Yeah, he mentions it in the Ongaku to Hito interview I'm planning to translate when I get around to it, haha.

...along with those darn lyrics. D;

[quote="MyFoot"]That was awesome!^

I never knew that about Hermit...[/quote]

Who would've guessed?

[quote="Marekenshin"]Yeah, he mentions it in the Ongaku to Hito interview I'm planning to translate when I get around to it, haha.

...along with those darn lyrics. D;[/quote]

I was about to say that i could've recalled Sawao mentioning it in a magazine interview.

Picked up my copy this morning at the post office. =D

One of the guitar... bits (I don't know what else to call it) in 'No surrender' sounds like it's straight from one of the noodles' songs - I think the first track from [i]Go! delicious go![/i] but don't have the CD handy. And the solo reminds me of... some other song but I don't know what, it's bugging me. o_o

The No Surrender solo is pretty close to the Go Go Jupiter solo!

[quote="terra"]One of the guitar... bits (I don't know what else to call it) in 'No surrender' sounds like it's straight from one of the noodles' songs[/quote]

RED BUNNY, good call. Pretty damn similar, yeah.

On another note...

"-PIPE PIPER
...The story took place in long time ago, whoever broke the promise was taken away by the magic (?) whistle…So what I wanted this album to mean that I'm going to take people to the better world with my rock'n' roll music!"

This may have been mentioned before...but there's a significant part of the story Sawao isn't mentioning:

[quote="Wikipedia"]While the inhabitants were in church, he played his pipe again, this time attracting the children of Hamelin. One hundred and thirty boys and girls followed him out of the town, where they were [b]lured into a cave and never seen again[/b]. Depending on the version, at most two children remained behind (one of whom was lame and could not follow quickly enough, the other one was deaf and followed the other children out of curiosity) who informed the villagers of what had happened when they came out of the church.

Other versions (but not the traditional ones) claim that the Piper lured the children into the river and [b]let them drown like the rats [/b]or led the children to a cave on Köppen Hill (outside of Hamelin) and returned them after payment or that he returned the children after the villagers paid several times the original amount of gold.[/quote]

Oh Sawao...

I'm a little bummed out because no one has uploaded the dvd extras yet.

Finally got my copy in the mail as well this morning, and I'm just loving this album so far. While it's without a doubt better than WUx3, I'm not quite sure yet if I like it better than My Foot. More listening will tell. But anyways, here's my thoughts on Pied Piper:

1. Pied Piper- 7/10
Decent song, the intro is of course out there and the transition kind of shocks you.

2. New Animal- 9/10
Loved it from the miute I heard it. And just like Sawao, I knew this song was going to be awesome once I heard the intro.

3. No Surrender- 8.5/10
This song sounds like an instant classic, it really has that "pillows" feel to it. Good solo, and great to hear Sato and the others getting some backing vocals.

4. Last Holiday- 8/10
Immediately screamed "Bran New Love Song" as SOON as it started. I wouldn't put it on One Life's level, but it's pretty damn good. I'll have more insight on it once I listen to it more.

5. Tokyo Zombie- 8/10
Excellent instrumental, the change half way through the track sounds somewhat uncharacteristic of the pillows', but that may be why I love it so much. Better than Paper Triangle and TWP though? No way, but still, great instrumental

6. Across the metropolis- 7/10
Kind of disappointed they had to put this song on here, rather would have heard Mr. Droopy in it's place. But it's another mellow track and I love The Beatles feel to it.

7. Purple Apple- 7.5/10
I friggin love the chorus, it's just rocks! The verses leave a little bit to be desired, but all in all a pretty rocking tune.

8. Tokyo Bambi- 7/10
It's grown on me since the single came out. Still not one of my favorite tracks on here, but I've come to love the horn section and the crazy little riff before the chorus.

9. Ladybird girl- 6/10
Weakest track on the album. Again, why is this on here? I thought it was going to go the way of Tiny Boat and just not appear on an album.

10. That's a wonderful world (song for Hermit)- 9/10
This song really surprised me, it's starts off soft with Sawao's voice asking, "Do you remember?" And then the song just really gets going, and has a great beat to it. Pretty decent solo in there too, and I really can't wait to see the translated lyrics for this song.

