doombox

I like how the short lists are at the top and by the time you get to Cat's list it's just like... are you sure this is the shortest month of the year? >_>; But seriously, there is so much here I still need to check it. It's insane. I need like a week between February and March to catch up. That new Wagakki Band tho. ♥ And I feel like I should check out new Kanon Wakeshima, because I didn't like her old stuff and the songs here sound like a practically entirely new artist. If the rest of CICADA's stuff sounds like this, combined with Silent Siren's album I am more than happy to overdose on kawaii kei this month. I need it. Also, new X4 fan right here. I know beni said kpop influence, but I was not prepared. That is spot on. And I am diggin' it. I've seen Eastern Youth's name around but I never checked them out until this and I also need them in my life. Fffffff how did I not listen to them before now? You had me at 'troll kei', tbh.

I haven't cared about A9 in a while, but this may be worth getting back into them if they maintain this quality.

UPDATED LIST 2015.02.28! Upcoming theme: Cover songs Completed themes: Winter/Christmas Male & Female Vocalists Female Vocalists Soundtrack music Alphabetical Chill Themes still under consideration: 80s music 90s music Visual Kei only International/Non-Japanese only Kpop only Female Vocalist p.2 Comedy Dedications Also this is a 1200th post party.

I'm down for Covers. I also brought up maybe doing Comedy this week in last weekend's session. And I'll update that list with the dedications theme too, since that's a great idea!

I'm stupid and thought today was already saturday! Oops! LOL I totally meant if we are having a theme on sunday? XD

Will there be a theme tomorrow or general ffa?

LOL I'd love to make one but I can't get the site to work for me.

Aw, take care Aika and feel better soon.

2005 fangirl me had a little whoop over Rame and San in the same band, but then I remembered how much I don't really like this project.

Artist: Lycaon Album: Camera Obscura Score: With a title like Camera Obscura, lots of interesting takes of what the concept would mean for this album came to mind. Sadly, from the first track it was apparent Lycaon went for the most direct translation. I was more than a little disheartened. The first half of this album did very little to raise my spirits, either. First and foremost, the levels in the mix and production are horrific. It's muddy, discordant, and downright unbearable in parts. Case in point, "Dark Night" has obnoxious levels of echo that clash with the high end string backing tracks. It's so bad I can barely follow any of the other instruments in the song until about half way through. I've heard a better mix come out of a 4 track recorder in a teenager's basement. And while "Dark Night" is the worst offender, it's got company with most of this album suffering the same fate. "追憶 " has a crunchy guitar riff that should be ripping this album wide open, but instead I had to fight through mass amounts of reverb effects to hear just about anything. "Liar", "君を壊すガラスの衝動 ", "Rouge", "ILLUSION", and "メランコリック" are snooze-fests full of recycled garbage that go nowhere and are so painfully bland it hurt to listen to them, yet I still can't find traits to distinguish any of the songs from each other after the album is over. The lack of originality for most of this album is jarring, and when it does have something interesting happening it's suffocated by cheap production. "悪女の微笑 " is in a battle for my favorite Camera Obscura song next to "ジプシー". And partially because its recording quality is leagues above the rest of the album. You can hear every instrument clearly and no one thing is eclipsing anything else. It's a decent song and the only one that made me even think about headbanging along to it. "馬鹿ね。" , while not as strong in composition, shares the better production value with the other singles. I could do without the chorus driving the song into the ground by the end. It's a fun chorus to start with, but in this case less would have been more. Then there's songs like "marionette" and "アネモネ" that found a way to survive in the pit of bad recordings. Something about both songs is stripped down and less complicated than the others so they end up better for it and loads more memorable. I stopped checking for this band some years ago, around their 2009 release Chains of collar, because their nasally vocalist doesn't sit well with me. His voice is like a hybrid of Hakuei's (Penicillin) vocal pitch and the nasal tone of Ryutaro (Plastic Tree) without the edge or control of either. And this album makes me that much more grateful I didn't waste my time keeping up with Lycaon. This is, astoundingly, a step down from what they were even back then. Someone should have cut out all of these asinine SEs and saved the money to have the album mastered by a better studio engineer. I am usually more forgiving of visual indie bands for lo-fi sounding works, but this is not Lycaon's first album. This is 3 albums in; this is a band familiar with how a music studio works for the last seven years. And what makes it so annoying is there are select songs on this album that have better production. So why not all?

I'mma have to get my hands on Cage somehow.

I'm curious too. I am hoping they'll mix it up a little more since last time felt more like a concept piece with the songs in each language.

Ooooh, that's cool.

I really love gift, forth wall, and zeitgeist. I don't know why rhapsody in beauty hasn't clicked for me yet. But I do plan on revisiting it a few more times to see if that will change. Like indigo, there are some albums that take a few listens (or even a few years) to finally connect. Also, I always felt like Sho has a very muse-like quality. He's kind of contagious if you dig his vibe. And I can see him and Kobayashi having a kind of artist/muse symbiotic friendship

It seems a like a lot of people in general are having health problems lately. It's always sad to hear about it. u_u

Damn this song is a beast. So hyped rn!

