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Blotto
Singles Collection 2004-2007 |
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Tracklist |
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01 - Sakura Swirl
02 - Every Single Child
03 - Icicles
04 - Reverie
05 - Silver Kiss
06 - Mithrandir In The Sky
07 - Half A Boy
08 - Under Your Skin |
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Review |
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Rie Takeuchi's had a pretty fantastic journey in her fifteen years since starting to make music under the Luminous Orange moniker. By melding lo-fi indie pop and plenty of shoegaze elements, Takeuchi was able to place well on the indie charts with 2002's standout full-length Drop You Vivid Colours. Because of the album's all around awesomeness, the band rose to mid-range prominence in Japan's independent music scene and attracted fellow indie stalwarts like Ahito Inazawa of Number Girl and Vola & The Oriental Machine to join the support band. Unfortunately, we've had to wait five long years before Takeuchi dropped some new sound on us and it has finally come in the form of Sakura Swirl's eight songs. Considering how consistent Vivid Colours was for many people, five years has been a long time to wait for new material. Coming into Sakura Swirl, Takeuchi is at a serious disadvantage in regards to expectations.
For many people, the EP opener and title track, "Sakura Swirl," will be incredibly difficult to get into. When I first eagerly jammed the CD in and hit play, I was expecting intricate guitars and soft vocals. Even loudness! But right away there is a sharp left turn and the avant-electronic pop of "Sakura Swirl" derails all expectations. Eventually I was able to get into the new sound by way of the amusing and addictive little snatches of sound but it sure did take a while. With all the left-field sounds and breezy melodies, "Swirl" sounds like some of Kahimi Karie's weirdest moments. But those are the ones that Karie usually lets pop up during her albums' third quarter—the times when bizarre diversity is a welcome interlude and not a greeting after half a decade of silence.
"Sakura Swirl" sounds a bit different from most of the rest of the album and that's because it was composed and recorded entirely by Takeuchi alone outside of a studio. Besides the similar-sounding "Reverie" and "Under Your Skin" (products of the same individualistic environment), "Sakura Swirl" uses electronics exclusively where many of the other slow songs feature a traditional set of instruments. If Luminous Orange is destined to continue in the direction of pop over rock, I hope that Takeuchi will stick to the more intimate bedroom style rather than playing with a full band because many of the songs that come later on the disc become awkward and melodically unimaginative. There are still interesting moments on songs like "Silver Kiss" but they lack the drive of the peppy shoegaze tracks or the creativity of the electronic tracks.
For only having eight songs, Sakura Swirl goes through a remarkable amount of heavy changes. It's clear from all this diversity that Takeuchi is a woman still brimming with ideas even so far into her career. We might even have to consider Sakura Swirl a testing ground EP for a new album. Unfortunately the new sounds don't often fulfill the promise of their creativity and even when they combine in one song it doesn't quite fit. Indeed, it is often the case that the songs that sound like Vivid Colours like the showpiece "Every Single Child" are clearly more enjoyable than the more involved, slower songs like "Mithrandir In The Lilac Sky."
Another point worth mentioning is that this is the slickest Luminous Orange has ever sounded. After back-to-back 2006 and 2007 SXSW performances and the forthcoming American release of Sakura Swirl, Luminous Orange is pushing ahead full steam into new markets and the sound reflects this. Fans of the hazy sound of Vivid Colours shouldn't be put off though, because the improved sound quality helps out all around, even during the moments when numerous sounds bleed together.
There is an impressive range of sounds and song-types on the EP but diversity isn't always a positive attribute. Drop You Vivid Colours worked because of the diversity of ideas that stuck to a singular world of sound developed by the vocals and guitar sound. Sakura Swirl tries to branch out much too much and there are just as many missteps as there are successes. As was mentioned before, there are a lot of new mechanics added to the "Luminous Orange sound" and while some work and some don't, it's good to see them try. I don't ever want to discourage creativity in art but truly, the album's best areas are when it sounds like its predecessor. Perhaps incorporating the new ideas into the old formula is all Takeuchi really needs. While Sakura Swirl might be viewed as a letdown in the context of the previous album, Takeuchi's musical bravery and the songs that do work will keep all of us eagerly awaiting anything new from her camp. Let's just not get our hopes up too much. |
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