[quote="Aplaca"]Are you typing Blows instead of Blooms on purpose, Johnny?[/quote]
Well, that's frustrating.

edit: forget it

[quote="kosumiku"][quote="Ashinow"]Thank you, thank you, thank you. Kosumiku!

I haven't read the comments yet. (Don't wanna see/hear them yet)[/quote]

[b]You made my day Ashinow[/b]. [i]Seriously[/i]..
I almost didn't post the link here, I'm glad at least one person made it worthwhile.[/quote]
And the shit-storm begins.

^Ueless post of the day. Please guys, let's try to avoid the bullshit this time.

I thanked kosumiku [i]on the inside.[/i]

But seriously I was just pondering that at work today... "Did anyone say thanks?" I assumed [i]someone[/i] did, and I was right. :edit: Son Goshin said thanks too. :/edit:

Biography is pretty cool, I loved it last time I heard it... might be a mood thing.

Emerald City is pretty nice, no real gripes there. I'm not sold on Brilliant Crown as the big ender though, I feel like it's missing something... It's nice but a bit plain sounding.

I'd like to read the words to Doggie Howl, because it sounds like it could be amusing lyrics if sung better.

My favorites overall from this batch of new material:

Movement, Split Emotion, Give Me Up!, Limp Tomorrow, Lily My Sun, NKWB, Biography

[quote="Tidusauron12"]Please guys, let's try to avoid the bullshit this time.[/quote]

[url=http://img248.imageshack.us/i/noshitbro.jpg/][img]http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6430/noshitbro.jpg[/img][/url]

I see the bullshit could not be avoided. How unfortunate.

I think Ashinow was trying to agree with a pun in the form of a picture..

[quote="Tidusauron12"]I see the bullshit could not be avoided. How unfortunate.[/quote]

You should have kept your eyes on the grass and walked a bit slower...

[quote="Aplaca"]I think Ashinow was trying to agree with a pun in the form of a picture..[/quote]

I guess I can see it now. Well played, sir.

You too, cloudy.

Aw, thanks Kosumiku!

Well, got to listen to the album a few more times. My thoughts:

Limp Tomorrow- Great opener, love the extended intro. Reminds me of My Foot in terms of structure and what they were going for. It's always cool to open an album with something really powerful. Also love the stuttering lyrics in the verse.

Give Me Up!- OK, this song is not filler. I really love this song, one of my favorites on the album. It's different from similar fast paced song like Youngster and The Air Resister in the fact that this vocal melody is really awesome, and the bass sounds awesome I think. Friggin love that chorus and cannot get it out of my head. It's the perfect super-short pop song with an awesome hook.

Movement- I must reiterate that it's an awesome song and still one of my favorites on the album. I think it was an excellent choice for the single is it got our hopes up for the album and it delivered.

Lily, My Sun- I think this song is kind of bland honestly. And not just because the first 2-3 seconds sound EXACTLY like The Air Resister, but there's just not that much interesting stuff going on. It's not bad, just... meh. I'd rather listen to The Air Resister.

Biography- It's a decent song, keep forgetting how it goes sometimes, but it has an interesting solo.

Sad Fad Love- Definitely appreciating this more. Didn't listen to the Rodeo Star Mate single that much, so I kind of skipped over this track and didn't give it it's due. I love that "I KNOOOOOOOW" chorus. The Engrish doesn't deter from the song that much. It's classic in the sense that the lyrics are really melancholy, but the music is pretty peppy and happy.

Nobody Knows What Blooms- What an awesome song, truly. Everything Foxes did wrong, this song does right. The sax that came in surprised me, but it fit. And those horns meshed in real too I thought. The drum fills are very interesting, and love that bass line too. I wouldn't mind more experimentation like this from Sawao.

Emerald City- Pretty awesome song, kind of like Century Creepers in a way. Not much else to say about it other than it's awesome.

Brilliant Crown- I like this song way better than Beyond the Moon. It feels more sincere to me, and I think it's the perfect length too. Not too long or short. Manabe sounds real good on here.

Doggie Howl- It's grown on me, but it's just all right. Not the best closer but certainly not the worst ever. The Engrish is really distracting at points, but it's a song where if it came up on shuffle, I'd have fun listening to it.


So overall, this is a solid album. It's better than OOPARTS and Pied Piper in my book. The only thing about is that it seems Sawao is getting too cozy in the kind of songs he writes nowadays. Like it seems the past several albums we've gotten the short poppy song (The Air Resister, Youngster, Give Me Up!, etc.), the anthemic, get your blood pumping song (Century Creepers, No Surrender, Emerald City, etc.), the one, soulful long song (1989, Beyond the Moon, Brilliant Crown, etc.) and the nonsense closer (Poison Rock 'n' Roll, Rosy Head, Doggie Howl [Primer Beat is not included because it was simply badass]). I just want Sawao to make an album that's unique in its own right. He shouldn't have to think, "OK, there has to be a song like this on the album, followed by a song with this kind of structure..." And obviously he is trying new and interesting things as we've seen with Nobody Knows What Blooms and Split Emotion, but you have to admit you can pretty much follow a pattern on the last 6 albums or so. And no, I don't feel like it's always been like that across their discography, just in more recent times. All in all, this is where the album ranks out of the 17 studio albums for me. Don't feel like posting the whole list right now, that's another topic in itself, so here's what it's in the vicinity of:

8. Living Field
9. Wake Up x3
10. [b]Horn Again[/b]
11.Penalty Life
12. Good Dreams

Damn I don't see why everyone trashes on Good Dreams so much.

Good Dreams, Sono Mirai, Walkin' on the Spiral, Frontiers, and XAVIER are all really great songs. Like, great songs. Better than anything on Horn Again (not bein a hater).

Okay, so the album is pretty uneven. The rest of the tracks are pretty mediocre. But I truly see Good Dreams and Sono Mirai wa Ima as a few of the last truly great pillows songs. Like, no-reservations-at-all.

I always thought of Good Dreams as amazing tier pillows. I couldn't help but notice you didn't list Tenshi Mitai Ni Kimi Wa Tatte Ta as a really great song. It's the best song on the album! If I had to do a top three list with a gun pointed at my head, that song would most likely weasel it's way on there with Funny Bunny and Patricia.

Good Dreams is probably my least favorite album, actually. Don't really know why. The songs (save for Good Dreams and Sono Mirai) are just really forgettable, or they're just plain hard to listen to. Xavier and Tenshi Mitai ni Kimi wa Tatteta come to mind there. Tenshi Mitai ni is a good song, but suffers from awful vocals. I've yet to have someone listen to that song without cringing, self included. I used to be more tolerant of the vocals of that album (and most things from the early-mid 2000s), but somewhere along the line I stopped being that way. They just don't sit well with me anymore.

Mostly, though, the songs are just meh. I feel the same way about My Foot, too, though, which is another one people generally think is really good that I don't.