Landmark
(2012)
why you'll love it: Even when it sounds like they're not trying, lots of catchy riffs here
why you'll hate it: stale, and flat. Poor selection of songs over last two years
Alright, friends, I have a bone to pick with this album, so consider this your warning, I will rant over the next few paragraphs. If you want a shortened review, here it is: This is lackluster and sloppily thrown together collection of songs. They can be very catchy in moments, when given a chance, but fail to exemplify the dynamics and ingenuity of this band over the last four years. There you go. if that is all you need to know, you can stop now.
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Asian Kung-Fu Generation suddenly became a band that i begrudgingly liked in 2008. Their album, World, World, World was a tight, rocking, emotional, fun, you name it - everything done right - indie rock album. I didn't want to like an album titled World, World, World. I even cringe a bit when I tell my friends in the car that this band I am listening to is named Asian Kung-Fu Generation. Most of all, I didn't want to like a band that has been hijacked by Naruto headband wearing goofballs (thanks to the band's history of contributing songs to various anime title sequences.) But there before me, stood a damn good indie band! And throughout the next three years, they continued to be a damn good indie band. These guys don't do anything wild or progressive. They just know how to write catchy songs, weave in some pretty impressive guitar melodies and drum fills, and create something that transcends the language barrier with ease.
Landmark not only fails to represent the band I mentioned above, but is also a TERRIBLY constructed album. First of all, it's not much of an album. It's a collection of songs, recorded when or who knows where, with no sense of flow or motif. The production is also flat as cardboard, which is quite a surprise to me, as their last album (2010's Magic Disk) provided a wide spectrum of sound. I'm mostly going to focus on the arrangement and choice of songs here, because it truly boggles my mind.
"All right part 2" opens. It's a fun little pop song, a bit too saccharine for them, I think; but was likable for a song released OVER A YEAR AGO. (Almost) every year AK-FG curates a festival, and releases an exclusive song on the respective compilation CD. The song sounds fine for that occasion, but not here. It's not a strong "OK here we go, let's kick this off" opening song. Everyone already knows it, and it fails to represent how the rest of the album goes.
The choices of what made the cut and what didn't, only get more confusing. "All right part 2" (released summer 2011 on a compilation) opens the album, while "Marching Band" (a single released in December of 2011) is not found at all. "Marching Band" is a slow song, but I thought it's pretty experimental for them, and has a nice emotional build. Also, it's a single, for Christ's sake! Since when is a single not on an album? Even crazier, why would the single not make it, but the b-side would?! That's right, "N2" is the b-side to "Marching Band", and also a pretty bad song. It's vocal filter sounds like garbage, and it's a momentum killing drag of a song that should not be at track 2, if on the album at all.
All that stuff I said about AK-FG being a total package indie band must sound deluded when you hear "1.2.3.4.5.6. Baby" and "AとZ". The swells and emotion put into "1.2.3.4.5.6. Baby" mixed with the lyrics (which are, get ready for this… "1.2.3.4.5.6. Baby") make it sound like a joke song. Follow that up with a song that is basically reciting the alphabet, and at this point I was saying aloud to my stereo "You're kidding me, right?"
If you haven't switched off by now, the rest of the album isn't all that bad. "大洋航路" is probably the catchiest song on here. It's spunky, and enthusiastic. But nothing about it lives up to to what the band has been capable of in the past. "Bicycle Race" is basically a lackluster version of "新世紀のLove Song". "それでは、また明日" will probably end up being the most popular song to come of this album, because it harkens back to their energetic more punk influenced sound that got them all that sweet Bleach money. I'm not so crazy about it. I think that's a "been there, done that" path, and the band is better than that now. "1980" and "Railroad" have some CATCHY signature guitar riffs to them, but that's it. "踵で愛を打ち鳴らせ" is the best song, by far. This well crafted, well paced, emotionally charged song is a reminder why I've swallowed my pride for this band. "Anemoneの咲く春に" at least sounds like a closer, but it's yet another just OK song for a shrug of an album.
The track listing is still what gets me here. Looking back on the past two years of material from this band, you could put together a good 30 - 40 minutes of music. I still don't know why they're using songs and b-sides from LAST YEAR, when there were b-sides (Like "Reload Reload") and compilation songs (like "夜を越えて") from this year that were totally great (and totally unused).
If you have read me put in a good word about this band in one of my "year in review" posts, but never checked them out, this is not a good place to start. This albums sounds like something a bored and disinterested band would phone-in. With a little care in production and willingness to create an album with flow and structure, this could have been a solid release. Not a very strong one, but certainly not as stale as this.
