Source: Bounce.com
the brilliant green bassist and leader Okuda Shunsaku and singer Kawase Tomoko registered their marriage on Nov. 22, according to the band’s official site. Kawase left a statement on the site, saying she always thought she’d be married when she turned 28. The site also announced the marriage of guitarist Ryo Matsui.
Since its debut in 1998, the Brilliant Green’s bright and happy music has grown steadily harder and, at times, darker. In 2001, the band reached its apex with Los Angeles, a rocking album that demonstrated how aggressive the Japanese trio could get.
There were two directions the band could go after that: even darker, or back to lighter.
Singer Kawase Tomoko chose a third option — do a solo album of 80s retro new wave under the name Tommy February6.
When the band regrouped to record its fourth album in 2002, the Brilliant Green essentially started over again. The results: The Winter Album, the band’s most regressive album to date.
Everything that’s been done on a Brilliant Green album is done once again here: 60s-influenced, bouncy pop, orchestral flourishes, a haunting slow song here and there.
Some songs even sound like previous Brilliant Green works. “Forever to Me”? Try “Angel Song”. “Flowers”? Try “Nagai Tameiki no Yoo ni”.
On three tracks, the band uses drum machines instead of a live drummer. The backbeats on “Rainy Days Never Stay” feel more like latter-day Bonnie Pink, while the electric drums on “That Boy Waits For Me” show a Tommy February6 influence.
Aside from the drum machines, there’s nothing particularly distinctive about The Winter Album. By comparrison, it doesn’t even match Terra 2001 in terms of viscera.
That’s not to say the album is unpleasant.
The mix of rough guitars and backbeats on “Running So High” makes it the most adventurous track on the album. “Escape” possesses a mellow poignancy suitable as a concluding track. Strange effects and a string quartet give “The Night Has Plesant Time” a psychedelic tinge.
Even familiar-sounding tracks as “I’m Jus’ Lovin’ You” and “Holidays” are nice, tuneful fare.
Still, it’s hard to escape the impression that The Winter Album has been done before — and done better — by the same band.
It’s easy to gush over the Brilliant Green’s first two albums. The Brilliant Green and Terra 2001 are both very competent albums, sporting solid songwriting and very spirited performances.
But after a while, the shiny happy jangle pop of “BuriGuri” doesn’t allow a listener to really rock out.
The trio’s third album, Los Angeles, is quite a proverbial kick in the arse.
The band sounds alternately angry and haunted on this album, even when they attempt to retain the brightness of their first two works. But that louder, darker sound works.
“The Lucky Star” starts off quietly with a heavily distorted vocal, then bursts into a roar. “Yeah I Want You Baby” continues that outburst with some of the grungiest guitars the group has ever produced.
“Sayonara Summer is Over” and “Falling Star in Your Eye” take baby steps back to the lighter BuriGuri of the past, but other tracks such as the reverb-drenched “Hidoi Ame” and the solemn “Kuroi Tsubasa” ground the band in its beautiful blue funk.
Los Angeles concludes with “I can hold you hand, baby,” a blues-y, atmospheric track worthy of Mazzy Star.
It’s as if something happened to The Brilliant Green since it’s last album to give the world the sonic equivalent of an upraised middle finger, but they’ve wrapped that finger in a diamond-studded velvet glove.
This time around, only the song titles are in English. Singer Kawase Tomoko sings in Japanese on this album, and while the rest of band set the amplifiers to 11, Kawase maintains the sweet core that made the BuriGuri’s earlier songs such pop confections. Now, she’s the element that makes the band’s harder songs go down easier.
Los Angeles finds the Brilliant Green growing up and expanding. It’s nice to see a band that continues to top itself after achieving high after high.
At first, Terra 2001 might strike listeners as a sonic sequel to the Brilliant Green’s self-titled debut album.
But after a few spins, it becomes evident that this second album by one of Japan’s most popular alternative rock bands is a stronger work.
The opening track, “Bye! My Boy!”, bursts out of the speakers like race horses at a derby. It’s grungier, harder, definitely more up-front than anything on the band’s previous album.
After retreating for a while back to the bouncy jangle pop of The Brilliant Green, the trio sticks to its creative guns, muddy-ing up the guitars and boosting the rhythm section.
“Call My Name” lays it on heavy, pitting some classic ’60s bass rhythms with a wheezy, chaotic organ.
“Funny Girlfriend!!” lyrically and musically evoke some pretty strong flower power imagery, and “Round and Round” practically kowtows to “House of the Rising Sun.”
The Brilliant Green seems to have gotten better at twiddling the knobs, hammering out an album with a beefier sound. On such tracks as “Sono Speed De” and “Can’t Stop Crying,” guitarist Matsui Ryo positively blares out of the stereo, burning up on his solos and laying a heavy curtain of tactful distortion.
Even the album’s sole ballad, “Maybe We Could Go Back to Then”, possesses a bit muscle.
And tempting as it was to get heavy-handed with this stronger sound, singer Kawase Tomoko is never lost in the mix. In fact, her singing has gotten more confident since the band’s debut. And as usual, English-language songs outnumber Japanese ones. Both still sound very good.
Songwriting-wise, the songs on Terra 2001 are a bit darker, but they’re every bit just as memorable. By easing back from the jangle-pop of its first album, the Brilliant Green has produced a set of songs that appeals to rock fans who like their music as rough as it is bright.
In all, Terra 2001 is a proverbial major step for the Brilliant Green, a sign that this trio knows it can get better. And will.
Nobody seems to have told the Brilliant Green the 60s were over more than 30 years ago.
The hippy vibe on the Japanese trio’s self-titled debut comes out pretty strong with the opening strains of “I’m in Heaven,” and for the remaining 40 or so minutes, it doesn’t let up.
It’s as if the Byrds recorded with the Velvet Underground sometime around 1994.
Not like there’s anything wrong with referencing perhaps the most influencial era of modern music. The Brilliant Green’s sharp songwriting keeps listeners firmly planted in the late 1990s while maintaining a distinctly vintage tinge.
On some tracks, such as “Tsumetai Hana”, “I” and “Baby London Star”, BuriGuri (as the band is known in Japan) sound like your typical pre-grunge, second-generation R.E.M.-influenced alternative pop band.
But more frequently, Kawase Tomoko and company keep matters light and bouncy. The doo-doo chorus of “You&I”, the “There She Goes”-like rhythm of “Stand By” and the white soul of “Magic Place” all evoke more flower-power lovin’ than Edie Brickell on holiday.
Lead singer Kawase has developed a reputation for writing her lyrics mostly in English, delivering her words in a thick, accented mumble. Her English isn’t terribly awkward, but her untrained voice feels more natural delivering Japanese than English.
For a debut album, The Brilliant Green is an impressive work, chock full of memorable, expertly-written songs, done in a style that draws as much from the past as the present.
It’s definitely an disc for the very light-hearted — folks who like a bit of darkness in their rock music might find the band’s sunny-ness a bit too much to handle. (The band’s third album, Los Angeles, is a good place to start.)