album of the week: 8.4

capsule

World of Fantasy

(2011)

why you'll love it: shameless all or nothing party jamz

why you'll hate it: insultingly dumb lyrics. Lacks the intensity of previous albums

While the electro-disco bubble may finally be bursting for capsule, at least one smart move was made with this year's afterthought of an album. It was delayed for title and art revision just before its scheduled March release. I agree. Putting something titled Killer Wave on Japanese store shelves days after the world's most horrific natural disaster of 2011 would indeed be a bad idea!

Killer Wave resurfaced in May as World of Fantasy. A bland title taken from the album's bland single. I was also annoyed that the album artwork remained unchanged from Toshiko Koshijima (vocalist) dressed like a torture porn goth from The Fifth Element. Looking like when Lisa Simpson dressed skanky to impress her tween friends is yet another reminder of how far flung this duo has gone from their Shibuya-Kei roots. Sadly, this album, and capsule in general, are just as stubborn and unwilling to innovate on or depart from this failed gimmick of cool sexiness. This "cool" phase of capsule has been hanging tough for over five years now, and has been plagued with more embarrassing pitfalls than big hits. Their prime has probably been 2008's MORE! MORE! MORE! thanks to a heavy dose of 80's pop kitsch to chase away the douche-chills.

The problem with World of Fantasy is that there are no songs on here that justify all the terrible parts. When capsule cranks out a hit, they totally nail it. Songs like "e.d.i.t." and "Flash Back" have these amazing moments like the floor dropping out from under you, and take you on a cosmic wormhole speed coaster of sound. A couple songs on here try to do this, like "Striker" and "What is Love", but rely too heavily on played out tricks (repeat the last line, speed it up each time annnnnd… chorus), or are just plain silly. In "Striker" there is this… truck horn thing? I guess that is something that goes on at raves, maybe? I just laugh to myself every time and think "Who invited the convoy?"

What I'm trying to say is capsule is throwing a party, but I'm not a party guy. I want to have fun and let go, but I need something that gets me REALLLLY FUCKED UP, so I don't realize how bad everything else is for me. None of the songs on here serve that up. Some are ok! "I Can't Say I Like You" and "Prime Time" are probably the best on here. But they don't distract enough to get the embarrassment of "I Just Wanna XXX You" out of my head. There just isn't much on here to hang an excuse on, and maybe I'm also tired of making excuses in general. I can get my electro dance floor madness from Does it Offend You, Yeah? I don't need to pine for capsule's Shibuya-Kei past, because there is a shiny new Towa Tei album that is wonderful. If i just want steady dance beats to bob my head to, I can just pop in the MBMBaM mix tape. At least there I'm listening to funny quotes from my favorite podcast, and not banality like "Tonight it's party time" repeated for five minutes.

Yasutaka Nakata can still craft a pretty swell beat. If you've got a sturdy mental block for eye-rolling party phrases, there is a half-hour of good (not great) music on here. There is still a part of me that remembers this is the duo that gave us phony phonic (2003), so I'll always give them another shot. It's just that with more guilt free options currently out there, capsule's position has become redundant. Either the life of the party pastiche has to be put to rest, or they must create a scientific breakthrough and produce literal audio methamphetamine.