It sure was a hard decision to choose a particular band for my very first music review of ever expanding Jrock and Jpop scene, but the first band that came to my mind at the time was Ellegarden. I started listening to Japanese bands shortly after I started watching Anime years ago, and since then I've always been a fan. In punk rock genre, at least for as of yet, no other band out there in Japan can reach the level of this band. The saddest part about Ellegarden was, by the time I found out about them they had already been on hiatus for months. After almost 6 years, even to this day I hope they reunite soon in the future. The good part is that they released 5 albums while they were together and trust me, if you like punk rock or even rock for the matter, give'em a try.
Note: Each album has a favorite song of my choice, click on it to listen ;)
It felt so sad when I picked up this album knowing that this was their last gem for a while (long long while by now). As the name suggests, it definitely has 11 fire crackers (14 if you have deluxe edition like I have). This is by far their second best album next to Bring Your Boards!! And having to choose just one favorite from this album was the hardest decision of all.
Note: Each album has a favorite song of my choice, click on it to listen ;)
Band Members:
- Takeshi Hosomi (細美 武士 ) – vocalist, rhythm guitarist
- Shin’ichi Ubukata (生形 真一) – lead guitarist, backing vocals
- Yuichi Takada (高田 雄一) – bassist, backing vocals
- Hirotaka Takahashi (高橋 宏貴) – drummer, backing vocals
So moving on from album to album:
Don't Trust Anyone But Us (2002)
Most surprising thing I noticed about this band was the influence this band had from bands like Blink-182, Sum 41 etc. The vocalist, Hasomi is one of my all time favorite punk rock vocalist. If someone listens to this band, having no knowledge about where they are from whatsoever, the very first conclusion they'll come to is that they're American. Thanks to Hasomi's English lyrics & american accent he picked up while he was working in America! This was their debut album and though it might seem a little different compared to their other albums, this was merely their base from where they evolved. The album as a whole has so many awesome songs that it was hard to choose just one favorite. This Album is definitely one of their best album along side Bring Your Boards!! and Eleven Fire Crackers.
- Overall Score: 9/10
- Favorite song: "Lonesome"
Most surprising thing I noticed about this band was the influence this band had from bands like Blink-182, Sum 41 etc. The vocalist, Hasomi is one of my all time favorite punk rock vocalist. If someone listens to this band, having no knowledge about where they are from whatsoever, the very first conclusion they'll come to is that they're American. Thanks to Hasomi's English lyrics & american accent he picked up while he was working in America! This was their debut album and though it might seem a little different compared to their other albums, this was merely their base from where they evolved. The album as a whole has so many awesome songs that it was hard to choose just one favorite. This Album is definitely one of their best album along side Bring Your Boards!! and Eleven Fire Crackers.Bring Your Boards!! (2003)
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| I love this Album art |
So moving on to my all time favorite album by this band! This album as a whole sets out the this band as a complete punk-rock band with catchy lyrics, awesome guitar riffs and bad-ass drumming. This is also the album in which Hasomi (vocalist) implements more of combination of English and Japanese lyrics. The album also slightly goes into hard-rock genre to keep variation in some songs but it only makes it better!
This is the album from where the band started to mature in both lyrically and musically. It doesn't really mean that they got worse but they pretty much became more of a mainstream band, in a good way. Overall the band holds up to their reputation of having catchy and awesome songs like previous albums but compared to previous two it falls short. Nonetheless it is a really good album.
- Overall Score: 8.5/10
- Favorite song: "Supernova"
Riot on the Grill (2005)
Definitely better than Pepperoni Quattro as a whole. Except for one or two songs, this album was nearly perfect. The lyrics are a lot deeper than the ones in previous albums. This was also when the band was getting to their peak, both popularity and sales wise. Some of the songs in this album can very well be classified as one of their very best. We also got songs like "Missing" which has some experimental tones and progressions, again its executed well. It's hard to choose a favorite song here again.
- Overall Score: 9/10
- Favorite song: "Niji"
Eleven Fire Cracker (2006)
It felt so sad when I picked up this album knowing that this was their last gem for a while (long long while by now). As the name suggests, it definitely has 11 fire crackers (14 if you have deluxe edition like I have). This is by far their second best album next to Bring Your Boards!! And having to choose just one favorite from this album was the hardest decision of all.- Overall Score: 9/10
- Favorite song: "Space Sonic"
The best part about this band as whole is that they had chemistry. Each song is unique and won't sound similar to any of their other songs and that takes a lot of creativity and song writing talent that this band had. The band announced their hiatus in 2008 after creative differences between band members and went on to form solo projects, such as; the vocalist started a band called The Hiatus and lead guitarist, Shin’ichi Ubukata formed Nothing Carved in Stone both of which I plan to cover in future! For a superb punk rock band who had a vocalist with a ideal voice and american accent to come out from Japan is rare. By now there might be many similar bands but this band set out a benchmark for every other punk-rock bands to follow.
In the review above I only chose one song from each album as my favorite to give an example how the band sounds like but I would suggest to check out their other songs as well and their live videos cause they were awesome live! Might sound bizarre to some but I really consider them as one of the best Punk-Rock bands out there in the world. Thank you for reading this music review, have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Thoughts? let me know in the comments below.
In the review above I only chose one song from each album as my favorite to give an example how the band sounds like but I would suggest to check out their other songs as well and their live videos cause they were awesome live! Might sound bizarre to some but I really consider them as one of the best Punk-Rock bands out there in the world. Thank you for reading this music review, have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Thoughts? let me know in the comments below.
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