a fitting way to celebrate 100 🎉
Hello and welcome back to yet another J-Music Exchange/Rate review! In case you’re not familiar with what this is all about, allow me to explain: it’s a little segment that I do on the blog alongside my good friend/fellow Japanese music enthusiast Leap250, where we both pick out an album from our music libraries, give ‘em to each other and later review on our respective blogs. It’s definitely a fun thing we’ve been doing for four straight years now, as not only is it a cool opportunity to share great music with one another but it also gives us the chance to diversify and be exposed to new, different artists and genres. That said, we hope that you all come out with a similar experience when reading these posts!
And as always, Leap and I take turns choosing a specific theme to base our album choices. It was my turn for the month of June and, unbeknownst to me until recently, these two reviews will mean that the Exchange/Rate has reached the 100 total album mark!
…that is insane. Just now realizing that I’ve managed to review 50 albums throughout my time as a blogger and being able to give Leap as many albums to talk about; I honestly wouldn’t have believed it if you told past me from 2018 that we got to this point. But I do feel like it’s a clear-cut testament to how dedicated and passionate Leap and I are with this segment (and Japanese music, in general) so I have to thank him for sticking with me through it all, as well as give my appreciation to everyone who reads these reviews!
That said, the theme I came up with as a way of celebrating is albums from artists that the other person has suggested in previous E/R reviews. Figured this would be a neat way to look back at those 100 reviews and showcase a couple artists we’ve previously featured on the segment. And interestingly enough, our album choices actually changed overtime, as Leap and I were discussing them. While we did initially settle on a pair of more recent (and really good, may I add) albums, the ideas of reminiscing and nostalgia kinda accelerated even further, leading us to picking two different records that also happened to have some crazy and fitting coincidences. Why I say that is because of a few reasons: 1) these two artists were the very first ones we featured on the Exchange/Rate segment, 2) both albums were released in the same year, and 3) June actually marks the six year anniversary of when Leap and I started the E/R back in 2018… to say our minds were blown when we realized these things feels like an understatement (lol).
So without further a do, here are our choices: Leap went ahead and tossed over SHISHAMO 5 by the alt-rock trio SHISHAMO, while I gave him Kinoko Teikoku’s final full album release in Time Lapse.
Let’s jump right in!
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SHISHAMO is a three-piece, all-female alternative rock band, rooted from the Kawasaki area in Kanagawa. The band was originally conceived back in 2010, when the original lineup of vocalist/guitarist Miyazaki Asako, drummer Yoshikawa Misaki and bassist Matsumoto Aya joined their high school’s light music club and later started writing/composing music together in 2011. After participating in and winning the grand prize for a teen-level band competition, the group officially was formed as ‘SHISHAMO’ and later released their debut indie single titled, "Shukudai ga Owaranai”. The band’s success continued, as they were quickly given the opportunities to host a radio show, go on tour and release their first album in January of 2013.
One member change (Matsuoka Aya replacing Matsumoto Aya in 2014) and eight albums later, SHISHAMO has cemented themselves as one of the most popular and influential girls rock trios/groups in the industry.
As of this post’s publication date, SHISHAMO has released nine albums, twenty-nine singles and a number of compliation albums (including a best album + an acoustic album).
Tracklist
Nee, / ねぇ、
Dokidoki / ドキドキ
Egao no Omajinai / 笑顔のおまじない
Anata to Watashi no Aidagara / あなたと私の間柄
Yume de au / 夢で逢う
Anoko no Shiro / あの娘の城
BYE BYE
Dousoukai / 同窓会
Hora, Waratteru / ほら、笑ってる
Saboten / サボテン
Romantic ni Koishite / ロマンチックに恋して
Mizuiro no Hibi / 水色の日々
Watashi no Yoake / 私の夜明け
Released: 2018.06.20
In as perfectly fitting it is for me to be recommending SHISHAMO 5 out of all of SHISHAMO's other albums in their discography for this month's pair of Exchange/Rate album reviews, I'm also of the opinion that at this point in the band's now decade+ long career, I think it's fair to say that after listening to this album I carry more or less the same sentiment towards it as any other album they've released (with perhaps the exception of ACOUSTIC SHISHAMO). What I mean by that is, even as I look back at the first Exchange/Rate album review that I've ever wrote and I read the things I said about SHISHAMO's SHISHAMO 3, I can't help but find myself thinking much of the same things about the band as before. That's not a knock on the band not having improved or anything since that time (more so since they were already fairly solid back then anyway), but it's definitely more a matter of SHISHAMO already having a decent grasp of what their identity is as a band ever since, and this album being a continued extension of that.
