Japanese rock duo makes waves with first stateside release
Dustin Perry | Sagamihara, Japan | 06/01/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Seeing "This is Love Psychedelico," the sorta-self-titled debut U.S. album from the best Japanese rock band working today, finally for sale on American shelves is a bittersweet experience for me. On one hand, I couldn't be more thrilled that a band I have been following feverishly since 2000 is finally getting their big chance to gain a stateside following. On the other hand, as the band develops a bigger fan base here and becomes more widely recognized, I'll no longer have a trump card when playing "Name Your Favorite Obscure Band That No One Else Knows About" with my fellow music-nerd friends.
"This is Love Psychedelico" is a compilation of 13 hand-selected tracks from the band's first three studio albums ("The Greatest Hits," "Love Psychedelic Orchestra" and "Love Psychedelico III"). The title makes it obvious, but the album is meant to serve as an introduction to the band for American listeners who may be leery of any music not sung in their native tongue. Yes, lead singer Kumi's lyrics are mostly in Japanese (with some English sprinkled throughout), but the music is so catchy that it doesn't matter.
Imagine taking the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and 60s-era Bob Dylan and mixing their sound with contemporary influences like Sheryl Crow, Natalie Merchant and Beck, and you'll have a good idea what you're in for: folk- and blues-infused rock with a modern edge. It's the perfect soundtrack to your summer.
There is not a single dud here. I'm not kidding -- it's nearly impossible not to like these songs. Guitarist Naoki Sato is a master of the instrument, able to switch from country-style acoustic picking in "These Days" to fuzzed-out punk styling of "O" with seemingly effortless ease. It's textbook blues and rock guitar, but Sato manages to make every song seem new and exciting.
Kumi's singing voice is a thing to behold. It's powerful yet soft -- a clear and natural timbre that is a refreshing alternative to the typical high-pitched wailing prevalent in most J-Pop idols and pre-adolescent bubblegum acts. Having spent a portion of her childhood growing up in San Francisco, Kumi has a better-than-average grasp of English than most foreign musicians and crafts each tune as sung poetry, blending both languages seamlessly rather than throwing in English words and phrases arbitrarily.
The track list for "This is Love Psychedelico" somewhat closely mirrors that of the band's official greatest-hits collection, "Early Times: The Best of Love Psychedelico," which means stateside listeners have access to a lot of the band's best songs without having to pay import prices. Hardcore Delico fans may quibble at the exclusion of some of their favorite tracks -- I, for example, would like to have seen "Life Goes On," "I Mean Love Me" and the band's excellent cover of the Beatles' "Help!" -- but this album isn't really for them. The 13 hand-picked (and re-mastered) tracks here provide a diverse look at the band's many styles and influences and showcase the duo's ability to skillfully filter them, wrap them in layers of spunky guitars and percussion, and turn them into something entirely new (and just as catchy).
Other highlights on the album include their first three singles, "Lady Madonna," Your Song" and "Last Smile," an amazing hat trick with which to start off one's career. "Last Smile" is six gorgeous minutes of romantic guitars and a soaring chorus that just begs to be sung (or hummed) along to. The sequencing on the album is not chronological, a refreshing choice that allows the uninitiated listener the chance to see how much Delico have evolved and morphed their own sound in the past eight years.
In recent years, there have been a few Japanese artists who have made a dent in the U.S. music scene. Here's hoping one more makes that ever-exclusive list."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1