HORN AGAIN is an okay/pretty good album. That's the best we can hope for from the pillows from now until when they quit making music. Yamanaka has burned out or lost his passion or whatever, and all we'll ever get now are slight variations on the same pop-rock recipe he's been following for almost ten years. I don't know what to say to anyone who hasn't learned this painful lesson since TYMT (the pillows' most recent and probably final truly great album) was released in 2002.

Don't get me wrong; I'm glad that HORN AGAIN is listenable and has some fairly cool songs (as opposed to OOPARTS, from which I really only listen to a couple tunes), but at this point it seems hopelessly naive to expect a revelation from this dinosaur of a band.

Opinions, everywhere.

As opposed to your factual, objective take on their music? I think it's plainly clear that we're all posting [i]opinions[/i] about the album/band, so I don't know why you're taking the time to direct our eyes to the obvious.

Nah, I'm just commenting on the range of opinion on this album, lol. It goes from "this is a surefire sign that the pillows are done being amazing" to "pretty good, could have been better" to "this makes me hopeful for the future, totally digging it." Much bigger range of opinion on this than on the last few albums, it seems to me, which is nice.

Edit: should have worded that other post better, instead of just trying to be semi-humorous with a worn-out meme.

I just want another Little Busters before Sawao calls it quits. I don't care if it takes a five year hiatus.

Yeah, well it's just that we've been waiting for a triumphant return to amazing pillows music for almost ten years now. At what point do we acknowledge that it's probably not going to happen and that "pretty good" is the new status quo for our beloved band?

I'd go with "pretty damn good" on this album, but that's my taste. I don't think we're likely to get another PML or anything, but then again, Ajikan is probably not going to ever make another Sol-fa, Art-School will likely never put out another Missing.

Squirrelfiend mentioned to me the other day that the Beatles got truly great when they stopped focusing on being a live band and started looking more at their studio work. Perhaps if the pillows were aimed less at rocking shows and more at making the single greatest album they could possibly make, we'd get something truly astounding.

[quote="Jomei"]Yeah, well it's just that we've been waiting for a triumphant return to amazing pillows music for almost ten years now. At what point do we acknowledge that it's probably not going to happen and that "pretty good" is the new status quo for our beloved band?[/quote]

I'm sorry that you've been waiting for 10 years, i've simply been enjoying the albums released in that time.

I'm cool with and mostly agree with those assessments. The abridged discography idea could make for a fun hypothetical topic.

I know I'm certainly not waiting for "the one", the possibility that some album down the line will be among their OMG all-time greatest. I don't know many bands who have been able to pull a magnum opus out of their asses late in their career, so I certainly don't expect this group of individuals to be able to do so either. Obviously, that'd be pretty sweet if something really fantastic comes along, but yeah. If they put out music I enjoy, I'm eternally grateful. I want them to continue to have good times as a band.

I don't know much else to say in certainty, other than I'm fairly happy with Horn, Again, despite a few unfocused tracks and little niggles here and there. To further GR's alternate reality discography, yeah, if I were Sawao I'd trim out Biography in a second. Lily stays, because I [i]can[/i] hum that one on a moment's notice.

[quote="Spike"][quote="Jomei"]Yeah, well it's just that we've been waiting for a triumphant return to amazing pillows music for almost ten years now. At what point do we acknowledge that it's probably not going to happen and that "pretty good" is the new status quo for our beloved band?[/quote]

I'm sorry that you've been waiting for 10 years, i've simply been enjoying the albums released in that time.[/quote]

I do enjoy some of the albums to a certain extent, but I'd be enjoying them a lot more if they were better albums. Thus, I wish the pillows would return to the peak of their creativity and for a while held out hope that they might. Do you enjoy Pied Piper and My Foot as much as you enjoy Little Busters and Happy Bivouac?

