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Old 2011.06.28, 05:03 PM   #41
Tokyo Jihad
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Antonio! Hoody Hoo
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Tokyo Jihad knows what you did last summerTokyo Jihad knows what you did last summer
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No matter what you think of me, and no matter what I may think of Tokyo Jihen; I love them. Above all, I love to write about them. I get to write uninhibited and put in the most obscure of facts and comparisons and none is lost on EMFers. As the day came closer, I began to dread it more and more. Flashes of Heisei Fuuzoku and Variety came flooding back. This was going to be one of those wasn’t it? More and more I looked over the songs that were going to be on it and shook my head. Dopamint, Tengoku e Youkosu, the showtune Onna no Ko wa daredemo. Nope. Not gonna happen.

The second I heard the album was internet-available though, I was psyched and had to get my mitt on it. Maybe I just don’t know to quit this band. They didn’t grow up to be the band I thought and hoped they could be, but at this point I know so much about them. It’s almost a waste to ignore them. I put the album in my Foobar queue last night, and just as I decided I was too tired to get through the album, the opening seconds of “Tengoku e Youkosu for the disc” trickled past my stop button. It certainly wasn’t the throwaway single I had heard before. Like a flip of a switch my expectations switched from dread to intrigue.

I contemplated eschewing a track-by-track review. But fuck it, here we go!

1. Tengoku e Youkoso for the Disc
: The first of three makeovers on the album. The scaled back arrangement is great and finally shows the band switching up their arrangements. A huge harbinger for the rest of the record, or at least Jihen from here on out. The rumbling drums and spastic instrumentation keeps you off-balance and is a great unconventional album opener.

2. Zettaichi tai Soutaichi: TJ sticks to form though in putting a high-energy song in the second track position. It’s got distorted guitars to spare, I can’t fault that, and some nice noises to go with the solo. Unfortunately the general melody leaves to be desired. If this was Sports I’d give it credit for being one of the better tracks, but luckily we get even better tracks.

3. Atarashii Bunmei-kaika
: Hyper j-pop. I dislike the sound. Zettaichi tai suffers from it as well. However, Bunmei-kaika is awfully catchy. The lack of catchy songs has been a big short fall on the band since basically ever. Save that Osca, Killer Tune crap; Bunmei-kaika is a breath of fresh air no matter what

4. Denki no nai Toshi
: The band lifts its foot off the pedal with this track and we coast into what I can best describe as Ariamaru Tomi – Piano version. And it’s nearly as good. Standout all around track on the album. Who says Izawa writes bad songs? Put this up there with Tegami and Pinochio please. The band does a great job to set up the album.

5. Kaitei ni Sukuu Otoku
: A typically uneven Ukigumo track (if internet writing credits are correct; it has Uki’s favored male harmony, so I believe it.) It sounds like the band tries to paste together several musical tropes from different genres, country, RnB, lounge music, rock and maybe just hope it works. It works in patches depending on how you feel towards these genres. The guitar solo outro is rather nice. Really, the band is tight on the track, but the song could have used some smoothing out.

6. Kinjirareta Asobi
: This song crawls in like the murkiest offerings from KZK and Adult. The band pulls out the extra reverb to build what is surely going to be a dark exploration. The band backs off immediately and pulls out of a conventional pop chorus not so far removed from songs like Bunmei-kaika or worse, Bokoku Jyousho. Pretty disappointing bait and switch.

7. Dopamint
! BPM 103: The original is one of the all time follies of this band. A million face palms could not do the original Dopamint single justice. The song got quite the makeover over winter-break though! It’s a miraculous turn around. The rising intensity of emotion as the song draws to a close is some of the best work “phase 2” has done. Does a great job of making me look past its cash grab origins.

8. Osorubeki Otona-tachi
: Early 90’s RnB, reminds me of a guy called Hudson Young (look him up, worth the effort!) Another surprisingly good song by the band. I long for rock and roll, I make no fronts about that. But I can’t fault this song. It’s really good and it hits all the right spots for a RnB track to hit. Catchy to boot. EMF defended Sanpukkan to the hilt, but that was RnB at its least arousing. This is your bread and butter, RnB kids. Good lord, is this the same band that released those terrible Adult Video remakes?

