Kra - Joker's Kingdom

[Yadora 32]

This is Kra's latest album, and personally I absolutely adore it. I
wrote a review for it right after I got the album, so I'll just paste
that one here.

 

1. Clown's parade

This is just an instrumental intro song, but it's extremely catchy and

pulls you into the album right away. It starts with marching drums, and
then a very circus-like melody kicks in. Kra really seems to have a
talent for making intro songs, GURICO's intro was also amazing. Even
though it's just an intro song, I consider still consider it an
extremely good, worthy song.

 

2. Alice

This was sort of the main song, the one that was previewed all the time

to promote the album. So I'd heard it a few times already in varying
qualities before hearing it on the album. It's honestly a great, typical
Kra song. It's cheerful but a little bit melancholic, and has a
memorable chorus. The piano parts and the part near the end where Keiyuu
talks instead of singing make it unique.

 

3. Bastard

Okay, so I have a weakness for cool bass lines, therefore this song

automatically wins. It's not just that though, this is a great upbeat
rock song. It's not unique, Kra has done this many times before, but
it's done well and... you know... that bass line... I also love the
guitar solo in this song, and I don't usually like guitar solos.

 

4. Kakusei Distortion

This was a single, released September last year if I remember correctly.

At that time I really loved this song and I still do. It's hard to
review because I've listened to it so many times now, but basically it's
an awesome upbeat song with a great message. It makes me want to jump
around, and that's exactly the intention of the song. I'm also impressed
at how Keiyuu is kind of yelling half of the time, but he still seems
to have good control over his voice. 

 

5. Tokoyo no Kimi

Okay, I freaked out (in a good way) when this song started. It starts

with a jazzy piano solo, I almost thought it was going to be a really
slow dramatic jazz song or something, but then the bass and drums kick
in and it becomes, well, a Kra song. There's still some prominent piano
parts though. While it's upbeat, there is a dramatic-kind of feeling in
the way the chorus is sung ... Keiyuu's voice in the chorus is
absolutely beautiful in the chorus.

 

ALSO THAT BASS SOLO OMG

 

6. Resistance

Okay I just want to start out by saying this song reminds me so much of

Muse. I never expected to think a Kra song sounds like Muse, but it's
just... the mood is exactly the same. Keiyuu uses his 'rough voice' in
this song, and while I can't say he sounds sexy (I'm sorry Keiyuu is
adorable no matter what he does), it really fits the song. Besides that,
it's a real rock song, loads of heavy guitar riffs and yelling and so
on. Oh, and matching the title, it really has a feeling of revolution/
protest.

 

7. Regret

After Resistance this song is a bit calmer, and Keiyuu's normal voice is

back. The most memorable thing about this song is the guitar during the
intro and outro, even thought it's a bit repetitive. The guitar also
makes some interesting sounds during the chorus, but for some reason
its volume is very low and you can hardly hear it over Keiyuu's voice.
This is a good song, but I don't have much more to say about it.

 

8. Honne

This is the second single song on this album (by the way, this is the

regular version I'm listening to, the limited edition doesn't have
Kakusei Distortion or Honne). So once again, it's hard to review because
it was released a while ago and I've heard it so many times now.
Basically, I find the first part of this song a bit boring, but after
the BASS SOLO and guitar solo and the bridge there's a piano a capella
part and it breaks my heart a little bit every time, and the chorus
after that is so empowering for some reason. 

 

9. Joker

Yeah! This song is very jazzy and danceable, exactly how I like my Kra

songs. The bass in this song is sexy (even more than usual), and for
once the guitar is not all over the place but actually pretty plain
(besides the solo of course). The vocals are really cool too, but the
'Baaaka' part at the end of the first chorus always makes me laugh for
some reason.  I adore this song, maybe it should have been the main song
used for promotion instead of Alice. Out of the entire album, I think
this is the song I'm going to listen to the most. I can already imagine
myself thinking ' Oh, I want to listen to that Joker song now'.

 

10. Hoshi no Sakyuu

A bit like Regret, this is a good song, but it's a pretty typical Kra song and there
isn't much to say about it. It's a bit sad and dramatic but still very upbeat.
The verses are a bit plain (musically, that is, lyrically is another story)
but the chorus is quite memorable.

 

11. SMLT

Okay this song is all over the place, but the best way the describe it

would be 'playful'. Both the verses and chorus are great, and then
there's that weird chipmunk voice near the end... really creepy when
you're blasting the song through your headphones. There's also the sound
of bells chiming throughout the song, which is unusual but pretty
cool.  I'm not going to start about the lyrics...

 

12. Utopia

This is a great ending song, with harmonica parts and acoustic guitar

and this kind of starry night, campfire feeling. I think this is the
only song that could be considered calm, but the drums are a bit too
loud for that probably. Anyway, it's a good song to end the album.

 

---

 

This album is very typically Kra, but it brings enough variety and
exciting songs. Kra has existed for 11 years now,
and they're a PSC band, so I keep expecting them to become boring and
make generic pop-rock-visual kei-whatever, but they didn't!  

 

I'd give this album a 9/10.

So has anyone else listened to it? What are your thoughts?

[Augie1995 325]

I'm not going to do a song by song review of this album but I finally got a good quality copy of the album and finally got to give it a good listen.

 

I loved their single Honne and for some reason skipped their single Kakusei Distortion. I had no idea what I was getting myself into here. When they released their first album with Taizo in the line-up, I was really happy to hear some nostalgic Zoro-riffs and solos mixed in with Kra's jazzy, happy songs. Naru to Torute (I think that's its name) had me hooked for a while and then completely lost me. However, the opposite happened with Joker's Kingdom.

 

I thought all the songs on here were excellent. Some very jazzy songs like Tokoyo no Kimi, Regret, there were some very rock, aggressive songs like Resistance, SMLT. There were also some lovely ballads such as Hoshi no Sakyuu and my favorite song off the album, Utopia.

 

I was hoping for some more ZORO nostalgic things on here from Taizo but the only things I can find so far are on the single tracks Honne and Kakusei Distortion, but other than that, this album was a really good album and I absolutely love it. I didn't find a single song on here to be less than great. Can't wait to hear some new stuff from Kra soon.