[quote="manny2287"]I feel like I'm in the minority here but I really enjoyed OOParts and Horn again :\

However, they were the first full length pillows albums I listened to so I might be a bit biased(I'm fairly late to game here).

I also enjoyed Penalty Life. What is/was the forum's opinion on that album?[/quote]

I remember everyone used to hate on PL before these most recent albums which obviously have taken the cake for most as the peak of mediocrity. But I remember back in the day being a staunch defender of PL, and no one understood the greatness

I love Penalty Life. It was the newest pillows album when I first became a fan, so it holds a very special place in my heart.

Dead Stock Paradise, Lonesome Diamond, Freebee Honey, Terminal Heaven's Rock, I Know You, Moon Marguerite, Moletown Prisoner and the Turn Back-ified Boku wa Kakera are all top tier. Phantom Pain is pretty good, and I've always liked Super Trampoline School Kid.

[quote="MyFoot"][quote="manny2287"]I feel like I'm in the minority here but I really enjoyed OOParts and Horn again :\

However, they were the first full length pillows albums I listened to so I might be a bit biased(I'm fairly late to game here).

I also enjoyed Penalty Life. What is/was the forum's opinion on that album?[/quote]

I remember everyone used to hate on PL before these most recent albums which obviously have taken the cake for most as the peak of mediocrity. But I remember back in the day being a staunch defender of PL, and no one understood the greatness [/quote]
Yeah... I don't like to remember the days of IM around Penalty Life's release.
I loved the album back then and I still do. I never understood the hate toward that album.

As for Moondust, I haven't listened to it in a couple weeks. I have been too busy with other music (i.e. hunting for CDs while in Japan and scoring dozens for cheap each week). I'm not sure where Moondust will sit once it "sets in", but probably somewhere around on par or slightly better than the last 3.

Speaking of Penalty Life and hunting for CDs, I bought Terminal Heaven's Rock for 50 yen last weekend. Score!

When I first heard Penalty Life I was really disappointed because it was such a huge step down from TYMT. Even so, I really enjoyed the album and still do.

[quote="Son Goshin"][quote="sl4"]
Ooparts and Horn Again were released more than a year apart, and I can't for the life of me see any similarity between the songs or general mood of them. So I'm going to just repeat my assertion that you guys are all crazy [/quote]

I think you misunderstood what me and others are saying. It's not that the albums sonically sound the same... it's the fact that the entire structure of the album is the same. Yea, Primer Beat sounds way different from Doggie Howl. And Johnny Strobe sounds very different from Emerald City. But it's the same dynamics all the way through. Energetic opener. Crazy half-ass Engrish song. A couple up tempo songs. Some slower tempo/ballad songs. Crazy/goofy closer. It's all formulaic, and you could basically switch any song with its counterpart from the past four albums without it altering the makeup of the album itself. That's because, as I said, Sawao has released the same type of album five times in a row with the pillows, and Moondust is no exception.

Someone said it earlier, it's more like Sawao gathered a collection of songs, shuffled them, and threw them on a disc. There's no cohesion, outside of it being basically a set list for a live show. A lot of the individual songs are great, in fact I love several of them! But Sawao isn't reinventing anything lately, like when he experimented with some synthy sounds of TYMT, or focused on dueling guitars for Good Dreams, and so on and so on. Once you get the same things five albums in a row, it starts to taste a little... bland. Sawao just needs to get out of this weird comfort zone of his.[/quote]
I can't agree with this at all. The style and focus is unmistakably different between each album. Moondust is loaded with mellow and ballady songs, Pied Piper is full of in-your-face upbeat songs with a pop-punk influence, etc. The sequencing varies as well: Moondust spends over half its running time a continuous run of low-key ballady songs. Is that [i]really[/i] the same as the second half of Trial or Horn Again?

And I feel like the differences between individual songs [i]are[/i] relevant to this discussion, since you're talking about songs having counterparts on the other albums. Horn Again doesn't have anything that sounds like Your Order or Melody (thank god). Ooparts doesn't have anything that sounds like Nobody Knows What Blooms -- horn samples aside, Foxes is not a valid comparison, as the songs themselves couldn't be more different.

