[quote="Revol"]Way too much hype for this album. Nobody Knows What Blooms is the only stand-out track. Limp Tomorrow and Movement come close. Sad Fad Love is actually a decent track, but the craptastic Engrish ruins it completely. The rest is the same old, tired stuff we've been getting on a constant basis since My Foot. Honestly, if you put any of the tracks in the context of Wake Up, Pied Piper or Ooparts, would you spot a difference? I know I wouldn't.

That's my five cents. Feel free to thrash me.[/quote]

I am judging you

[quote="Revol"]Way too much hype for this album. Nobody Knows What Blooms is the only stand-out track. Limp Tomorrow and Movement come close. Sad Fad Love is actually a decent track, but the craptastic Engrish ruins it completely. The rest is the same old, tired stuff we've been getting on a constant basis since My Foot. Honestly, if you put any of the tracks in the context of Wake Up, Pied Piper or Ooparts, would you spot a difference? I know I wouldn't.

That's my five cents. Feel free to thrash me.[/quote]

You're free to your opinion, however wrong it may be. ;D

I didn't think the Engrish was that bad in Sad Fad Love. At least you can understand half the song whereas Doggie Howl is a jumbled mess of random phrases it seems.

Speaking of which, did we ever get a transcription of the Sad Fad Love lyrics when the Rodeo Star Mate single came out? Can't seem to find any in the lyrics board.

Dear Yamanaka,

Unfortunately, you're not Deyama Toshimitsu.

I'll say this more clearly: you shouldn't be singing in English.

Actually,

STOP SINGING IN ENGLISH.


Signed,


Everyone.

[quote="Son Goshin"]Speaking of which, did we ever get a transcription of the Sad Fad Love lyrics when the Rodeo Star Mate single came out? Can't seem to find any in the lyrics board.[/quote]

I remember seeing it in thepillowsJPN facebook somewhere. I think it was an image.

[quote="Revol"]Way too much hype for this album. Nobody Knows What Blooms is the only stand-out track. Limp Tomorrow and Movement come close. Sad Fad Love is actually a decent track, but the craptastic Engrish ruins it completely. The rest is the same old, tired stuff we've been getting on a constant basis since My Foot. Honestly, if you put any of the tracks in the context of Wake Up, Pied Piper or Ooparts, would you spot a difference? I know I wouldn't.

That's my five cents. Feel free to thrash me.[/quote]

Yea, you obviously didn't listen to those other albums very hard because Horn Again sets a completely different mood and tone. I'm not even one of IM's big 'music critics' and the change was apparent to me immediatly.

Horn Again opens up at #4 on the oricon charts for the day. Pretty cool stuff.

Yeah, this album's a good grower. I've been listening in my car a lot, to and from school.

[quote="Spike"][quote="Revol"]Way too much hype for this album. Nobody Knows What Blooms is the only stand-out track. Limp Tomorrow and Movement come close. Sad Fad Love is actually a decent track, but the craptastic Engrish ruins it completely. The rest is the same old, tired stuff we've been getting on a constant basis since My Foot. Honestly, if you put any of the tracks in the context of Wake Up, Pied Piper or Ooparts, would you spot a difference? I know I wouldn't.

That's my five cents. Feel free to thrash me.[/quote]

Yea, you obviously didn't listen to those other albums very hard because Horn Again sets a completely different mood and tone. I'm not even one of IM's big 'music critics' and the change was apparent to me immediatly.[/quote]

I've listened to Wake Up, Pied Piper and Ooparts hundreds of times, and I didn't notice or feel any minor difference when I was listening to Horn Again. My problem with these last four albums is that they lack creativity. I'm tired of Manabe using the same guitar effect, and I'm tired of Sawao writing the same friggin' songs over and over again. No matter how you try to interpret it, this album falls neatly in the context of its predecessors. There's no alteration and will to innovate.

Eh, the only thing I can say is that i'm sorry you don't enjoy it.

I love it, and it makes me happy that one of my favourite bands is still making good music after some uncertainty following Ooparts.

