"Cheap?" What does that even mean? You have to define a term like that. Also, lol at throwing Happy Bivouac under the bus. Not many busters have the balls to do that.

I feel like things came to a head at Happy Bivouac, capping the 90s for the pillows. It was a peak of sorts. Their harder sound climaxed with that album. They teetered around there from Smile to TYMT, experimenting with different styles between those two. Then PL started that weird surf-rock james bond thing.

Good Dreams was straight out of the garage, production wise. I appreciated what they were trying to do. But the production turned a lot of people from the album. The vocals were recorded SUPER raw. The distortion was sharp, the vocals were raw, it's a rocking album when it counts. But I think it could've used a little more smoothing of the edges. Though some of my favorite pillows songs are here (Tenshi Mitai Ni is fucking KILLER!).

Personally, I loved all the way up to WU!x3, and as Sawao says, that's the point where I feel a distinction.
TYMT is a powerhouse in my opinion. It has some quirks like Irene (My Beautiful Sun), but I love every song on that album. I can't personally see how that was the start of their dip in quality. But to each their own

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"]Oh, man. This forum. Been way too long since we've had one of these.[/quote]
I know, right? There should be a word for these things.

[quote="Son Goshin"]I really can't agree with your assessment at all on calling Smile or TYMT "cheap", or for even implying that Happy Bivouac was the beginning of all that. But I think we can all agree that everyone saw a dip in quality precisely at the point in time Sawao was referring to in the interview. There was a dip in quality before then as we've just discussed, but would we all be in consensus to say there was ANOTHER, distinctive dip right around the time WUx3 was released?[/quote] The first post referred to the past 7 [i]of their then 23 years[/i]. [b]Wouldn't that include My Foot?[/b] I would agree with you, though. Wake Up was the first album that didn't have any [i]fucking brilliant[/i] songs on it. Just really good ones.

I think 'cheap' is a good word to describe the vibe that was slowly growing until Horn Again. To me it seems that Sawao lost more and more confidence over the years. You can hear it in his voice. He's not delivering the goods. When you don't have that confidence/lack of doubt, you can't give yourself fully to the music.

Since this thread is kind of all over the place... I love Xavier's opening line and it's delivery. "I cannot fly an airplane!"

Oops; I liked Happy Bivouac quite a lot. I thought it came before Runner's High, not after, so my bad. I gotta lay off the booze... lol

[quote="rockman240"]I think 'cheap' is a good word to describe the vibe that was slowly growing until Horn Again. To me it seems that Sawao lost more and more confidence over the years. You can hear it in his voice. He's not delivering the goods. When you don't have that confidence/lack of doubt, you can't give yourself fully to the music.[/quote]
I'm not good at expressing stuff like this, but I'd say this is definitely part of it. The production also changed, things started sounding more generic, conventional and less adventurous after Happy Bivouac. Smile and TYMT. I mean, on these we've got a lot of great tracks. But then we've got some shit like Irene, Winning Come Back!, Babiron Tenshi no uta and Ritalin 202. I understand that some here like those songs, and that's cool. But these were the first pillows albums for me that featured a few not so hot songs. And then the good ones on it were less good to me than those on previous albums, if that makes sense. The instrumentation, while "expiremental" in some places, was a lot less interesting to me, the vocals did seem less ambitious/confident, and the end result was less than stellar. Not bad, as they're still pretty decent albums, but not stellar. And then this trend continued to intensify with each subsequent release. The highs on these albums were less impressive, and the lows grew more frequent. And in the past few years, things have been especially underwhelming.

Just my opinions, of course.

