If it was on Kool Spice it would be one of the best songs on Kool Spice .
Although to be honest I like most of the songs on that album...monochrome lovers, sha-la-la-la, twilight park waltz, naked shuffle

I've kind of revised my opinion lately and I think the "second movement" is actually the pillows best stuff, even though some people think it is just glorified elevator music.

Nah man, Kool Spice for life. PML is my favorite album of all time, but Kool Spice is so good it's just silly. Second pillows album I spent money on (well, first, FOTP is technically a best-of compilation, haha).

Kouen ~Tasogare no Waltz~ (the Park: Twilight Waltz) doesn't get enough love. It's legitimately a waltz, and it's beautiful as hell. I wish Sawao would do more interesting time signatures, I think the last time he played with that was what...Pied Piper? Good stuff.

best time signature is skim heaven (probably a typo for skin heaven judging by the lyrics or maybe an intentional error)

[quote="zorahk"]I've kind of revised my opinion lately and I think the "second movement" is actually the pillows best stuff, even though some people think it is just glorified elevator music.[/quote]
I hold the "second movement" stuff in pretty high regard: Kool Spice and Living Field are still two of my all-time favorite pillows albums. That was when Manabe's creativity as a guitarist was at its peak -- it's so fun to listen to him noodle around and ornament the music with his guitar articulations.

Flash Candy is pretty mindblowing. First time I've ever heard the pillows play some legit funk. I dig it!

In general, this feels a lot like when I first discovered Pantomime. It's got the same kind of raw, upbeat, youthful energy to it that I can't help but smile at.

Regarding Pantomime: (and 90s my life)

the following songs are from The Coinlocker Babies (Sawao's band before the pillows):

Stand Up and Go
Razorlike Blue
Pantomime
I Don't Cry

As for Pantomime, Sawao has said about this song: "With great effort I would advise you to not even think of listening to this song"

[quote="zorahk"]

As for Pantomime, Sawao has said about this song: "With great effort I would advise you to not even think of listening to this song"[/quote]
Lmao!

Pantomime (the song) is, uh, interesting. Not really a fan, but it's listenable. I always considered it a sort of weird experiment while they were still seeking out their own sound. Didn't know it was a throwback to Coinlocker Babies. If you switched out Sawao's vocals, I'd never know it was the pillows lol.

Edit: The solo in Pantomime is sort of nice, though.

Yeah, when I said "when I first discovered Pantomime", I was referring to the Pantomime EP as a whole. I suppose I was also referring to the 90s My Life EP too, since I sort of clump those two EPs together in my head. They both have a pretty similar feel, I think.

I'm actually not a huge fan of Pantomime the song either. That being said, it's got a kind of mystical quality to it, since it's from so early in Sawao's songwriting career. Coming from the later catalog, where everything feels pretty polished, Pantomime almost feels like stumbling across Sawao's elementary school doodles or something. There's this kind of "childhood wonder" vibe it gives off that I appreciate.

[quote="Orochi"]Pantomime almost feels like accidentally walking in on a teenaged Sawao masturbating in his bedroom.[/quote]

Wait, wut?

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"][quote="Orochi"]Pantomime almost feels like accidentally walking in on a teenaged Sawao masturbating in his bedroom.[/quote]

Wait, wut?[/quote]

What the fuck Orochi???!!!

[quote="Brye916"][quote="Lesser_Hamster"][quote="Orochi"]Pantomime almost feels like accidentally walking in on a teenaged Sawao masturbating in his bedroom.[/quote]

Wait, wut?[/quote]

What the fuck Orochi???!!! [/quote]

[img]http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/554/facepalm.jpg[/img]

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"][quote="Orochi"]Pantomime almost feels like accidentally walking in on a teenaged Sawao masturbating in his bedroom.[/quote]

Wait, wut?[/quote]

http://youtu.be/VvpwREurDj8?t=3m24s

[quote="Bebop56210"][quote="Lesser_Hamster"][quote="Orochi"]Pantomime almost feels like accidentally walking in on a teenaged Sawao masturbating in his bedroom.[/quote]

Wait, wut?[/quote]

http://youtu.be/VvpwREurDj8?t=3m24s [/quote]

LOL. Well played.

