I don't know, guys. I'm not giving up on the pillows, but Ooparts is just not good. When I listen to it, it does not make me optimistic for the future. It's the first new release in five years that I didn't purchase(Good Dreams was a gift to me after their first US tour). These guys are capable of so much more, and we all know it. I don't usually believe in a label change affecting band's production, but nobody can deny the shift toward a more poppy sound after they were on avex for a year. The way that they are working that sound, at least now, just doesn't work for me.

I agree with Alpaca about Good Dreams. However, I'm kind of biased, as this was my first pillows album, and I've listened to it umpteen times. Still though, the album has a great sound that I would have been fine hearing for at least one more album. Then they got all of what was left of My Foot out of their systems during Wake up! x3. Pied Piper wasn't bad either, in fact, it made me more optimistic than I had been in a while. Tokyo Bambi, Ladybird girl, New Animal, Last Holiday...all great songs imo.

Ooparts just has no sticking power like the rest of those do. Heck, when Wake up! x3 came out, I was saying a lot of the same things. But I've warmed up to it a lot. I was listening to it just the other day, in fact.

[quote="Ashinow"]OOPARTS REVIEW*[/quote]

I don't want to be a pain but those are some low scores for the songs you "liked". Adding the presented numbers arrives us at 49/70 (70%), and you've indicated you didn't care for the other three songs, so that must mean they'd score well below those numbers and tank it even further. The numbers put your overall qualitative assessment of the album more in line with popular opinion, which I would approximate to be around 6/10 or maybe 5/10, and methinks that wasn't quite the intention of the review.

Judging from the numbers presented, and that you said you'd take it over Pied Piper and Horn Again, this leads me to believe that you [i]really[/i] dislike those two albums.

You don't have to elaborate if you don't want to, I'm just saying that in reading that, I was a bit confused trying to match up your opinions and judgements with a coherent metric.

[quote="A.Fish"]I don't know, guys. I'm not giving up on the pillows, but Ooparts is just not good. When I listen to it, it does not make me optimistic for the future.[/quote]

None of this post makes any sense, since you're writing it after Horn Again has come out. There's no need to speculate on the future when we already have the new album.

OK, I haven't heard the new one yet, and the reason I just went and wrote that was because A) there was a giant Ooparts review above it, B) I haven't been on IM with this kind of regularity since before the holidays, and C) I'm just dumb like that sometimes.

What I said still applies for my views, though, and it's partly because of it that I've been kind apathetic toward following the band recently.

[quote="Cloudy"]REVIEW OOPARTS REVIEW*[/quote]

Being rational, OOPARTS isn't all to remarkable. Especially when you compare it with earlier work.
You are right, that in total the album will be around 6/10 for me.

But when listening to it "in a vacuum", as if the other albums never existed, it is not bad.
If I should choose between "songs I like" and "songs I dislike", it would end up like this.

Songs I like:
[i]Dance with God, Lemon Drops, Foxes, Ame agare ni mita maboroshi, Johnny Strobe, Primer Beat. (Beyond the moon)[/i]
Songs I dislike:
[i]Your Order, Melody, LIFE SIZE LIFE, (Beyond the moon)[/i]

--> 6,5 out of the 10 songs, I do like.

Now if I take PP:

Songs I like:
[i]New Animal, Ladybird Girl, Purple Apple, That's A Wonderful World, Poison Rock'n'roll, (Tokyo Bambi)[/i]
Songs I dislike:
[i]Pied Piper, No Surrender, Last Holiday, Tokyo Zombie, Across The Metropolis, (Tokyo Bambi)[/i]

--> 5,5 out of the 11 songs, I do like.

Horn Again:

Songs I like:
Limp Tomorrow, Movement, Lilly My Sun, Sad Fad Love, Nobody Knows What Blooms, Brilliant Crown.
Songs I dislike:
Give Me Up!, Biography, Emerald City, Doggie Howl.

--> 6 out of the 10 songs, I do like.
[quote="Cloudy_One"]Judging from the numbers presented, and that you said you'd take it over Pied Piper and Horn Again, this leads me to believe that you [i]really[/i] dislike those two albums.[/quote]
As you can see, I don't really dislike PP and HA. Horn Again already starts to grow on me. Emerald City might be a grower and Doggie Howl doesn't sound so bad in the context of the album.

I never actually judged an album as a whole before.
I usually take each song apart. So if I like an album or not, it just depends on the sum of the songs I like.
I just lately began to listen to albums of the pillows as a whole.
If I should pick an album I genuinley like, it would be "White Incarnation". ("Living Field" and "Penalty life" are also pretty solid)

[size=90]*I, by no means, want to affront any of you by labeling songs "songs I dislike", while you may actually like them. Again: these are my thoughts and my feelings. Not yours.[/size]

That's cool, clears it up a bit.

Dear haters,

Fuck you.

Love,
Mare

Mare's drunk again

Ooparts is still bad.

Beyone the Moon is literally the worst song ever.

edit: removed "by the pillows"

Dance With God is the only song from this album I can listen to, because it's good live and I enjoy the solo. To this day I refuse to put Ooparts into my Pillows playlist, which even has the christmas tape in it.

Primer Beat and Foxes are the only two songs I listen to with any frequency. Lemon Drops is still OK. The rest of it fills me with rage. I wish I could say: "Oh yeah, looking back on it now, OOPARTS was actually an album of quality." But I can't. It's still a turd.

EDIT: ^ Dude, it just doesn't feel like Christmas without "Jingle Bells ga Kikoeru" for me. Lol, I love it. Do the pillows have any other Christmas songs?

I don't think so. I listen to New Years Eve on.... New Years Eve.

[quote="Spike"] I listen to New Years Eve on.... New Years Eve.[/quote]
Me too.

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"][quote="Spike"] I listen to New Years Eve on.... New Years Eve.[/quote]
Me too.[/quote]

Me three.