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"]Oops; I liked Happy Bivouac quite a lot. I thought it came before Runner's High, not after, so my bad. I gotta lay off the booze... lol

[quote="rockman240"]I think 'cheap' is a good word to describe the vibe that was slowly growing until Horn Again. To me it seems that Sawao lost more and more confidence over the years. You can hear it in his voice. He's not delivering the goods. When you don't have that confidence/lack of doubt, you can't give yourself fully to the music.[/quote]
I'm not good at expressing stuff like this, but I'd say this is definitely part of it. The production also changed, things started sounding more generic, conventional and less adventurous after Happy Bivouac. Smile and TYMT. I mean, on these we've got a lot of great tracks. But then we've got some shit like [b]Irene, Winning Come Back!, Babiron Tenshi no uta and Ritalin 202[/b]. I understand that some here like those songs, and that's cool. But these were the first pillows albums for me that featured a few not so hot songs. And then the good ones on it were less good to me than those on previous albums, if that makes sense. The instrumentation, while "expiremental" in some places, was a lot less interesting to me, the vocals did seem less ambitious/confident, and the end result was less than stellar. Not bad, as they're still pretty decent albums, but not stellar. And then this trend continued to intensify with each subsequent release. The highs on these albums were less impressive, and the lows grew more frequent. And in the past few years, things have been especially underwhelming.

Just my opinions, of course.[/quote]

I like all of those lol, more Babylon Tenshi no uta and Ritalin 202, but I won't skip the others though. I usually find myself skipping Rodeo Star Mate and Tokyo Bambi though. Kinda got sick of em.

I rather enjoy Tokyo Bambi. STOP DISAGREEING WITH ME GUISE.

Where the heck is mare? Right about now he should be chiming in to remind us that everything the pillows have ever recorded is god-tier.

To answer some of the questions posed earlier in the thread, yes I do find myself coming back to My Foot every now and then, and yes it is with the specific intention of "I want to listen to these particular songs on My Foot". That being said, I am generally much more of an "album"-type listener than a "shuffler"-type listener. For instance, with My Foot in particular, my usual pattern is to listen straight through the album from the title track onwards (occasionally skipping tracks I'm not in the mood for, e.g. Nonfiction, Degeneration). But putting the pillows on shuffle would probably wind up feeling very jarring for me, to be honest.

And, come to think of it, I actually sometimes find myself coming back to Wake up! x3 a lot, or even OOPARTS for a song or two.

See, for me, music is sort of my way of "manipulating" my emotions: there is an interplay between a song evoking memories/emotions and experiences/emotions attaching themselves to a song. And so my personal metric for what makes music "good" is how much of an emotional impact it has on me. Perhaps you could think of it in terms of a song's "emotional energy potential"…

So going off of that metric, a lot of the early and mid-era pillows albums were consistently chock full of music that had tons of emotion in them. From the kind of dreamy, fantasy-land jangle jazz sound of the early 90s, to the powerful, hard-hitting, raw emotions of the late 90s to early 2000s, almost every pillows album from those time periods makes me feel things. Lots of things.

However, for me, Wake up! x3 was the last album that had that consistently high level of emotional depth. The reason I say this is that, from that point onward, there is a very steep drop, with each new album, in the number of songs that were memorable enough to make an impression on me. There are some songs on each album that I am still drawn back to (e.g. No Surrender, Johnny Strobe, Movement), but overall, the music felt so much more…mechanical. And shallow.

Anyway, that's my take on things. Interesting that what Sawao said all sort of lined up with our general consensus after all…

Wait. Did Babylon Tenshi no Uta just get dissed? WAT.

Hamster! That chorus! That magnificent, powerful chorus! With the powerful distortion! That song is one of the pillows best, imo. Like, what about the bridge in the middle of the song? Then Sawao break through to the chorus again... that's one of the pillows best moments. I don't know if they ever did such a great job at building tension before exploding into a brilliant chorus ever again in their career.

Irene is also another great song, and part of the "experimentation" I was talking about. They were trying a new sound, and it was a successful venture, imo.

