I wrote some shit about my impressions of the new Shinsei Kamattechan album on my
tumblr (shameless promotion, like, subscribe and #engage with the #brand). Might as well post it here.
Okay, after listening through the new Shinsei Kamattechan album around 5 times I feel the need to write down some thoughts.
The number one reason I love this band so god damn much, is that they have always felt really honest and personal like no other band i know. of. You can feel to an alarming degree the mood Noko was in when he was creating and writing the songs. Feelings ranging from
crushing depression,
raw anger and
glimmers of hope. Mix that with Noko’s prodigy-like sense of melody and you get something that truly feels unique.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, some of that charm is missing from this album.To me, this really feel like the band trying to appeal to a larger audience and a whittling down of their unique sound.This feels like the album of a major label artist and not the weird wonderland that was their major debut Tsumanne, For all I know this is completely wrong and this is for them a perfect realization of their vision of what they want their music to be.
The production here is wonderful, surprising, pleasant to listen to and to me missing something; be it passion, rawness or a hint of imperfection.
It’s probably easier to write my track by track impressions:
1.オルゴールの魔法
Great and promising opening. It sounds really different from previous Kamattechan songs except for the now familar pitch-shifted chanting chorus used in a lot of their songs. I really like the bright, ethereal production coupled with Noko’s clean vocals.
2. ズッ友
The
music video for this song is pretty fucking great. I don’t think it’s a particularly amazing song, except for the part at around two minutes and the outro. I like the coupling songs on the single, 夏のゆーれい部員スタートっ! and 躁鬱電池メンタル a lot more. Still, that music video + single cover art combination is top notch.
3. ロボットノ夜
This was my favorite of the three singles leading up to the release of the album. This song and the three other songs on the single might make it my favorite Shinsei Kamattechan release of the year. The back half of this song is just unstoppable. The way Noko, time after time, makes these simple and catchy melodies with a great emotional punch is just amazing to me.
4. 新宿駅
I didn’t like this song very much when I first head it a couple of weeks ago, but god damn it’s so catchy. I’ve caught myself singing the chorus an alarming amount of times the last few weeks. Also really like that sigh at around 2:10, gives the song a lot of personality for me.
5 .おかえり
Like in a lot of the songs on the latter half of this album i find myself missing elements from their previous versions, instead of enjoying them on their own merits. This song I don’t feel quite sticks the landing like the
demo version did and I can’t quite decide why. I might change my opinion on this one and grow to prefer the studio version. Great song, regardless.
6. 背伸び
One of the (very) few songs I knew nothing about before my first listen of the album. The instrumentation is so beautiful here, especially the violin. Other than that it’s kinda a standard pop-rock ballad, very pretty though. I only have the iTunes version yet, so I haven’t been able to check out the lyrics. Parts of this song really reminds me of Hawaii, from the Front Memory single, which is a big plus. Might be a slow grower
7.彼女は太陽のエンジェル
Now this is probably the most surprising song on the album. What a weird, cool song. It left a huge dumb smile on my face after the first listen and I don’t see that changing soon. The sampling from
this song (??.Not sure if that’s the origin, seems to appear in a lot of songs.) is pretty bizarre and cheesy, but in a really fun way. No one can accuse Shinsei Kamattechan for not trying new things at least.
8. ひとりぼっち
I really, really love the version on the secret track of Tsumanne. I don’t feel this hits quite the same notes, unfortunately. The violins are beautiful and the sound is clean, compared to the dirty Tsumanne version. I don’t feel nearly the same passion in Noko’s singing on this version. I really miss the distortion, I guess. It gave it so much character. Great song nonetheless.
9. フロントメモリー feat.川本真琴
I was never a huge fan of the demo version of this song, so when it was announced as the first single for the album I was actually pretty hopeful that the new production and the mastering would make me love it. And it did in pretty much every way, except the vocals. I don’t think Makoto Kawamoto delivers a bad performance or anything, but it’s a little hard to swallow after being used to the familiar voice-pitched Noko. That coupled with ex Morning Musume member Niigaki Riisa starring in the music video, made me a little worried. It seemed kinda desperate.
10. だいじょぶわないじゃん
Now this is pretty good. What a great pull from Noko’s extensive back catalog of weird demos. I really like this version, even though I wished it sounded a little dirtier. I definitely prefer the
demo version’s tortured sounding vocals. but I’m just happy to see this appear on this album. Really like the weird ending too.
11. 砲の上のあの娘
I’m probably repeating myself too much here, but it sounds so clean. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing in this case when it comes to the melody and the mixing. Especially the ending with the piano is really beautiful, but once again I miss the violent intensity from the
demo version (from around 2 minutes and to the end just hit me like a brick every time.)
12. フロントメモリー (の子vo.ver)
Oh man, how I wish this were what were released as the single and the only version of this song on the album. Probably the best of the now three versions of the song. It lacks a little punch appearing at the end (as a bonus track) with the Kawamoto version only three tracks back.
TLR
I like this album a whole lot, I don’t love it (yet).