VAMPS' second single I Gotta Kick Start Now is just about as fun as J-rock gets without losing its edge. While the band's first single Love Addict was already a good indicator that VAMPS would be a different (happier) beast than L'Arc-en-Ciel and HYDE's solo works, I Gotta Kick Start Now really lays in the catchy riffs and growling refrains for a blasting good time. This is a song that's meant to be blasted at high volume in your car, windows down. The track starts loud and tight with ear-piercing guitars and amusing opening lyrics - "I'm gonna try you out / Just shake and move / Not in a nasty way" - and lightens up with the too-catchy repeating title line. This combination of hard and catchy feels like something out of the late 80s-early 90s pop rock mantra.

The 90s connection continues with the B-side cover of grrl rock band Shampoo's 1994 hit Trouble. Even knowing that Shampoo was more popular in Japan than anywhere else in the world, Trouble seems like a rather unexpected choice for HYDE and K.A.Z, but it fits surprisingly well with the VAMPS sound. The girls-gone-wrong power punk anthem is an undeniably fun rock number to begin with (in a 90s dance kind of way), and VAMPS covers it with winking, rocking, throwback glee. Is it possible to not smile when HYDE's drawling through the song's rap rock lyrics, and singing "Uh-oh, we're in trouble"?