album of the week: 3.3

tsushimamire

Shocking

(2012)

why you'll love it: ambitious & successful, something totally new for the band

why you'll hate it: Hells of "crazy Japanese", may be too silly for most people

Change is afoot for the decade+ old tsushimamire. Usually known for their aggressively cute meets straight-up aggressive punk collisions, the trio sheds schizo for substance. That "substance" is still crazy as all hell, but a well produced HOUR LONG concept album is something I never expected from a band like this.

The details of Shocking are in Japanese, but the broad concept of space aliens in the form of food coming to Earth on a dinner plate shaped saucer are there for you to take in. At least, if it wasn't before, there it is now. Shocking is admittedly heavily influenced by David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. Every song is meant to either push the wacky "rock and roll aliens" story forward or flesh out the universe. tsushi really went above and beyond with this album. It has detail and melodies that I had no idea they were capable of. Despite being sung in Japanese, there are recurring themes and a flow to the album that anyone can get caught up in. Outside of the songs, they even created their own faux-band, The Shockings. The whole experience is lots of fun, and can't stop praising their ambition here.

There are no irritating "cute songs" here. At least not on purpose. There are only two songs that really come close to tsushi's edgy distorted template. Without their two most reputable traits, they somehow manage to create something unmistakably tsushimamire. Songs about food have always been a staple. Their usually vague perplexing oddness gets pushed up front and becomes more focused into this wild concept.

Do not mistake this for a pop album. Mari's voice isn't suddenly going to be easy on your ears. There still will be refrains and melodies that will check over your shoulder to make sure no one is hearing you listen to this. That album has plenty of compelling moments, but the voices are still nasally, they're still pronouncing English words funny, or repeating a phrase that just plain sounds silly. And that's how I like it. Tsushi is a strange and sometimes challenging band, and that's what I always want them to be.

Clocking in at nearly an hour, I'm surprised at how little I would cut. There are only a couple songs that I don't really dig, and it's the very long ones at the end I love the best. Pretty impressive for a band I once thought could barely maintain a half hour. They may be accidentally butchering the pronunciation of "messiah" (or are they?), near the end of the album, but I'm still hanging on every note; floored that they've held my attention for this long, and still experimenting with each track. The pacing of the album in the second half is brilliant. Without knowing the lyrics, you still get the big emotional swell of a story or journey. The first half has its moments as well, but a couple stumbles that will make you second guess. Persevere! By the end, you may be won over.

tsushimamire will never be the band most people look for in music. At their most accessible, they're still instinctively abrasive, or unashamedly flawed. This record will annoy the crap out of most people, but EVERYONE should listen to it at least once. All of it. The whole thing, in one sitting. You don't have to like it, but it is one of the strangest, most unique, and ambitious albums of 2012 for sure.