album of the week: 6.4

Anamanaguchi
Endless Fantasy
(2013)

why you'll love it:  retro NES rave party
why you'll hate it: Too long, too much modern pop, not enough rock

At a quick glance, Anamanaguchi is the kind of band somebody would expect me to love.  Fast, glitchy music that sounds like video games.  DONE!  Not really.  Get to know me a little better, and you'll see I'm pretty turned off by hobbies and interests being used to shape a personality.  Anamanaguchi is best known for their contribution to the Scott Pilgrim multimedia experience.  Lesser known for contributing to the most popular Bit.Trip video game, Runner.  Throw in a couple PAX appearances, and you've got a fan base packed to the gills with insufferable affectations, all competing against each other to be the same person.

This is actually why it's a surprise that I kind of dig this band; or at least their 2008 EP, Dawn Metropolis.  Now, Dawn Met has two really good things going for it.  

1- an infusion of live guitars and drums, and a band focused song structure:  A lot of chiptune acts tend to rely on nothing more than "hey, remember NES games?".  The songs on Dawn Met stayed relatively focused and tight, like a real live rock band.

2- Less than 30 minutes total:  There is only so much of this kind of sound you can take.  Dawn Met dips out before you begin to tire of it.

Guess what Endless Fantasy lacks?

Good on Anamanaguchi for trying something new, but insultingly bad club music is not a direction I would have asked for.  "Prom Night" is everything I don't want in a pop song.  The contradiction of enjoying that song, and using this band to wave your "oh so unique" geek outcast banner is enough to make my head explode.

There are a few good tracks on this album, like "Echobo". "SPF 420" and "Pastel Flags", but they get buried in this massive 20+ song double LP of hardly anything but the same kind of song!  So much repetition is what led me to a one minute jazzy interlude "Total Tea Time" being my favorite track on here, because of how much it stands out.

By the way, I'm aware of the irony of decrying an album titled Endless Fantasy for being too long.  So don't bother pointing that out.