 |
| Sherbets Crashed Sedan Drive
why you'll love it: Emotional and fun garage rock.
why you'll hate it: Cryptic, plays too much in the middle.
|
The 2016 music drip is beginning to steady, so it's about time start powering up this blog for another year. What better way to kick things off than reopening The Church of Asai. As recorded over the years, I am a massive fan of this classic rock & blues musician, and all of his various recording outfits. Just last summer, his band Sherbets released one of my favorite albums of the year. It showcased their skills in emotional performance and atmospheric production. This side of Sherbets would be as big as Coldplay in a just world.
In a matter of months, Sherbets has released their predictably antagonistic follow up. The songs of Crashed Sedan Drive have much more of a rev to them, and a good amount of versatility. The titular song (see above), is just everything I love about this band. Cascading drums, whirling keyboards, and wild guitar solos cutting through it all like a polar icebreaker. The most welcome return in Cashed Sedan Drive has got to be... what I can only call Benzie-ing. Whenever Asai is about to drop a radical sequence on you be precedes it with the most amazing broken English phrasing. In the song "Crashed Sedan Drive" he throws half a dozen out there, such as "sell-la-beben", "Johnny-crush", and "chrome-boy". His confidence, and impact of the music push such moments past embarrassing or corny, and right into one-of-a-kind genius territory.
Crashed Sedan Drive has already ranked up there with Mad Disco (2008) as one of my favorite Sherbets albums. Like Mad Disco, there is a lots of versatility to the track listing, but a consistency of fun rock & roll that knows how to transition into emotional cool down moments. "俺たちの季節" seamlessly juggles groovy chill and fun hard rock. Another welcome return is the really cheap sounding artificial horns found in "Canberra Zombies Food Court". The moment I heard those open up the song, I thought back to songs like "Jamaican Dream", and knew I was in for a treat. "A Baby" appropriately harkens back to Sherbets' mid-2000 output of soaring-ballads. "Jolene" and "Jake" have more of the early days heaviness to them. While last year's album did one thing really well, Crashed Sedan Drive revisits all of the band's melodic strengths; making it one of their most engaging and fun albums to date.
Once again, Kenichi Asai proves himself has a songwriter with incredible universal appeal. It took him a while to get there. There are a lot of wishy washy albums over the past 20 years, and lyrically, I still have no idea how legit the songs are. Musically though, Sherbets is on a fantastic "total package" roll. They've got a traditional classic rock and blues sound that everyone can get hooked on, emotional performances that transcend language barriers, and are creative enough not to come off as a derivative nostalgia trip. Please direct me to your nearest "get Sherbets on SNL" internet petition.