I've been following the bassist and basically every band he's in does this. But I still want this cd. Lol

I definitely feel the void their Japanese songs left too, but they've been really public about this album's purpose being to fulfill their dream to sound like their Western idols, and I think this is the direction they want to continue in for the time being. That's why they had an American producer co-write it. As far as I know this is the first time they've had a co-writer as well? But I'm really glad to hear the album is growing on you. It took me a couple of spins to get into it as well. Edit: All the singles and "Stuck in the Middle" have Japanese parts. I thought you meant songs entirely in Japanese. oops!

http://i59.tinypic.com/2cz7zpx.jpg" width="200" /> Artist: ONE OK ROCK Album: 35xxxv Score: With a little help from their friends, this album is more than just OK. The "3xxxv5" intro SE isn't anything particularly special. The only thing remarkable about it is the slight notes of electronics sprinkled in. This is a new addition in ONE OK ROCK's repertoire for 35xxxv and important if you're not fond of the bleep bloop trend in mainstream music, because it's sprinkled all throughout this album. As the hype train rolls into the station, "Take me to the top" welcomes you with a punch to the face. It slams into your eardrums abruptly and screams this isn't going to be like any ONE OK ROCK album you've heard before. If you're already a fan of ONE OK ROCK, the first thing to catch your attention will be the giant jump up in English skills. Working with producer and album co-writer John Feldmann - whose voice can be heard seconds before the song starts as he chimes in, "...hold on, that's exactly what I'm talking about," - has done wonders for vocalist Taka and taken him well out of 'Engrish' territory where he's unfortunately been treading water for the last handful of albums. Their dream of attaining the sound of their American and European music idols has come to pass with the catchiness and content of "Take me to the top", along with the rest of the record, which is as good as anything you'd hear on American rock radio today. The band has thrown down the gauntlet with this high octane album opener. It houses just the right amounts of guitar phaser, tasteful autotune, and gang vocals to get your fist pumping mightily in the air. The album has its fill of heavy hitters. This includes not one, but two, Rurouni Kenshin movie themes: A main theme in "Mighty Long Fall", and endroll theme "Heartache", respectively. "Mighty Long Fall" works well as the all encompassing flagship song for 35xxxv. The EDM influence is heavy in drummer Tomoya's stuttering hi-hat during the verses and a spacey synth heavy bridge. "Heartache" sits against it back to back in the tracklist, which I'm sure is gut wrenching for the movie fans as it's quite a beautiful song. While it's stripped down to acoustics for the first half it's not a typical ONE OK ROCK ballad, it branches out bigger and grander towards the end than their previous works with orchestral and electronic accompaniment. It's easy to imagine it bringing the theater audience to tears. The thirds single from the album, "Cry Out," rounds out the promotional tracks that carry the brunt of this album stylistically. It's a nice mid-tempo number, but that is also a double edged sword that aids it in remaining the least memorable of the three. After this, it feels as if the tracks ping pong back and forth between the more classic ONE OK ROCK feeling and the songs that have John Feldmann's stronger influence in them. And it doesn't always sit 100% within the bands musical abilities, unfortunately. Feldmann is famous for being the vocalist/guitarist for the band Goldfinger, producer and co-writer for albums by: Sleeping With Sirens, Papa Roach, Hilary Duff, Panic at the Disco, Ashlee Simpson, and Good Charlotte, among a long list of others. "Cry Out" and "Mighty Long Fall" sandwich the less dynamic and more straight forward "Suddenly", which is one of the weaker songs on the album and justifiably needed the stronger songs to help keep things moving. The rebellious punk inspired "Memories" is situated directly between two down-tempo tracks, "Heartache" and the dismal Cool Fool Rock theme "Decision". The latter felt as if it also was written with the intention to have a punk flavor, judging by some of the guitar transitions in the chorus, but were toned down to almost a Nickelback "Someday" vibe... which makes every fiber of my being cringe in unison. It's already horribly overdone and too trite for a band as young as ONE OK ROCK. I know the boys wanted North American mainstream appeal, but this is not the way. However, for every boring and stale decision made in the previous song, they absolutely make up for with the Kellin Quinn (vocalist for Sleeping With Sirens) feature track, "Paper Planes". Kellin, being the only guest vocalist I can remember in ONE OK ROCK history, helps this song stand out. But it's such a huge departure from the signature ONE OK ROCK sound that it demands an intense fan reaction of immediate love or vehement despise. "Paper Planes" is a party starter with loads of electronic drums. The guitars get pushed back in the mix as to not compete with the dual vocalists, but the riffs are still bouncy and just as catchy as anything the vocals have going on. One major complaint is Kellin's voice is higher than Taka's, and thusly cuts across more in the mix. It's hard to tell if this was intentional or not, but Taka joins Toru with the guitars in the back seat of this song. In spite of that, the song is so out of left field that it's hard pressed not to be the most memorable earworm on 35xxxv and possibly ONE OK ROCK's entire discography so far. It's just a pity Taka's voice isn't the one that's going to be stuck in my head for weeks with this track. The tail end of this album brings back more of that old ONE OK ROCK feeling. The upbeat songs are reminiscent of Nicheシンドローム, and slower ballads bring to mind the more recent 人生×僕＝ which ONE OK ROCKers should enjoy, though, with upgraded language pronunciation and more straight forward lyrics. I believe it was smart on the bands part not to alienate their core fanbase entirely with this album. But it was certainly a blast to hear all the new elements that they included, giving Feldmann so much free reign and making a lot of these new elements feel like their natural progression. It may be hard hearing that this is the album the band has always intended to create once they gained the ability to do so, but I think the band is on the right path to making a footprint in the global market. And with the new friends made on recent tours, they have the right connections to take them wherever they want to go next. It's clear they aren't letting anything stop them now. This is the new and improved ONE OK ROCK and they're holding nothing back.

That is a great question. I know before last.fm my library was a hot mess.

I do the same. Keep the original kanji titles, and sort it as the romanized name.