I guess a better way of putting it would be that you "get what you signed up for" whenever you go listen to a SHISHAMO album and SHISHAMO 5 is no exception, with tracks like Doki Doki and Egao no Omajinai still giving you that trademark light rock sound while singing about love and relationships. That being said, and to point out some idiosyncrasies of the album are the notably more organic-sounding songs that can be found on here, with tracks like Nee, and BYE BYE in particular having marked emphasis on instrumentation. If I had to say though, where SHISHAMO albums end up shining the most (at least for me) are the times when they deviate just a bit from their regular speed so to speak; perhaps, for lack of a better term, to break the monotony and none come quite as good in my opinion as the ones in the latter half of SHISHAMO 5. Hora, Waratteru has a breath-takingly emphatic instrumental break unlike any I've heard from the band prior, and Watashi no Yoake is a rock ballad that builds up to an emotional crescendo that leaves you all mellowed out as it brings the album to a close.
1 ▸ a brief history
Being an avid SHISHAMO follower for a long time now, SHISHAMO 5 does hold a special place in my heart. I wasn’t familiar with them yet when SHISHAMO 3 and 4 came out so for the first time as a fan, I was finally able to see them put out a brand-new album. I vividly remember whenever they revealed some new information like the album cover or the tracklist, I became more and more excited during the months leading up to the release, as seen in the various tweets that 17-year-old me made back in 2018.
And when it finally came out, I bought that thing immediately through iTunes and bumped it non-stop. Plus, now looking back, not only was this album special to me for the reason I just explained but this was around the time when I started to dive deeper into Japanese music and a lot of what I discovered/listened to back then, I’d say, ended up shaping my music taste to what it currently is today.
But before we get further into SHISHAMO 5, allow me to set up my thoughts a bit:
In my opinion, I’ve always thought SHISHAMO 4 was THE pivotal turning point for this band, in terms of the creative evolution of their music. Which makes sense, if you think about it. The roots of SHISHAMO’s music came from a trio of teenagers singing about the complicated experiences and emotions one can go through as a youth, especially when it comes to romance and relationships. But as the trio of Asako, Misaki and Matsuoka Aya grew older, I’m sure their viewpoints and thoughts on life and music significantly changed over time and you could absolutely tell with the release of SHISHAMO 4. The way they incorporated new instruments like pianos/violins, provided more emotional ballads, and portrayed a wide variety of personalities within each song/narrative; without-a-doubt did SHISHAMO 4 sound different when compared to their previous releases, but I think it’s a beautiful reflection and representation of the band’s growth and maturity, both as musicians and as human beings. What makes it even cooler is that while people can ‘outgrow’ the music of an artist they’ve followed for a long time, I think many SHISHAMO fans were still able to closely relate to this new release, considering that the band’s audience was similarly aged and were also going through a transition from adolescence into adulthood.
The reason why I’m emphasizing a completely different album than the one we’re talking about today is that I do feel like SHISHAMO 5 expands on the things that were shown on 4. At least in my eyes, the band has strayed even further from the amateur-ish and youthful sound that they were already known for at the time and have embraced that more polished and deeper tone throughout many of the tracks on this album. And I think you’re able to get a taste of that through the very first song on SHISHAMO 4 with “Nee,”. While you’re immediately hit with some powerful guitar riffs from Asako, the inclusion of a more light and peaceful sounding keyboard playing quickly comes into the picture and accompanies that familiar alt-rock sound in a pretty smooth fashion. If I’m being completely honest, my thoughts on “Nee,” have always been a tad bit complicated; while it’s a great SHISHAMO song, it’s not really a track that comes to mind whenever I think of my all-time favorites from this band (especially when it comes to louder, guitar-heavy SHISHAMO songs since I personally believe there are much better examples of that in both past releases and in this album). However, now being six years removed from its initial release (as well as it being a while since I took a listen to this album), I do feel like “Nee,” actually serves as a pretty fitting opener to SHISHAMO 5. Not only does it show off the more refined and sophisticated nature of SHISHAMO’s alt-rock sound that’s prominent in many of the following songs, but you also get a bit of a preview of the emotional-sounding and softer themes/melodies that the band injects in a handful of tracks. Regarding the latter, I’m definitely not implying that SHISHAMO didn’t express those types of sentiments in their past work, but it does feel like they took that to a much different level with what was shown on SHISHAMO 5.
2 ▸ shishamo/asako’s sentimental side
Even after writing all that stuff in the previous section, it still feels wild to see SHISHAMO take on a significantly more serious and mature tone in this album. Being someone who has always known them from their earlier, more light-hearted compositions, hearing tracks that have much slower paces such as “Yumede au” with Asako’s simple-yet-somber guitar strumming, or the combination of melancholic keyboard playing and passionate vocals in “Mizuiro no Hibi”; while this specific sound or theme that SHISHAMO started to really emphasize and show off still felt relatively new, despite getting an accelerated taste of it in their previous two records, I think they execute it even better in SHISHAMO 5. Not only within the music, but it’s a lot more prevalent within many of the lyrics of these songs.
