start over

start over is a two-song single released by Nippon Crown on 25 July 2018. It falls between the albums WORLD DOMINATION and CONQUEROR, in the period when the band began touring abroad in earnest. The title track takes the idea its name states — beginning again — and handles it from the side of an open chorus rather than a heavy riff. The distance from the intro to the first vocal is short, the chorus melody is unambiguous, and the song is among the most immediately approachable BAND-MAID have written. An official music video followed, and it settled into the set as one of the band's signature songs. 'Screaming' is its opposite: speed and pressure pushed to the front. With the A-side built to travel widely, the coupling carries the aggressive side of the band, and the division of labour is explicit enough that a two-song release still covers a wide span. The 2023 anniversary compilations split the pair between volumes — 'start over' to Vol.1, which collects the A-sides, and 'Screaming' to Vol.2, which collects album tracks and couplings. The two-sidedness this single held in one sleeve was simply filed into two books a decade later.