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Blotto
Singles Collection 2004-2007 |
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Tracklist |
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01 - The Circle
02 - X
03 - ﾊﾟﾙｽ
04 - 愛のﾊﾞｸﾀﾞﾝ
05 - Fly The Flag
06 - ｱｸｱﾌﾞﾙｰ
07 - 睡蓮
08 - Sanctuary
09 - Fever
10 - 白い火花
11 - ｲｶﾛｽ
12 - Black And White
13 - Brighter Day |
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Review |
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Just to get it out of the way early, I like B'z and I like The Circle a lot. It's a rough life I live enjoying this band while criticizing so many for being too poppy. But I don't think that I'm just a hypocrite and I don't have delusions of B'z being musically worthwhile. I postulate, however, that there are a number of purposes for music, certain arenas if you will. Within those arenas there are bands or artists that play what is expected out of that arena very well. B'z is that sort of band, even if many aren't fond of the arena they play in. Let's say rock music is hockey and that I love hockey and can't get enough. So I watch a lot of hockey. On some occasions though, I'll feel the desire to watch some baseball. That would be representative of pop music in this overextended analogy. Now I may think baseball isn't a terribly worthwhile sport but there is a significantly larger audience for it than hockey. So the little I do know of baseball, I'll enjoy, especially if it's the best team. Moving back on course, B'z plays pop music; there are rock and dance themes and structures but it is pop music for pop culture. While their music isn't edifying in the slightest, they are the best there is at what they do. If you want mainstream pop music with the best hooks and highest production values while still actually being written by the people that play and sing it, there really isn't any better than B'z.
Now that I'm finished justifying the band itself to our independent elite (who will hopefully dismiss this anyway), the question becomes whether or not The Circle stacks up against past albums from the band. Consistency is the order of the day with this, their fourteenth (!) full-length, and for that I can't give it enough praise. The problem that I've always had was that as a pop band, no matter how rocking, B'z were obligated to write ballads. Even at a rate of one ballad to five great songs, they were still enough to drag several potentially phenomenal albums to a crawl, leaving a general air of disappointment. But on The Circle, there are two slow numbers and even those have some surprising qualities to them. The lack of maudlin singing and the excellent english vocals on "Brighter Day" keep the interest level up during these breaks from the energy present on the other songs. Their change of pace is actually welcomed rather than feared, considering the tempo breakup keeps the forty-seven minutes of the album from ever being dull.
Now I wouldn't call The Circle the best album they've produced; the nature of pop bands tends to leave the singles much stronger than any other single song present. The only album that could have a consistent quality level would be a best of. Not to say that the album is lackluster in comparison to its single, "Ai no Bakudan," but that one song is easily the most memorable of the pack. There are, of course, high points besides the aforementioned (and incredibly awesome) single. Pulse has a great chorus and exceptionally impassioned singing from Koshi Inaba; the man might be the best modern male pop group vocalist of any country. "Sanctuary" and "Shiroi Hibana" also provide a nice later half energizer, balancing out the driving energy of the first five songs. Some of the songs like "Aqua Blue" and "Black And White" are rather forgetful filler, but their impact is so little that there isn't a significant impression on the overall quality of the album.
The simple truth is that The Circle is a good pop album with a few expected flaws. If you can let down your guard and enjoy B'z for what they are and nothing more, there are numerous rewards and they are all quite memorable. |
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