Personally, for me, I didn't like My Foot all that much. I loved WUx3, though, for a while. I've bled that one dry of any 'oomph' left. Also, Good Dreams as an album doesn't suit me, though if one of those songs comes up randomly, I usually enjoy it. Odd, now that I think about it. I used to really like Good Dreams... My tastes change over time, I guess.

I don't really see it as a train (x > y > z), but more of a tier system. There's the awesome, like Runners High, the good, like Moon Gold, and the okay, like My Foot. Seems like a toss-up for Ooparts. I'm not expecting an awesome album, but from what I hear on the preview, it seems like it could be a fun album, much like TYMT, or Pied Piper with less singles. I'm hoping for the former.

Moon Gold has good stuff, true, but the band was just coming into their own. There's hiccups in there. And to quote Sawao, his voice sounded like he had dumplings lodged in his throat. That's why I'd say out of the 15 full albums (17 with the first 2 EPs), Moon Gold is my least favorite. Love Asoko he Kaeretai though. But one thing I do wanna say more on. You want to talk about friggin lead guitar lines, you can look at My Foot. The Third Eye is a GREAT example. It just hooks you in from the first note. My Foot > all other post-TYMT albums.


[quote][quote="Son Goshin"]You gotta realize, the pillows release studio albums at a rate way faster than Western artists.[/quote]

Eh, perhaps modern artists are slow (I don't really know/care much about modern Western rock), but a lot of popular Western artists have released albums at the same rate as the pillows (about one album per year). Some examples off the top of my head: in their prime, the Beatles, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Queen were all releasing albums at about the same rate. Irrelevant to this discussion? Maybe. Just wanted to point that out, though.

Personally, from the previews, I don't think the album sounds rushed or like it was made from outtakes or something. It just sounds…mediocre. As in, plain-old mediocre songwriting. [/quote]

Yea, it's possible these songs could be mediocre. But the bands you listed are agurably legends. So of course it's more of a modern thing in the past 25 years we're seeing not release as many albums.

[i]My Foot[/i] is one of my favorite albums by any band. If I'm out driving or performing manual labor, it's the first pillows album I turn to.

First of all,

I love moon gold.

Secondly, I think ooparts is getting way too much critiscm. I'm just happy that this album is turning out to sound noticably different compared to most of their recent work. I noticed their style changes are slowly getting less distinctive now but you got to admit that it's still hard to put a genre on most of their songs.

I'll reserve judgment for the new album when it comes out. I don't think I've heard anything off of it yet (heck, there are a bunch of old pillows songs from the last few years on compilations and the like that I haven't heard yet.)

My Foot had a few stinkers but I think it's really one of the best things the band released in almost the past ten years. And I know I'm in the minority here, but I've always felt TYMT was about 50% awesome and 50% lame. It doesn't flow as well as their better albums but has some great individual songs.

Maybe I haven't liked My Foot so much because I've ignored it or something, but it didn't even cross my mind that it had Non Fiction and The Third Eye on it, which I love. I won't deny that the songs are catchy, though. In fact, I kind of dig The Air Resistor right now, because I listened to it recently, and it's been stuck in my head ever since.

Still, I personally view it as an okay album. There's only four/five-ish songs I really enjoy. I can't see myself ever thinking "Damn, I gotta hear me some Mighty Lovers!" That song's kind of buzzy.

So, is it JOURNEY STROBE or JOHNNY STROBO or what? I've seen it called both.

Strobe light is actually a simplified word for "stroboscope," and Japanese people use "sutorobo" for strobe light rather than "sutoroobu."

Plus Johnny Strobo sounds cooler than Johnny Strobe.

As for Johnny/Journey, it's definitely Johnny. Journey would be ジャーニー.

Alright, cool. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Moon Gold's musical style is the main reason I like it. The vocals, like Goshin said are meh, but I'm willing to overlook that for the sound of the music. I haven't listened to the previews yet, but I'll post again when I do. I'm admittedly a little more anxious to hear this now that I hear even a few people saying the words "stylistic changes" in their posts.

[quote="Son Goshin"] You want to talk about friggin lead guitar lines, you can look at My Foot. The Third Eye is a GREAT example. It just hooks you in from the first note. [/quote]

I agree, but for me, it's actually the slightly quieter, secondary guitar line. Remember how the first youtube video of that PV cut the guitar out? I actually liked it that way. It makes the song kind of roll along...I really like that. The other guitar in the album version seems to overpower the other guitar and its repetitveness kind of grates on me. But it's still a good song. I just find myself listening to it with only one headphone sometimes.

This thread totally made me realize I have yet to order this... so I did... along with Turn Back... from Yesasia, so it's free shipping and I get a random free little Bleach Capsule toy, heh.

I don't know what all the bickering is about, these are just sample clips.

They sound pretty good so far, like they could be some of the most creative stuff in years.

I don't know why people like that one Lemon song so much though.

[quote="gekigangar3"]I don't know why people like that one Lemon song so much though.[/quote]

Take another listen, is pretty catchy and has great potential.

It sounds like he's saying
[quote]i want to hear more of her songs
hello hello her rock

she makes me ache...[/quote]

So I listened to the samples, and I am really not too thrilled with the end result. A good part of this is because some of the songs are getting dragged down by Engrish. Writing a lot of these songs in english was not a good idea. Example: Lemon Drops. It's really a good song, but the bad english is weighing it down. It's a good song, catchy, got a some good energy...but ouch. Rockman pretty much hit the nail on the head in the post above me. And now, I'm only going to hear that when I listen to it.

Based on the clips, these are my favorites:

DANCE WITH GOD
Melody
Amegari ni mita maboroshi
Johnny Strobe

Honarable Mention:
Lemon Drops

Two of those are tracks we've heard beforehand. I'm hoping and praying that when the full tracks come out there will be something there that makes me a little happier. I DO however like the use of horns, and a little change in general style. Too bad the horns are on my least favorite track, FOXES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bzOn7tFdJ4 YOUR ORDER