K-ON! Houkago Tea Time mini album

The “K-ON!” mini album “Houkago Tea Time” (放課後ティータイム, after school tea time) has been released today.

A much anticipated album as it features the four songs that the light music club girls performed in the series during the first school festival, such as “My love is a stapler” (わたしの恋はホッチキス) or “Fudepen -ballpen-”(ふでペン-ボールペン-). It also includes “Fuwa fuwa time” (ふわふわタイム) which was already released separately as an Insert Song CD.

The mini album actually comes with two CD’s, one features the original four songs and the other contains remixes of the tracks in the live version as they have been sung in the series.

Out of the two CD’s the first one with the original versions is the most appealing one to me, all tracks are nice poppy tunes.

“Curry nochi rice” (カレーのちライス) is my least favorite track out of the lot, while still a nice song, it doesn’t feel as well polished as the other three.

Do love “Watashi no koi ha hotchkiss” ( わたしの恋はホッチキス, my love is a stapler), a nice catchy tune that makes you sing along with its enticing rhythm.

Probably a bit more generic, “Fudepen -ballpen-”(ふでペン-ボールペン-) is still a nice track with a nice guitar section.

“Fuwa fuwa time” is as always an excellent and catchy song, actually on this mini album it is sung by Aki Toyosaki, who voices Yui in the series and not by Yoko Hikasa, who voices Mio and sang “Fuwa fuwa time” on the Insert Song CD.
Voice actress Aki Toyosaki successfully manages to give her version of the song its own touch and uniqueness, making “Fuwa fuwa time” on this album as enjoyable as on the Insert Song CD.

The included alternate versions on the second CD are nice but don’t especially stand out against the original ones, save for “Watashi no koi ha hotchkiss” and “Fudepen -ballpen-” which are not sung by Aki Toyosaki (Yui) but by Yoko Hikasa (Mio).

The booklet that comes with this album not only includes lyrics pages of all the songs but also music sheets for the tracks.

Not sure why Azusa is featured on the cover art on the album, as far as I could tell, didn’t hear her voice actress sing along on any of the songs, but surely don’t mind the cute twin tailed guitar player being included on the artwork.
あずにゃん!

According to the “K-ON!” official site, the next slated release is “Maddy Candy” by ‘Death Devil’ (aka Sawako Yamanaka, who was voiced by Asami Sanada in the series) and is due out on August 12.