already quite strong ‘The Last Scene‘. Merry has not nailed this nostalgic, laid-back, but still quite rocking retro sound this well since ‘Peep Show’. They have released plenty of good albums since, but none of them has the near-flawless flow that ‘Urbanstyle Circus’ has. It’s difficult to recommend Merry to fans of specific styles, since there aren’t really any bands that sound quite like them, but if the descriptions in this review sound appealing, ‘Urbanstyle Circus’ is a great place to start exploring.

Recommended tracks: ‘Entertainment’, ‘Last Destination’, ‘Caramel Collar’

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