Aside from perhaps the last four tracks, with the exception of "Doggie Howl," there was very little to note about this album. Like I said, most of it was pretty boilerplate. However, while it isn't the exactly as new or exciting as the common responses seem to indicate (which responses may be expected, because Ooparts was so awful), it wasn't exactly the doomsday scenario that Revol describes either. Tracks like "NKWB" give me a lot of hope for future albums. I see [i]Horn Again[/i] as sort of a transition album to something great - but it almost certainly is not great itself. Let's hope that the pillows can live up to such promise, because if they can, we could start looking forward to albums again.

Don't get me wrong, the album is quite decent per-se. If you read my previous posts, you'd notice that I haven't said a word about it being good or bad. My point is that after three albums of basically the same, tired stuff, Horn Again doesn't feel any different. That's all I'm saying.

[quote="Revol"]
I've listened to Wake Up, Pied Piper and Ooparts hundreds of times, and I didn't notice or feel any minor difference when I was listening to Horn Again. My problem with these last four albums is that they lack creativity. I'm tired of Manabe using the same guitar effect, and I'm tired of Sawao writing the same friggin' songs over and over again. No matter how you try to interpret it, this album falls neatly in the context of its predecessors. There's no alteration and will to innovate.[/quote]

This is pretty much true, from a technical standpoint. Sawao still manages to capture my attention with some songs, but there is definitely a lack of creativity it seems with the last batch of albums. That doesn't make them bad by any means (that's up to our individual opinions), but it is apparent. Even My Foot showed some cool experimentation with the twin guitars on most of the major tracks.

The thing that bothers me is that the pillows' choruses have been rather mundane lately, IMO. There are many exceptions of course, but for the most part we get these "standard pillows" choruses that just don't stand up anymore after 17 fucking albums. They work, but they don't have that FALCON PUNCH blast that I love from older pillows.

And yet, there are always signs that Sawao has still got it. "Nobody Knows What Blooms" has the best chorus hands down on the album. Yes, it is in English, but the message is clear and infectious: "We start to see... Nobody knows what blooms." YES

So yeah, I'd say Horn Again is a good album, and that it points towards a better future for us as fans, perhaps.

[quote="Tidusauron12"][quote="Revol"]
I've listened to Wake Up, Pied Piper and Ooparts hundreds of times, and I didn't notice or feel any minor difference when I was listening to Horn Again. My problem with these last four albums is that they lack creativity. I'm tired of Manabe using the same guitar effect, and I'm tired of Sawao writing the same friggin' songs over and over again. No matter how you try to interpret it, this album falls neatly in the context of its predecessors. There's no alteration and will to innovate.[/quote]

This is pretty much true, from a technical standpoint. Sawao still manages to capture my attention with some songs, but there is definitely a lack of creativity it seems with the last batch of albums. That doesn't make them bad by any means (that's up to our individual opinions), but it is apparent. Even My Foot showed some cool experimentation with the twin guitars on most of the major tracks.

The thing that bothers me is that the pillows' choruses have been rather mundane lately, IMO. There are many exceptions of course, but for the most part we get these "standard pillows" choruses that just don't stand up anymore after 17 fucking albums. They work, but they don't have that FALCON PUNCH blast that I love from older pillows.

And yet, there are always signs that Sawao has still got it. "Nobody Knows What Blooms" has the best chorus hands down on the album. Yes, it is in English, but the message is clear and infectious: "We start to see... Nobody knows what blooms." YES

So yeah, I'd say Horn Again is a good album, and that it points towards a better future for us as fans, perhaps.[/quote]

I totally understand where you guys are coming from. That's what I was getting at with my post a page or so back, about Sawao writing certain types of songs. These last 4 albums all do seem to follow a pattern, but Horn, Again does some really interesting stuff. We actually DO see Sawao's creative juices flowing, i.e. Nobody Knows What Blooms. I don't know if this "points to a better future" per se, but I just hope Sawao can keep giving us at least a few truly inspired songs every album.