[quote="Jomei"]

I do enjoy some of the albums to a certain extent, but I'd be enjoying them a lot more if they were better albums. Thus, I wish the pillows would return to the peak of their creativity and for a while held out hope that they might. Do you enjoy Pied Piper and My Foot as much as you enjoy Little Busters and Happy Bivouac?[/quote]

Pied Piper? Yes, I enjoy a few tracks off of it like Last Holiday and Ladybird Girl as much as I do anything from the 'golden years', with the rest of the album being enjoyable. And I love everything on My Foot as equally as anything else from that time. With the possible exception of Degeneration which is a fun song but kind of a throwaway. I'll match that with the 'Redux' version of Little Busters.

[quote="Spike"]Yes, I enjoy a few tracks off of it like Last Holiday and Ladybird Girl [b]as much as I do anything from the 'golden years'[/b][/quote]

Mare took note of the range of valid opinions being expressed in this thread. But I think I just found an opinion that is objectively incorrect (wrap your head around that) and morally reprehensible.

The way I see it, listening to music involves a lot of opportunity cost. When you choose to spend 40 minutes of your life listening to Horn Again, that is 40 minutes that could have otherwise been spent listening to bloodthirsty butchers' new (relatively) album. You could listen to Lily, My Sun and listen to the exact same sterile dynamics and tones and forgettable vocal melodies. Or you could listen to something like Ocean and be fuckin' inspired. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1AJb5XD9pA

I know this is veering dangerously close to "STOP LIKING WHAT I DON'T LIKE." Yeah I'm being unreasonable, and a dick. But the point of this thread now is just to wank off about our perception of the current state of the pillows. So I'm doing my part.

Oh hell, did it just get btb up in here?

It's ok, this "dissenting opinion twords any recent pillows release" thing is nothing new. It gets repeated so often and at such length that it's almost comical at this point. I'm happy enough knowing that Sawao will do whatever Sawao wants, and up to this point i've enjoyed nearly everything that's come as a result.

[i]"The movie that I loved so much got popular
I felt nostalgic and happy, but I will probably be sad, too"[/i]

[i]~Ice Pick~[/i]

So, this is my first time a new pillows album came out.
What some of you have already experienced, once, twice, thrice or more ..
I experience now. It's the feeling of disappointment. But you accept it and have hopes for the future.
It's like your son's coming home with bad grades. You are disappointed because of the grades, you know that in the past he came home with better grades,
but you still love him, because he is your son. You want the best for your son and have (high) hopes for the future.

Man, I'm bad with analogies . ..

Anyway, what I was trying to say: I'm with Jomei on this one.
And also with Spike.

I feel disappointed because:
1. I know Sawao and the gang can do better.
2. This new stuff they brought out, isn't bad, We had this already, same formula in a slightly different coat.

I accept it because:
1. They have come up with loads of very good stuff, they can back up with.
2. This new stuff they brought out, isn't bad, [i]just because[/i] it has the familiair pillows sound.

My first songs as a pillows listener were mainly from My Foot and White Incarnation (+ Tiny Boat).
From there I just went through all the albums they so far had released. I just picked the songs I liked from this and that album. As I said earlier, I just lately began to listen to albums as a whole. One of the reason for this, is because on a great deal of the albums, there are some songs I just don't care for that much. What GR is doing by making a hypothetical album, I've been doing ever since I listened to the pillows, hehe.
Well with this album, I can pick three or four songs from this album and I'm fine with it.

[quote="Jomei"]Yeah, well it's just that we've been waiting for a triumphant return to amazing pillows music for almost ten years now.[/quote]

The "we" you are talking about, happily isn't a big part of the current community. (I might be wrong here)
For me there always have been "amazing pillows music" since 2002 (TYMT).
Penalty Life has Moon Margeruite (and pretty much more to offer)
Good Dreams has Sono Mirai Wa Ima and Good Dreams
My Foot has The Third Eye (and much more to offer)
well, as for Pied Piper and OOPARTS. For me it's a bit like Horn Again.
Horn Again has Nobody Knows what Blooms (for many people)

I just pick what I like, just like Sawao likes what he likes.
Just grab [b]your[/b] ice pick and CRUSH THOSE PLASTIC TEARS!