In the last month I listened to over 100 hours of Mori Calliope's music, and I've spent the last two weeks categorizing her music by spreadsheet, and this weekend, making a mixtape of my favorite songs, complete with album art and bonus track.
"Why are you doing this"?
"Are you okay"?
"Do you need to speak with someone"?
In 2024 I spent a week in NYC and Connecticut with an old friend, over the course of the time I spent there I was intending to see Hololive's Breaking Dimensions (I did not score tickets), every time this topic was brought up my friend would let me know how much he hated Mori and her music, I didn't quite understand it, he didn't watch v-tubers, so I thought it was strange, I had little interest in her music then.
After missing my flight home due to the president's rally in Madison Square Garden clogging Manhattan traffic and sleeping on the floor of JFK I had forgotten much of our conversations regarding her.
Recently in the last month I reunited with an old friend this time from Lower Saxony, Germany, he also did not like Mori or her music and was inclined to tell me all about it, this flooded me with memories of 2024, and so I decided this was a divine call for me to give her music a fair shake. I am a contrarian at heart.
"but why?"
I wanted to see if I could review someone's entire discography all at once, how hard it would be, and I wanted it to be someone I hadn't really listened to before, and didn't have a strong opinion for or against them.
I was into Nijisanji before I started watching Hololive.

Mori Calliope has three strategies when song-making.
1. Hype and Aura moments.
- Mori is trying to make a spectacle
- Mori wants to impress you
2. Complaining
- Mori is upset about something
- Mori wants to vent to her listeners
3. Idol music.
- Songs that sound cool live and are fun for the audience.
- Songs that sound cool when her friends are around.

Every Mori Calliope track is a combination of these three things without compromise, the less there is an attempt to synthesize these strategies the worse the song is. As Mori continues through her career the better production value gets, and while the songs start to sound better, more "professional" the reality of these three strategies remain, she doesn't really explore anything else. Which isn't bad, in-fact, by PHANTOMIME she's laying some heavy emotions onto you in a very artful and moving way, the compositions also get more complex.

Broadly, you get the sense that Mori is someone that's very insecure but wants everyone to have fun and to be recognized as someone cool because of that, she's probably the most powerful dork in EN vtubing because of this.
If you can tolerate Tally Hall, Epic Rap Battles of History, Limp Bizkit, Lincoln Park, Evanescence, Kanye West post-2019, Babymetal and most things Vtuber music you'll like Mori Calliope. Just remember she's a nerd that really wants you to think she's cool, and she'll be sad if you don't, so just nod along to the music and try to have fun.

Every time I listen to Mori Calliope's music I can't shake a feeling of something being missing from her music, sometimes it's there, but it often isn't. I've reflected on this feeling a lot over the last month, and I've come to the conclusion that it's heart and soul. Most of the time we get her heart but rarely do we get her soul with it, I have a theory that since debut she's had trouble expressing herself genuinely, but I don't care to dig, I'd rather just listen and draw my own conclusions. What I can say after listening to Mori Calliope for a solid 100(?) hours, is she get's better the farther she goes. I'm quite smitten by her, you can tell she's been trying harder and harder with her music. The deeper you go into her discography her moments of vulnerability feel less like insecure neuroticism and closer to an artist showing you a bit of their soul, and I think that's the best you can ask from an artist, and for a lot of virtual youtubers it's somewhat herculean, actually strike that, for most people.

@harbeau Dont call me my friend if you havent reviewed the entire mori calliope discography yet.

RE: https://gearlandia.haus/objects/74eabd32-de17-4a84-8c9a-f908549ce942

@harbeau Yeah I can agree with the overall thoughts here. I've actually been a fan of her work even going back into the Demondice stuff, though honestly like half of her discography is a real miss.

Like that Gachiakuta OP she did recently that is honestly just awful. It has it moments but I think that song is just a bad match for her voice overall

@harbeau Interesting review. I find most, close to all vtuber songs to be dull; I'm also the type who's generally very (perhaps unreasonably) cynical towards corporate-affiliated stuff like this. That said, I can always appreciate reading well constructed reviews like this one. 💯

@harbeau https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJg-mUsJvG4&list=RDLJg-mUsJvG4 Only song I've heard of her's is this one, it's quite kino

@Witch_Hunter_Siegfried @harbeau that one is AI, hence why it's not wigger crap. Mori's music is the worst I have ever heard.

@latein @Witch_Hunter_Siegfried
as a fellow wigger I feel protective over my Mori