I like all of Pantomime, including the title track. Very interesting song. Also, the chorus is amazing.

I can look past the tone of Sawao's voice, and just imagine it as a musical composition, and it's pretty fascinating to me, honestly.

[quote="Son Goshin"]I will "fellate" FLASH CANDY all night long in hopes that it will "fellate" me back with its musical goodness. It's not just one of the best songs released by the pillows this, and it's not just one of the best songs from the 2nd Movement... I can say with total confidence and in all honesty that this is one of the top 10 songs that Sawao has ever written, and that the band has arranged.

[b]I really want to know, what makes one think it's repetitive or doesn't have enough "flow"?[/b] I say that because I don't find it repetitive in anyway, if anything this song is the antithesis of a song being repetitive. You got the nice horn going in the first verse, then they switch it up with piano, you got the nice little solo after the second verse, followed by an awesome third verse that focuses on the awesome guitar work, and then it flows into a nice little prechorus with some really nice flourishes in the lead guitar before it propels itself into that awesome final chorus and sexy guitar solo outro. We can have whatever opinion we want on this song, but I don't see the whole repetitive claim holding any water. If you want repetitive, look at Moondust (the album... the song kicks ass). I can't say enough how much I love FLASH CANDY. Best song on Kool Spice. [/quote]

Oh damnit, I had a very nice and elaborate reply ready...but it's gone. I will post a summary of that reply.
Anyway, sorry for not answering your post earlier. I was into the wild for a week and I had no internet there. I was hiking in the jungle, working with the natives, like milling sugarcane and harvesting rice, and eating snails and stuff, hehe.

But to give a brief summary of my initial post. I think what makes Flash Candy (FC for short) repetitive or not having a great flow/build up are the following elements:
- the repetition of the same tune by the horns and later on the piano in the verses
- the very sameness of the verses
- the different parts of the song not flowing that nice into each other

I compared it to Cooper Poster (CP), which I ranked higher than FC.
Starting with the intro, CP already has more variety. In addition it is more upbeat. The intro also comes back again in the song, but this does not feel repetitive, but actually gives charm to the song. The intro has about the same riff twice, but at the second time it is slightly different. While the intro of FC is basically the same riff twice. Then the verses. In CP the gaps in Sawao's vocals are filled up nicely with Manabe's guitar noodling...this is repeated only twice before the pre-chorus starts, whereas in FC Sawao's vocals are alternated with the horn tune, which is repeated about 8 times before the chorus starts. This same tune is repeated again after the first chorus. The only difference is that this time it is done by a piano. Furthermore there is not much of a pre-chorus in FC. I think in CP the transitions of 'intro-verse- pre-chorus -chorus-intro riff works quite well. In FC it feels more like the parts of the songs stand apart to each other and are not interwoven well into each other. This makes the parts more distinguishable and if these parts by itself do not have much variation, it can feel repetitive. Unless you like the verses how they are in the first instance, maybe because of intricate guitar playing and the interesting interplay between the instruments, it is not so much a problem that the verses are similar and get repeated. But, I do not like the verses of FC that much, one thing is the horns/piano tune. Another thing is that I'd rather hear Manabe play single notes like in Cooper Poster instead of chord-like playing in FC.
So yeah, Flash Candy is still a pretty good song. The only thing is that it lost it's magic, the magic it had when I first listened to it. Other songs, like Swingers a go! go! has grown on me though.

Sorry, Flash Candy is better than everything else on this album literally. There are other good moments, but I'm with Goshin, literally one of their best songs period.

It just has a ton of energ and urgency, even during the chordal prechorus bit where Manabe play just chords. Such an amazing song throughout.