When it comes to TYMT, I think there's a real chasm in opinion between members. Really, when it comes to anything from Smile-Wake Up!, opinions vary quite a bit among us. The uniform agreement in definitive quality drop is right around My Foot/Wake Up! and onwards. Some put it a bit earlier than others, but yeah. I'd say Pied Piper was the first album where I definitely went

Would you say that TYMT sounds like no other pillows record, in regards to production and style?

[quote="ladybirdgirl"]Would you say that TYMT sounds like no other pillows record, in regards to production and style?[/quote]

Well, it certainly is a standout, what with its extensive synth usage in almost every track. I like that it had a theme, a mission. The pillows were able to run with it quite well.

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"]I rather enjoy Tokyo Bambi. STOP DISAGREEING WITH ME GUISE.[/quote]
I used to like Tokyo Bambi, but now every time I listen to it I just hear a ripoff of Sexx Laws by Beck.

[quote="Tidusauron12"] I'd say Pied Piper was the first album where I definitely went [/quote]

Initially, I felt that way about Pied Piper, but looking back its definitely a solid album. The only songs I'm not a huge fan of are Purple Apple and Poison Rock and Roll. Sometimes I'll skip Tokyo Zombie.

[quote="MyFoot"][quote="Tidusauron12"] I'd say Pied Piper was the first album where I definitely went [/quote]

Initially, I felt that way about Pied Piper, but looking back its definitely a solid album. The only songs I'm not a huge fan of are Purple Apple and Poison Rock and Roll. Sometimes I'll skip Tokyo Zombie.[/quote]

I enjoy it extremely rarely. I go back for Ladybird Girl every so often, but otherwise I pretty much never listen to those tracks these days. It's a rare mood for sure. The reason is because most of the songs are just kinda... meh. Like, they're decent songs. Enjoyable sometimes, but definitely not to the point that I'm going to return to them often over everything else that I listen to.

[quote="Tidusauron12"][quote="MyFoot"][quote="Tidusauron12"] I'd say Pied Piper was the first album where I definitely went [/quote]

Initially, I felt that way about Pied Piper, but looking back its definitely a solid album. The only songs I'm not a huge fan of are Purple Apple and Poison Rock and Roll. Sometimes I'll skip Tokyo Zombie.[/quote]

I enjoy it extremely rarely. I go back for Ladybird Girl every so often, but otherwise I pretty much never listen to those tracks these days. It's a rare mood for sure. The reason is because most of the songs are just kinda... meh. Like, they're decent songs. Enjoyable sometimes, but definitely not to the point that I'm going to return to them often over everything else that I listen to.[/quote]

That's interesting. In my opinion, there are some real solid tracks on there...Song for Hermit, Last Holiday, Across the Metropolis to name a few. They bring me back to classic pillows when I listen to them.

[quote="Tidusauron12"]Wait. Did Babylon Tenshi no Uta just get dissed? WAT.

Hamster! That chorus! That magnificent, powerful chorus! With the powerful distortion! That song is one of the pillows best, imo. Like, what about the bridge in the middle of the song? Then Sawao break through to the chorus again... that's one of the pillows best moments. I don't know if they ever did such a great job at building tension before exploding into a brilliant chorus ever again in their career.

Irene is also another great song, and part of the "experimentation" I was talking about. They were trying a new sound, and it was a successful venture, imo. [/quote]
Haha, the first time I heard Irene I literally cringed. I remember thinking to myself. "These are not my pillows... Sawao... Sawao wouldn't do this, would he?" Experimental, maybe, but I've never cared for the song. And I can [i]listen[/i] to Babylon Tenshi no Uta, but it's never really done much for me and I never seek it out. I don't know why. Hearing you describe it that way makes me want to listen to and enjoy it! But then I turn it on and I'm like... meh. Can't put my finger on why, precisely.

But I guess that's how music is. I think I've joked about it in the past, but you know what song I actually kind of got down to the other day? Yellow Beans Never really cared for it too much, but it came on shuffle the other day and I was like "whoa".