11. Poison Rock 'n' Roll- 8/10
This song closes out the album pefectly, I don't get why a lot of people don't like this song as much. The bass line really reminds me of Stand Up and Go, which I really like. The lyrics are good too, seems like Sawao really doesn't care if you don't like his music or not. He's making and playing his music for the people that do want to listen

12. Texan Daily Life- 6.5/10
Nice little song, nothing too special, but hey I'll take it for what it's worth.

So overall, I think this a very well made album. I just wish they could've put the actual tracklist together better. Like maybe instead of Ladybird Girl you put on Voice or Bite Me which would have fit on very wel on this album. And then maybe switch the two Dohautsen songs since Finger Post deserves to be on an album! But still, very good album. Right now I rank it as my 7th favorite album behind My Foot and then TYMT. But like I said, it could swap spots with My Foot, don't know yet though. But I hope Sawao decides to come back as soon as they can so I can rock out to these awesome songs!

[quote="Son Goshin"]
4. Last Holiday- 8/10
Immediately screamed "Bran New Love Song" as SOON as it started. I wouldn't put it on One Life's level, but it's pretty damn good. I'll have more insight on it once I listen to it more.[/quote]

Thank you, I thought I was the only one. It really feels similar, except i like "bran-new love song" a lot more, even though I don't like to compare the songs much.

[quote="Son Goshin"]11. Poison Rock 'n' Roll- 8/10
The lyrics are good too, seems like Sawao really doesn't care if you don't like his music or not. He's making and playing his music for the people that do want to listen
[/quote]

That's what I got from the song lyrics and his description.

I liked the english songs. it had been a while since we last got an english song but I thought Mr.Droopy, Purple Apple, and POISON ROCK'N'ROLL were pretty good.

[b]DAMN [/b]Microsoft and their refusal to add unicode / asian character support to the Zune. Anyway. I don't do these scale things often so I usually preface it by saying I don't do the 10-a-minute thing so a 6 doesn't mean "sucks" it means "okay just not great."

Pied Piper - 7.5/10 - Good opening track, I love the kind of "off" sound it has.
New Animal - 7.5/10 - Still great
No Surrender - 8.5/10 - Been stuck in my head a lot, very straightforward kickassery
Last Holiday - 10/10 - My favorite pillows song in many, many years, beyond awesome
Tokyo Zombie - 6/10 - For about half the song the guitars sort of clash for me, but it's great when it picks up
Across the Metropolis - 8/10 - Good slow song to break stuff up, glad to see it on the album
Purple Apple - 6/10 - Goes from awesome, to weird, to awesome, to weird... don't know
Tokyo Bambi - 8/10 - Just plain upbeat and fun
Ladybird Girl - 6.5/10 - Okay song but lacking some oomph to push it over the edge
That's a wonderful world - 7/10 - Good but nothing spectacular
Poison Rock'n'Roll - 8.5/10 - Great closing song, loud and clashy, just how I like it

Pied Piper (2008) - 7.5/10

I think the fact that I had already heard half of this one pretty thoroughly before the CD was in my hands affects my opinion of it a bit, LBG and NA may have been a little more "woah, badass" if I hadn't heard them a thousand times before, but such is life when you follow a band's singles.

I [i]love [/i]the sound the album has. This new direction they seem to be heading in is going to kick ass, hopefully they stick with it. Overall, however, I think I liked Wake Up x3 a bit better as a whole album.

Was anyone disappointed by the cello in Last Holiday? I applaud the pillows for the idea, but it was just mixed in so quietly, the added benefit could have been a lot more. I think if they really centered the song around the cello more, and toned down the distortion the guitars, they'd have a stronger song on their hands. Still liked it, but reminded me of Vanilla Coke. If you're gonna go for it, go for it hard.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]Was anyone disappointed by the cello in Last Holiday? I applaud the pillows for the idea, but it was just mixed in so quietly, the added benefit could have been a lot more. I think if they really centered the song around the cello more, and toned down the distortion the guitars, they'd have a stronger song on their hands. Still liked it, but reminded me of Vanilla Coke. If you're gonna go for it, go for it hard.[/quote]

That's one thing I also noticed. Also didn't like how it just kinda... ends in a weird way.

There was a cello in Last Holiday?

Yes.

And I'd up the bonus DVD stuff, but I only have them as IFOs right now, because I can't find a program to reliably convert them to AVI (it keeps cutting off the edges).

[quote="supertrampolineschoolkid"]There was a cello in Last Holiday?[/quote]

You didn't hear it? It was very prominent in certain parts of the song.