Many tracks do deal with the ideas of adulthood and the struggles with growing up, such as “Mizuiro no Hibi” showing someone reminisce about the memories they had with their schoolmates and trying to get over the fact that those times have come to an end, or “Hora, Waratteru” depicting a person who has experienced many mistakes and regrets in their life but continues to push through because of the support they get from others… like I alluded to earlier, I do enjoy how authentic SHISHAMO’s lyricism is here, especially considering the likelihood of Asako, Misaki, Aya, as well as most of the SHISHAMO fanbase, all going through similar endeavors as they figure out how to deal with this specific time of their lives. As the band’s main lyricist, Asako has always been pretty direct and, especially genuine, with the stories she creates within SHISHAMO’s songs (as many of them have been based off personal experience) and to see someone like her paint this picture of the realities of growing older and entering a scary and unknown phase in one’s life… Asako does seem like a perfect person to do so and I think she did a fantastic job.
3 ▸ same old, same old + album comp
However, as much as I’ve been showcasing SHISHAMO’s ability to create more emotional and sorrowful songs, they still do remind everyone of their more upbeat roots and continue to perform those usual alt-rock tracks that have defined this band throughout their earlier years. “Dokidoki” and its fun atmosphere felt like a joy to listen to, especially with the appropriate addition of amusing elements such as hand clapping and the cute ad-libs where the band goes “hey!”. I have the same sentiments regarding “Egao no Omajinai”, as it really does feel like classic SHISHAMO with Asako’s familiar guitar riffs/added solo towards the end, as well as her sweet vocals.
While on the other hand, “BYE BYE” is very reminiscent of SHISHAMO’s past instances of doing these darker and rougher-sounding rock songs (e.g., “Boku, Jitsuwa”). And damn, I really do love it when this band goes down this route since we get a really awesome vocal + instrumental performance from the trio, whether it’s Asako singing with a bit of an ‘irritated’ tone or being able to hear Aya’s sick bass skills in a much more prominent fashion. Makes it even better that SHISHAMO’s continued interest in incorporating new instruments is shown nicely here, as the inclusion of a jazzy piano really adds some brightness to it and creates a cool track to listen to.
And as I’m discussing the varying tones of this album, you may notice that throughout the tracklist, it kinda goes back and forth between these more energetic rock songs and those emotional ballads. And while I initially thought that organizing this album in that way felt like a bit of a detriment to itself (for example, I can imagine that going from the somber “Yumede au” to the loud/hyper sound of “Anoko no Shiro” can feel a little jarring), I later believed that it’s not an entirely bad way for this band to show off the two angles they’re trying to convey. Like I've been saying, they obviously now have a much more mature mindset when it comes to music but at the same time, I can tell that the band didn't want to deviate that far from where they come from and what style of music they’ve been known to do. It results in an interesting mixture of these brand new and interesting compositions while somewhat modernizing/freshening up the guitar-heavy rock songs they’ve always performed.
To be completely honest, even as I’m writing this review, I still feel a little unsure about what I think about this album. While it’s a SHISHAMO release that means a lot to me and even has some of my all-time favorite songs from the band on it (especially “Anata to Watashi no Aidagara” and “Dousoukai”, both of which are two SUPER underrated songs IMO), it truly is difficult to talk about this album without taking the band’s other albums/work into consideration. I try to follow Leap’s approach towards reviewing a record where it’s best to critique it solely for what it is, but being someone who has listened to most of SHISHAMO’s discography, SHISHAMO 5 is in a very weird place where I view it as more of an extension of their last album than anything. While I do appreciate how it’s the most mature and emotional we’ve seen this band, I legitimately believe that it doesn’t feel as appealing or engaging as the album that came before (SHISHAMO 4), as well as the one that came after (SHISHAMO 6, as I’ve said in the past).
Obviously, this is my own personal viewpoint and opinion, and I don’t know if it’s because those two albums felt much more unique, experimental and/or entertaining to me, but SHISHAMO 5 just doesn’t add enough for it, music-wise, to be a stand-out release amongst the now nine full-length releases from this band. In no way am I implying that this album is ‘bad’ or has any ‘bad songs’ but apart from the nicely executed emotional ballads, I just think that SHISHAMO 5 leaves a bit to be desired when looking at this record as a whole.
Rating: 7.25/10
Aaaand that’s all I got for you today!
It’s interesting cause I came into this review, thinking that it’d be a cakewalk to discuss this album, but surprisingly this was tough. Especially since SHISHAMO/SHISHAMO 5 is a band and an album that, like I said, I have a lot of history with and have listened to for many, many years now. And again, I still really like many of the tracks on SHISHAMO 5 but I guess this was another instance of one changing their opinion on an album after multiple years removed since it was initially released.
Now that you’re finished here, definitely head on over to Leap’s blog where he reviewed the album I gave him, Time Lapse by Kinoko Teikoku. Similar to my relationship with SHISHAMO, Kinoko is a band that Leap is very much fond of so I’m excited to see what he’ll have to say about their final full-length release. Click here to check it out!
Thanks for reading!! :D
-al