Runners High rocks. I am clueless as to how anyone could come by the idea that the album "sucked" or "blew". Anything post-Happy Bivouac I could understand, but Runners High? That's just crazy talk.

Being less reliant on Tatsuya Kashima doesn't make it suck. The change in style between their albums seems pretty constantly moderate, and you can feel that Runners High phased out of the Kashima era. As I've said I like change and I like that the Pillows didn't try to churn out a dozen PMLs (as other bands would do when faced with a hit record), instead making most of their albums rather incredibly unique. I do think the Kashima-imbued albums are better than the later ones, but I'm sure glad I can still enjoy The Pillows without him.

If there's anything I don't like about the album, it's the chorus to "Runners High". This is the only song with which I prefer the "FLCL version", since it doesn't have the chorus and also doesn't have the strange ending.

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[quote="indivi"]-snip-[/quote]

Being reliant of Kashima =/= drowning out Kashima.

It's a poor album. Only 3 songs from it are decent at best.

runners high was my favorite for a while.. only im not so fond of the title track. the FlcL version IS better..

[quote="Culen"][quote="indivi"]-snip-[/quote]

Being reliant of Kashima =/= drowning out Kashima.

It's a poor album. Only 3 songs from it are decent at best.[/quote]
Which would those be?

I really think Runner's High is the band's best album. I even like it more than Little Busters. It just rocks more; that's all.

Terra, please ban everybody who has claimed that Runners High is the pillows' best album.

That should be a quick task.

Runners high is no doubt good while they were into their grunge like sound. All their music from Runners High til Thank You , My Twilight I loved. But then along came Penalty Life and Good Dreams which were the results of Sawoa running out of ideas. i think they should go back to thier grunge sound unless they can come up with something better.

If they start makin' music at their best again.. then we can forgive them for penalty life and Good dreams, right?

Which aren't too bad ablums when ur not comparing them to pillows.

There's nothing wrong with penalty life and good dreams. I actually like those albums very much. Changing sounds is a very cool idea. It's not that your gonna like all their sounds. Personally, i don't think kool spice is too great of an album, but that's me. I think Penalty Life has a very cool, hippy, dare i say [i]spiffy[/i] sound too it. And good dreams is a very modren sounding albums and i listen to each and every song from it many times. So when you say they're bad albums, think about america's current top albums, it probably beats them.

Well compared to most america's pop rock crap Penalty Life and Good Dreams are not so bad. But those two albums compared to The Pillows previous work don't stack up.

[quote="Culen"]Terra, please ban everybody who has claimed that Runners High is the pillows' best album.[/quote]
Does that mean i get to stay?

[quote="Culen"][quote="indivi"]-snip-[/quote]

Being reliant of Kashima =/= drowning out Kashima.

It's a poor album. Only 3 songs from it are decent at best.[/quote]

If you meant to say "Being [i]less[/i] reliant on Kashima =/= drowning out Kashima", then I'd disagree. I think drowning him out is exactly what they did. Lame? Yeah. I loved what he did on earlier albums and the bass in Runners High wasn't nearly as interesting or noticable as before. That doesn't prevent me from loving the album.

I think most people are going to disagree with you that the album is poor, but hey.

Kashima + No Self Control = amazing!

You guys give Kashima way too much credit when it comes to the actual songs The Pillows put out with him anyway. He never had any control over that. He was just a hired hand, all though a very talented one.

Incidentally, Runner's High is one of my favorites.