What do you think?

In my honest opinion, bass is really important to me. Since I've been listening to the Pillows works' pre-Runners High, I've been appreciating Kashima's and Kenji's bass parts and how they blend and give rythym to the songs. While Jun [b]has[/b] done some good basswork (e.g. Funny Bunny, Sonna Fuu ni Sugoshitai, Thank You My Twilight, etc.), today he's starting to lack. I feel that the bass player in the band should be doing the hardest work because usually he/she is the one everyone should rely on for the melody if there is a conflict between the band members.

Sorry if my ranting sounded like I didn't know what I was taliing about.

yea, since i'm hella guitar biased, i gotta say i wanna hear some more solos and stuffs...

other than that, they're doin pretty good...

i would have thought after the years they would have gotten a bit rusty in more...

"Harmony Guitar" should be "Rhythm Guitar." And it should be improved, too.

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Vocal melodies and lead guitar lines. Refer to Happy Bivouac for the correct solutions.

Where's the all of the above option? Aha. But seriously, they need to get better at song writing. We all know they have the individual skills needed to make good shit, they just need to start making good shit again. I worded that badly, oh well.

Agreed.

::voted for Rhythm guitar::

From My Foot, we can see that now they're really comfortable just making songs that are "safe" and generally fun to listen to (while structurally repetitive). Most of My Foot, along with their two latest singles (with the b-sides) I think are really enjoyable - however, I don't think the pillows are challenging themselves enough here.

Simple chord progression +
Catchy riff +
Dance beat drums +
------------
Successful song....but I desire more from such skilled musicians.

So really, they could keep going on the same track and be great, or experiment a little and be brilliant.

I would REALLY like to see them to something strange. I love the riffs, the vocals, whatever - but it's time for some truly layered and complex songs.

Skilled musicians? Hardly. Personally, I would like to see more effort on everybody's pard. ACTUAL solos, not just 8 bar 'riffs' mixed in the middle of the song. Actual bass lines, not just roots. More interesting chord structrure than just major and minor chords. It just seems like they're busting out albums here and there, but not putting any real effort into any of them. Or maybe they just suck, but I hope it's not the latter.

The fact that the Pillows came out with My Foot this early made me like "WTF! Is that even possible?!"

Not saying that My Foot is bad.

drumming, at least some fills because despite what you guys say, the drums dont all rely on the guitar parts, i'm sure shin could have added more fills or something a little less simple.

Second choice would be vocals, sawao lacks in them lately, like in Rock'n'Roll sinners, his voice is just annoying. And in Sayanara Universe, that song would be so much better with more feeling into the chorus, at least at the end.

I think Manabe and Sawao's guitar parts are fine, the solos are still great, i don't care how complex they are, as long as they sound good and have some hooks in them, then i love it. And the synchronized stuff in incredable, so i think the guitars are fine.

[quote="StevenB130"] More interesting chord structrure than just major and minor chords.[/quote]

More Nowhere plz! Why they can't put Gsus4, Asus4 in their songs anymore is beyond me. Maybe Kashima forced them to.

[quote="discovolante"]"Harmony Guitar" should be "Rhythm Guitar." And it should be improved, too.[/quote]
Sorry, too late.

I'll agree with everyone here when they say that Manabe's solos are lacking. There's just no "feel" in them anymore and basically any mediocre band can play them.

i think the main thing is that they're trying out a more "rock and roll" type sound starting with penalty life and going through my foot. i'd like to see them branch out a bit more and experiment like they did in kool spice and living field. but mostly, i'd like to have better bass to pull the song along. even manabe's most impassioned solos and yamanaka's best lyrics and shinchan's coolest drumming can be held back by a generic bass line.

Maybe a little bit more drumming (seems Shin is putting too much O.P. King into his style; not that that's a bad thing). Jun's bass is getting a bit better; Manabe needs to get out into the light a bit; and maybe Sawao should take a spoonful of honey before singing live. It'll help soothe the throat so he can hit the higher notes better. (Not that I'm complaining about his singing. It's an awesome experience when you see them live.)