CAPSULE - WAVE RUNNER

[Furik 832]

Here are my honest thoughts on the album.

C'mon, people. The capsule stans weren't really expecting this direction? Really? I knew Nakata was a hipster since I first listened to "Jumper".
I knew he was ahead of the trend and now, with this album, he's following the trend - and doing it right. "More! More! More!" and "PLAYER" were my long-night coming-off-of-drugs jams back in the day and I got a lot of my friends to listen to them. I knew this "EDM trend" scene was going to hit capsule sooner or later. It was just a matter of when.

When" Caps Lock" came out, I wasn't too surprised that he was heading in such a minimalist direction - especially after how simple "Stereo Worxxx" was perfected. However when the Wave Runner teasers and all that jazz came out, I knew that "Caps Lock" was merely just a concept album to ease their way into the Warner label. "Wave Runner" is their big break in the label - their massive monolith album.

It's pretty much a beast of an album. No lie. When I first heard "Feel Again", it was instant love. Toshiko is ever-so-present and is very pleasing due to her being somewhat absent in later releases (not completely). I knew this was released to please the capsule stans. What made it interesting is the break in the song - so beefy. So simple. Almost similar to Martin Garrix's "Animals". That is when I knew that the day has finally come - the day Nakata's hispter music has surfaced.

There's so many great songs on this album. 'Wave Runner' starts off with an appropriately self-titled track. It takes some cues from the intro track to "Fruits Clipper" and "Flash Back", I feel. However this time it feels more like an anthem - to prepare yourself for what this album has in store.

The album gracefully starts off with 'Another World'. Very somber at the beginning - with Toshiko very much present. It's not until after the verse when things get bumpin'. The chorus is, what the stans will consider, very American EDMish. At this point in my life I don't even care. Yeah it's been so overused the past 5 years that it's just natural - it feels like - to hear it on the radio, etc. However what makes this difference from all of that is that Nakata is doing it with care. He isn't whoring it out, plastering useless bloops and bloops, drum beats and whacky basslines like m-flo has done since their return.

Nakata has had this musical change in his mind since the release of "Flash Back" - I guarantee it. It's just so obvious. Like I said, it was only a matter of time.

There are some great tracks on here - obviously the singles "Another World" and "Feel Again". "Dreamin' Boy" is an incredible song. Toshiko sounds so good and there's the traditional capsule melody and synth you'd expect from earlier capsule. "Hero" is also another massive track. The beginning sounds like something that would've easily been on "Sugarless Girl". Also, "Depth". This is my first time hearing it. I know it was on some movie or game or something. The vocoder in this song MAKES IT. Yes.

Now the album isn't completely perfect. I might get hate for saying this but I can't really get into "Dancing Planet". I've heard it being compared to the likes of "Factory". I'm usually a fan of Nakata's instrumental work but I, for some reason, just can't dig this. I mean it's good. The production is top-notch and the drums and sound effects are incredible. It just feels a little out of place on the album. "Unrequited Love" is another weak song. It's just not as good as the other songs that Toshiko is present in. "Beyond the Sky" is also another weak instrumental track. I'm just not feeling it. I do love the PSO-ish vibe coming from it though.

I'm only on my second or third listen but I am very much pleased with the album. I can see myself listening to it for a while. People who are upset at their direction need to take a good hard look at their previous later works and ask yourself why. I am not a capsule stan at all. My life doesn't revolve aound eating and drinking capsule. I do, however, consider myself a big fan of them. I've purchased every album they've released since "More! More! More!" (thanks to MH for introducing me to them during that era). I've even gone along and purchased some of their back catalog too.

 

Nakata is a great producer and capsule would NOT be the same without Toshiko. The two are meant to be together with this group. However what i'm trying to say is that not much has changed with this album when comparing it to, say, "Player" or "World of Fantasy". At ALL. Sure, electronic music has evolved a little bit since then - with trap beats and trance like synths in choruses becoming the normal in modern EDM but capsule has not had that much of a drastic change. (Their major change in musical direction was when "Fruits Clipper" was released.) I just feel this album is just like anything else they've released since. It's still a solid album and people should be happy Toshiko is so present in it - compared to the stock vocals.

I still can't really give it a rating yet but if I could just come up with one off the top of my head, i'd say on a 1-5 scale, i'd give it a 3.5/5. 
Highlights: Another World, Dreamin'Boy, Hero, Feel Again, Depth

 

[Pretsy 1343]

I've gotta make this clear too since I am hella confused about Capsule's fanbase at the moment: did you guys really listen to the albums that preceded CAPS LOCK? Nakata just turned back and decided to carry on with his SW/WoF route, so I cannot see any logic behind fandom masses jumping on something I'd coin as "EDM hatewagon". If you are really being all anal about EDM, then good - you should have missed the hype train 4-5 years ago, kek (as Furik said already, Nakata had this in mind since the day he made FC)

 

Now to the topic:

 

ps. FB = Flash Back, SG = Sugarless Girl, M!M!M! = More!More!More!, WoF = World of Fantasy, SW = Stereo Worxxx, CL = Caps Lock

 

The content in general left me quite pleased - considering that I wasn't really fond of CAPS LOCK after trying to get over its obvious lack of replay value (my no. 1 issue in terms of CL). WR showcases a lot of features that made Capsule as loved as it was in our mostly electronica-appreciating masses since '07-'08:

 

- "Hero" screams out SG/FB-nostalgia - think of it as "Sound Of Silence" of our decade.

- "Unrequited Love" and "Dancing Planet" are very reminiscent of their "Player" counterparts - "The Music" and "Factory" respectively (and surprisingly much better)

- "Another World" and "Beyond the Sky" won't be out of place in "STEREO WORXXX" either.

-  The album in general shares highly similar traits from earlier electronica albums in terms of build (e.g. Player)

 

Not to mention that, as Furik pointed it out, Nakata really knows what he is doing (even he leaves most of us rather appalled in many cases, e.g. Perfume being a letdown lately). Be it the fact that he was perhaps a bit overenthusiastic when he plastered Knife Party drops and frills in "White as Snow", which resulted in unintended mishmash, or that most tracks might feel too "linear" compared to his wilder approaches in SW (e.g. "Feel Again"). 

 

Review writing in general is not really my cup of tea anymore, so let's summarize:

 

Pros:

- Familiarity, carefulness and orderliness of the content

- Certain decent bangers, e.g. Another World, Dreamin' Boy, Hero

- At least one "no-frills-all-serious song" (Depth) included (Pretsy's note: so it's not just "another club banger album")

 

Cons:

- Carefulness of the content (Nakata's a bit too careful though)

- Linearity (Feel Again, Unrequited Love)

- White As Snow might be as well the most pointless song here (no familiar Nakata traits + mishmash) :/

 

for now.