9. 21 seki Uchuu no Kou
: Rather unassuming hyper pop. I’ll give the band credit. In years past this song would have been full of copycat riffs of other songs, show off bass, would have sped up in the chorus only to come to a crashing halt the next verse until the band goes into hyper-drive to finish the song for no reason. None of this happens here. Thank goodness for that. Pretty vanilla, but at least the band didn’t drag it down.

10. Katsute wa Otoko to Onna
: Another RnB track, and I think Osorubeki Otona-tachi and the previous song set it up pretty nicely. Rather mellow, and a few shades of bland, but Osorubeki built up enough good will for this song. Hata’s drumming particularly comes across. This closes the RnB portion of the album nicely and sets us up for the home stretch.

11. Sora ga Natteiru
: Loved this song off the bat. It’s my bag. Picks the energy back up. With one glaring exception we’ll get to soon, the closing tracks of the album greatly mirror the album’s beginning. Its classic rock done right. Even if I wish the vocals were harsher, and the chorus is rather weak. Which makes me notice! Shiina shys away from the screechy vocals entirely this album (for better or worse) and no “megaphone voice” (ie: Kabuki, Service, Foul.)

12. Kaze ni Ayakatte Yuke
: Great rocker that liberally borrows from “Gamble.” I’ll allow it. Easily the best guitar track on the album. The bridge before the guitar solo is really good and I think the reiteration of the lyrics is effective stuff. Izawa you maestro you.

13. Onna no ko wa Daredemo
: The showtune. It is so heartbreaking this is the only Shiina-only penned track. The worst part is the product placement of all things! You’re killing me Shiina! This is so out of left field I don’t even understand how this is an apt close to the album. Bummer.

14. Tengoku e Youkoso for the tube
: How I wish this was not a bonus track. It should be this album’s closer. Let’s all collude to say this is the true closer, please? The last makeover (re-makeover?) I love the even sparser instrumentation, giving way to the full band to evelope the air around Shiina’s voice. Great rendition and great cut off! What were you thinking Jihen? Onna no ko wa Daredemo as a closer, get that out of here!

When the album is over, I don’t know how to feel about what I just listened to. I certainly used the word “great” alot in my track-by-track (nine.) This is a much better album than Sports, and the band sounds better than ever. You know what, there’s even some good tracks here (and not just “good for phase 2”): Denki no Nai Toshi, Atarashii Bunmei-kaika, the new versions of Tengoku and Dopamint, as well Osorubeki Otona-tachi and Kaze ni Ayakatte Yuke. Somehow though, I don’t feel it all comes together, and ends up kind of nebulous. Maybe its the lack of effective album closer. There’s some ho-hum songs, maybe a few will grow, but I think most will wallow in a Sports-like mediocrity.

Maybe this is a nitpick, I think it’s great to see the band make some bold choices: the bass in Bunmei-kaika, the instrumentation in Tengoku e Youkoso (either), Dopamint, the choice of RnB. However there are times where they wimped out of some of their choices. Sora ga Natteiru flounders half way between dingy alt-rock and heartfelt ballad. Kinjirareta Asobi might be the song that, if stuck to the emotion drawn from the verse, could have tied the album together. But it’s like they thought it might be too inaccessible, so they threw in a poppy chorus. The band needed to make strong bold choices throughout the album, not just picking and choosing. And again, no proper closer. I get that Onna no ko is a bold choice, and did stick to, but it is wholly unearned (and as it is passable, fails to compare to Tsugou no Ii Karada.) What I’m getting at is that though this is a nice collection of songs, and there looks like there’s more good than bad (or blah,) as an album it is rather middling.


Izawa Ichiyo comes out of the album like roses with some great songwriting. Hata’s drumming is back up to Kyouiku level, even if he doesn’t get much room. Ukigumo’s songs are pretty bad, but he meshes a exponentially better than he hid in Variety. Kameda’s songs are predictable and predictably great, and his bass is much more supportive. Shiina’s singing is par for the course, only in Dopamint and Kaze ni does it reach anything exemplary, but this is likely a good thing. Sucks she wrote only the showtune explicitly. However, the band finally sounds like a band performing songs the best they can. They have taken a step forward from the solid songs of Sports and they are almost up to making a statement with their albums again (like they once did with Adult and Kyouiku.) Unfortunately, they didn’t quite finish their statement this time and it’s sort of left up to the listener to finish it. Maybe that’s the “discovery” part of the record.


6.5/10
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Last edited by Tokyo Jihad : 2011.06.28 at 05:07 PM.
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