[quote="sheerheartattack"]Aside from perhaps the last four tracks, with the exception of "Doggie Howl," there was very little to note about this album. Like I said, most of it was pretty boilerplate. However, while it isn't the exactly as new or exciting as the common responses seem to indicate (which responses may be expected, because Ooparts was so awful), it wasn't exactly the doomsday scenario that Revol describes either. Tracks like "NKWB" give me a lot of hope for future albums. I see [i]Horn Again[/i] as sort of a transition album to something great - but it almost certainly is not great itself. Let's hope that the pillows can live up to such promise, because if they can, we could start looking forward to albums again.[/quote]

I agree with this assessment. NKWB is hopeful, but if I want to be really critical about it, a lot of the points come from the chorus harmony and groovy bass. A little bit of weirdness on the edges, like Private Kingdom, but better. I don't think it's godly, but it's got a few nice tricks.

I do like this album in some respects, but that's more because it's "pleasant" - there are no straight up bad tracks. But if you asked me right now, "Could you hum the verse or chorus melody of Lily My Sun, Brilliant Crown, or Biography?" I'd have no idea. Those tracks are just sort of ...there.

What upsets me a little bit is the "I see Horn Again as a transition album to something great." We shouldn't expect the pillows (or really any band) to need a "transition album." Each of these baby-steps should take place in Singles, in b-sides, in individual songs. I know it's a huge judgement not being a songwriter myself, but it's just a little irritating that Sawao is moving at a snail's pace, style-wise from My Foot, to WU3x, to Pied Piper, to OOPARTS, to Horn Again. I know I don't have a "right" to the pillows' music, *especially* because I have no intent of buying Horn Again. But it's just upsetting that Sawao needs to spend entire albums (or three quarters of an album) just getting the shit out of his system.

Check this magic:

1) Limp Tomorrow
2) The Third Eye
3) Movement
4) Across the metropolis
5) Nonfiction
6) No Surrender
7) Scarecrow
Gazelle City
9) Sayonara Universe
10) And Hello!
11) BOAT HOUSE
12) That's a wonderful world

No, the point of this is not to demonstrate that I can make a "Best of" playlist. Clearly this hypothetical album includes some songs that weren't universally agreed on as "the best." I have And Hello! but no Ladybird Girl. Across the Metropolis, BOAT HOUSE, by no My Foot. This is for balance, not every song could realistically be 9/10 or 10/10. But look at this. I would be THRILLED if the pillows had put out this album. Limp Tomorrow is a great opener, Sayonara Universe is a great ballad, BOAT HOUSE and That's a wonderful world close it out on a wonderfully happy note, TWW is such a dance groovin track. Yeah, it's a 180 from Limp Tomorrow, but we can see that this is the same, versatile band.

I sort of grapple with this idea: Would I prefer that the pillows act more typical bands and just put out albums every 3, 4, 5 years instead of every year? Would I prefer this album to the whole set of four? "But GR, what about Skinny Blues and Johnny Strobe!!?" I dunno. But I think I'd feel better for Sawao and the gang. If you stay driven to keep cranking out 3 minute, 30 second songs every day of the year, you're bound to stumble across a few chord progressions and ideas that are actually memorable.

Again, I don't want to sound totally jaded or like I take all of this music for granted or anything. It's just that Sawao's technique of "professionally record everything jam crosses your mind" just doesn't really sit well. I imagine other bands as being pretty willing to cut a lot of potential tracks from the album, because they want to give their listeners the best possible experience. Perhaps Sawao writes four times as many songs as we actually hear, and Johnny Strobe and FOXES just happened to be "good enough." But he should know better. This dude is responsible for some straight up glorious albums.

Or maybe Sawao has a different taste in music than you, just like we all have different tastes. In fact, I would be willing to bet that he's very proud of each album, and isn't just saying that for the interviews to sound good. Basically, it's all well and good that we want this or that from them, but it's moot, because the pillows will make the music they want, and that's all there is to it.