Wednesday, January 29th, 2020

Geiin Wa Jibun Ni Aru – Shikou Ni Kansuru Yoron Chosa

But perhaps our scores are also swayed by high tempo…


[Video]
[5.86]

Ryo Miyauchi: Formerly named Battle Street, Geiin Wa Jibun Ni Aru later got a full-on image change: a boy-band take on the kitchen-sink rock music made by bands fronted by Vocaloid producers such as Yorushika, Kobasolo or ZUTOMAYO. They got that tumbling jazz-rock sound down, but what’s more impressive is their sharing their influences’ playful, deconstructed approach to lyrics. The actual meaning of words take a backseat to exploring the thrills of rhyme.
[7]

Thomas Inskeep: If a J-Pop boy band made itchy, slightly manic new wavish indie rock, I guess it’d be this? Turn down the BPMs and it’s great; as is, it’s good. The vocals take me out of it a bit.
[6]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Turbo-funk that feels possessed by the spirits of both ’70s jazz fusion and ’90s math-rock is incredibly hard to play, but it’s harder to make a catchy pop single out of it, which makes this song all the more impressive. It even has a chorus that is even more technically chaotic. I wanted the bridge to be longer, but that’s just me being a nerd. 
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: This is the energy and vim I expect from my disco-synth-funk-nu-fusion-stuff — even the panning on the vocals is intricately done. The track would be better if the arrangement kept to two extreme, stark, contrasting modes — frenetic and staccato — rather than meandering off toward the middle sometimes. But good luck remembering any quibble a second later.
[7]

Brad Shoup: I used to take comfort in math rock that leaned on a disco backbeat. But now I’m… yearning for it to be difficult? Not that this breakneck tempo isn’t its own special stressor. It’s like watching someone solve a Rubik’s Cube with a countdown timer.
[5]

Iain Mew: They loop and twist and knot SO MUCH into a small space, and it’s a really impressive technical feat. It just leaves so little room to breathe or appreciate the details that I can’t find a way in to actually enjoying it on any other level. 
[4]

Jessica Doyle: This is a dance of a song with every blur of a footstep landing. It feels like nitpicking to complain that the piano and the group sing-shouting cancel each other out in the first part of the chorus. But the multiple parts find balance, without compromising on speed or intensity, for the second half; rarely has a “wo-o-oah” been so clearly earned. It is all great fun, and I would continue gushing with praise for another paragraph or two, had I not searched for information on the group and learned that when Genjibu debuted last August, one member was 13, one 15, and two 16 and a month. Intellectually I know not to accuse the entire Japanese idol industry of Johnny Kitagawa’s crimes, but emotionally, nope, nope nope nope, that is too young for to me to assume a healthy environment for all and continue with the unabashed enjoyment. Let me know when a bunch of 20-year-olds have adopted this style, and I can break out the [8]s.
[4]

Reader average: No votes yet!

Vote: 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

Comments are closed.