Beyond The Moon, Mochinushi, and Across The Metropolis are all ballads, but they're very differently structured and arranged. One has a grunge dynamic with soft verses and explosive choruses, one is an extended slow-burner with multiple climactic points, and one is a subdued low-key affair.

I hope to see Sawao and the rest of the band continue to branch out and explore further, but I feel like you guys are drastically oversimplifying things to find similarities, to the extent that the same argument could be turned against a lot of other pillows albums. "Energetic opener. Crazy half-ass Engrish song. A couple up tempo songs. Some slower tempo/ballad songs. Crazy/goofy closer." Sounds a lot like Smile, TYMT, or Happy Bivouac to me

Like I said. The only similarity I hear really is the perceived mediocrity of the last 3 or 4 albums. It has nothing to do with formulaic sequencing or whatever and more to do with the overall songs not being strong, imo.

I'm done raining on the parade but this is a different discussion, haha.

I would have zero problems with these albums if he would give up on singing in English. I feel like stuff like revival could be listenable were it not for the lyrics. He used to have his brother help him write the English lyrics but as he is no longer doing this the quality has gone down from the days of Subhuman and Advice.

sl4 said everything I wanted to! Thanks.

[quote="sl4"]You guys are drastically oversimplifying things to find similarities, to the extent that the same argument could be turned against a lot of other pillows albums. "Energetic opener. Crazy half-ass Engrish song. A couple up tempo songs. Some slower tempo/ballad songs. Crazy/goofy closer." Sounds a lot like Smile, TYMT, or Happy Bivouac to me [/quote]

"Music analysis" on IM in a nutshell right here, lol.

I don't know if anyone else said it, but the biggest similarity between the two is they both are just...not good.

[quote="MyFoot"]I don't know if anyone else said it, but the biggest similarity between the two is they both are just...not good. [/quote]
*applause*

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"][quote="MyFoot"]I don't know if anyone else said it, but the biggest similarity between the two is they both are just...not good. [/quote]
*applause*[/quote]
"It's bad because I don't like it! Why doesn't everyone else understand how bad it is?! I [i]don't like it!![/i]"

[quote="sl4"]"It's bad because I don't like it!"[/quote]

Works for me. *shrug*

I envy you people who can get off on (what I and many other Busters consider to be) sub-par pillows music.

[quote="sl4"][quote="Lesser_Hamster"][quote="MyFoot"]I don't know if anyone else said it, but the biggest similarity between the two is they both are just...not good. [/quote]
*applause*[/quote]
"It's bad because I don't like it! Why doesn't everyone else understand how bad it is?! I [i]don't like it!![/i]"[/quote]



That was pretty much tongue in cheek, but if I'm being honest...

I love music. I'm all about taste being subjective and if people like Horn Again and Ooparts, well, you're wrong (sorry, tongue in cheek again, can't help myself!), but that's fine. It's hard to tell, however, if sometimes people are actually being subjective, or are just fellating their favorite artists.

There is no question, I hope, in most pillows fan's mind, that Horn Again and Ooparts are not quality pillows tracks. There are some fine songs on there. Some are very catchy, some musically good. But for the band that gave me masterpieces such as Strange Chameleon, Hybrid Rainbow, Thank You My Twilight, even barring all of the god-tier music from their early days (cause they're officially over their jazzy phase, and there's no hope of songs on that level anymore as opposed to some other greats which they are completely capable of still releasing). For that band, to give me songs like what's on HA/OO, hell even the best tracks on these albums...they don't hold a candle to the classic pillows tracks. There are good songs for sure, but they are not great albums for the band 'the pillows'.

It's a shame really. Seeing the Do You Remember blu-ray reminded me that these old dudes can still rock the fuck out. They are entirely capable of creating and releasing great music. It could be (and probably is) entirely the fault of Avex tracks. But that doesn't change the fact..."opinion"...that it is not good.

YOUR ORDER > ALL OF LIVING FIELD.

PROVE ME WRONG.