lol seriously, I thought he was saying "any more" or something. I'll get some shit done with these over time.

Looking at the lyrics, Sad Fad Love actually is one of their better engrish songs, besides the "beautiful lip/looks like a doll" part its all pretty understandable.

The chorus for NKWB is actually "We start to seed... nobody knows what blooms."

Limp Tomorrow - Great low-key opener. (random: first 8 seconds sound like something made in Garageband)
Give Me Up - Love the chorus, bass really sells it (great bass on this album). Song has a great 'feel' to it.
Movement - Grown on me a hell of a lot since first hearing it. Wish it had a bit more.. something towards the end though.
Lily, My Sun - Okay, a little flat. As others have said, sounds like Air Resistor filtered through the Pied Piper era.
Biography - Pretty alright.
Sad Fad Love - I love this song. I think this is how I wanted to feel about My Girl.
Nobody Knows What Blooms - Foxes gone wrong, I hated the trumpets in that but the overall cool factor got me liking it, in this one the random samples kind of kill it for me.
Emerald City - Alright. Made me think of a less cool Century Creepers.
Brilliant Crown - Great. Lot of emotion in this one, very curious about the lyrics. (Similar to Last Holiday: some instrument floating too far in the back of the mix, and really deserves an ending, damn it)
Doggie Howl - Okay. (random: I still wish Sawao had Manabe and Jun on bg vocals these last few albums instead of layering himself)

Overall it's okay, on the level of the okay-to-good songs from the last few albums. I outright skip most tracks on Ooparts and a few on Pied Piper but I don't skip any here so that in itself is an improvement, but I felt like those had higher highs. There are a few standouts here, mostly Movement, Sad Fad Love and Brilliant Crown for me, but most of the album is just kind of... there. Half of it is the kind of stuff I'd dig as background music but not so much something to sit down and really listen to. Looking at it as a whole album it kind of flatlines. I don't expect the excellent overall rhythm of an album like Little Busters or anything, but some sort of peaks and valleys would have been nice. Also it's not anything new for them but the production is a little too clean for me.

As of now I think I'd give it 6.5/10. Slight improvement, but doesn't make me think they're on track for a comeback or sinking into oblivion, mostly feels like they're on the same general track they've been on since Wake Up x3.

Wow, this is the first Pillows album in awhile that I'm not completely embarrassed to listen to.

[quote="The Little Buster"]Looking at the lyrics, Sad Fad Love actually is one of their better engrish songs, besides the "beautiful lip/looks like a doll" part its all pretty understandable.[/quote]

Yes, pronunciation and composition are quite alright, but the lyrics are plain embarrassing. They sound like a poem a 6-year-old has written on his first day at school.

[quote="xtsquintx"]Wow, this is the first Pillows album in awhile that I'm not completely embarrassed to listen to.[/quote]

haha might be a bit of an exaggeration there but I can see where you're coming from (*ahem ooparts*)

Yea after giving horn again a weeks worth of listening, I can see that perhaps OOPARTS was a weird moment for the pillows....like pied piper, to me, was really good in terms of that new pillows sound but ooparts just fell through a hole somewhere. Horn again picks up where they left off and, in a way, take it up a step. They got a bunch of that new rockin' sound with that kinda throw back theme (with flavors from Wake up, my foot, and a lot of the rockin' from Pied Piper). Lemme just throw out a few things that caught my attention:

You can say a lot about Nobody Knows What Blooms and it's all been said here so I just have to add that it is probably one of the most original songs by the pillows as of late with a really really great sound. A great verse and that chorus is something you can just sing to.

Give Me Up! is probably my favorite song though: it's simple, super fun, and way too easy to put on repeat. haha.

Emerald City is a really great song as well with that great ringing lead. That chorus and super simple solo is awesome too. Like an awesome mix of Skinny Blues, Rock'n'roll sinners, with a bit of that Poison rock'n'roll solo (at around 1:37)

Biography is the return of the OHHH YEAH!!! Been a while since I've heard that proper sawao OH YEAH and it fortifies my belief that if that pillows get anything right, it's that perfectly executed OHH YEAH!!!! That weird little hook throws me off though.

If I had a complaint, it would be from Lily, My Sun. I think someone said it before but right as the song hit it just sounded like air resister. It's a good song, it just seems to be lacking a spark of creativity. Sad fad love is in the same vein, but I think the sound gives it a bit of a unique edge that, this might be a stretch to say, reminds me a bit of funny bunny.

Overall, like most here, I agree that this is a great step for the pillows and can easily be one of the best since penalty life. It's a great representation of that "new direction" they're taking with their sound. You can see that a lot of the inspiration is happening: great tunes from sawao with manabe solo's sounding doper than ever. Jun on bass is the most surprising with a lot of great variations. You kinda expect standard like....major chord bass playing but jun takes it up a notch pretty often that ties in really well with the rest of the band's sound. Time to add him as a permanent fixture, pillows!

Hey guys, long time lurker, new user. I just wanted to give my $.02 on this album.

Overall, I only deleted 2 tracks (Give Me Up and Biography. They were just...not my thing), which is a definite improvement over Ooparts, as everyone has pointed out.

NBKWB: amazing for the chorus
Emerald City: Sawao's vocal style and DAT SOLO(HNNNG) make me listen to it over and over.
Movement: Damn near wore it out from the single. Really catchy and the ending riff really sold me.
Limp Tomorrow: The intro and the stuttering are nice and the solo is okay.
Brilliant Crown: Not really sold on it yet. It's decent, at least, but it doesn't have the power that 1989, Strange Chameleon or Ameagari ni mita maboroshi have.
Sad Fad Love and Doggie Howl: Catchy guitar riff, horrible Engrish. I'd normally delete these, but they're actually pretty good.

Obviously, my own opinion and all, which may not agree with yours.

Welcome. There's a new member thread in the Living Field section if you feel like introducing yourself.

[quote="Jomei"]Welcome. There's a new member thread in the Living Field section if you feel like introducing yourself.[/quote]
Thanks, I might go throw something in there. :]

On a different note, is it possible that Sawao really loves him some Wizard of Oz? I mean, Scarecrow and now Emerald City? Am I late to this bandwagon?

chgu is actually Jomei, who couldn't be seen liking Horn Again on his main account.

[quote="Spike"]chgu is actually Jomei, who couldn't be seen liking Horn Again on his main account.[/quote]



Save it for the Killing Field, broski.

Like I said, I can take a little jab because all I have to do is prove him wrong:

[quote="Jomei"]I'm still mulling this album over, but I can say that after a couple times through, it's a huge improvement over OOPARTS. Right now I'm torn between feeling disappointed that only one track is really hooking me so far (Limp Tomorrow) and excited that I don't dislike [i]any[/i] of the tracks.

But probably GOOD DREAMS tier, I reckon? Not bad, pillows, not too bad.[/quote]

I don't love it, but it's not bad.

I think we ultimately decided that "Scarecrow" was named after a film called [i]Scarecrow[/i] (or something), but of course such findings are never conclusive.

[quote="sheerheartattack"]I think we ultimately decided that "Scarecrow" was named after a film called [i]Scarecrow[/i] (or something), but of course such findings are never conclusive.[/quote]
I thought I read somewhere on here that the song was based on "a movie about friendship."