Simply Dreadful.

The hype machine has been in overload leading up to the release of Super Junior’s new album Mr. Simple – the hilarious teaser posters, the PV snippets and what have you.

For all the noise, the album is incredibly underwhelming. The title track is basically what you would get if Sorry Sorry was tossed in a blender, put through a strainer and then crushed with the side of a knife. Elsewhere, only the cheery, melodic Sunflower impresses – everything else sounds either recycled or like it was written in a druggy haze.

Mr.Simple is supposedly SuJu’s final album before Heechul & Leeteuk enlist next year (well, there’s always Kangin returning…). It’s a shame that it had to be this vapid and unmemorable.

Listening to covers of Ghibli songs, I snooze.

I downloaded an album by mistake. Thinking that the shoegazin’, post-rockin’ maestros Mono had released something new without my knowledge I queued up the file without so much as looking at the title…

…I’m not sure I can find anything positive to say about mono’s supposed ‘Ghibli tribute’ album (titled ジブリを聴きながら、上を向いて歩こう). It’s amazing how this female-fronted vocal unit managed to suck the energy and life out of Mononoke Hime, Kimi o Nosete and even the damned Ponyo song.

Listen to the Donut Man for your fill of fun instead.

A Light Blue Generation

When I saw Nanba Shiho live for the first (and probably last) time back in August 2009, I was not impressed. Her voice was overly light and had this helium-like quality to it that grated on my nerves (same goes for her songs). It didn’t help that her backing band that night messed up their rhythm on one of the tracks and prompted an already jittery Nanba to apologize profusely and restart the song. I did feel a little sorry for her though – she was just 16 years of age and was singing in front of a bunch of disinterested working-class people who were mostly there for noanowa. Like me.

The progress Nanba has made in the 2 years since has been remarkable though – a lot of chart attention, tie-ups galore, interesting media ventures. Admittedly, I’ve never given her music a chance since that one night but fate obviously has other ideas.

Pack the album full of songwriters I favour! Kotringo, BASE BALL BEAR’s Koide Yusuke + Sakanaction’s Yamaguchi Ichiro, Toki Asako, YUKI + Kirinji’s Horigome Yasuyuki! Now you’ve got an idea why I want to smack my head against a brick wall. I still don’t like Nanba’s airy voice, but the songs are just so godly.

SAKANACTION, please record a version of Kodona no Kaidan…

The Non-working Spell

I had high hopes for LAMA, the new superproject by members of Supercar and Her Benevolent Majesty Tabuchi Hisako. When I tried to get tickets to their first live in April, I found that they had sold out before I’d even got out of my pajamas that Saturday morning when general sales opened.

Sure, I had an inkling that they’d turn out sounding like the latter-day Supercar that I so loathed (ie the piss-poor electropop one), but I still didn’t expect Spell to sound like a bad rip-off of Nirgilis.

If you’re looking for a band that fuses rock with electronic sounds successfully, then look to Sakanaction.

edit: wow I mixed up my rock stars and journalists. Sorry NY times writer.

S/Traightener

Attempting to trudge through 10 years’ worth of neglected Kpop history in the space of a few weeks inevitably means something has to give way. Still, I just couldn’t resist tearing myself away from the illicit charms of T-ara’s Roly Poly to make time for STRAIGHTENER’s new, self-titled album.

When I first started listening to Horie & co. something in the mid-00s, ‘generic emo-rock’ was their forte and it was hard to think of anything that made them different from bands cut from a similar cloth (ELLEGARDEN, Ajikan). Nowadays though, STRAIGHTENER’s sound has been refined and reshaped to a point where it’s just so…slick. And stylish. Experimental even.

The two singles that preceded its release showed a contrast in sound that continues into the album, YOU and I/羊の群れは丘を登る leaning more to their early-day emphasis on melody, while VANDALISM/SILLY PARADE was all about the grooves and beats.

I’m only on my second play through STRAIGHTENER but damn, it’s as close to perfection as I could’ve hoped it to be.