#unfortunately they changed studios for the second one and they’re making changes that detract from the story so I’d recommend reading the

[seldomsee]

If you followed me for hxh i DO highly recommend checking out tower of god. It’s its own story obviously & there’s nothing on the level of the chimera ant arc writing-wise yet but it scratches a lot of the same itches that hxh does (i.e. expansive intricate worldbuilding, good character writing, interesting power system etc). it’s fucking long (although so is hxh ig) but it’s a very fun read :)

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Dear 'Anime Bad' Anon: I Want To Help I pity your situation, so please have a list of weebshit that isn't moeified, or wherein the cutesy art-style serves a greater purpose. (Note: though they won't be soft marshmallow uguuuu, they may still have issues in other ways. Some may have aged badly with regards to how society views or portrays groups or beliefs, some may have upsetting content and dark themes, and some may simply not be to your taste. Note: Anime is a genre, not a monolith, and the disparaging stereotype that it's all cute girls uwuing over their brother s-s-senpai!!! is as much of a disservice as saying all western movies are just vapid cash grab superhero movie sequels with no inegrity or thought put into them. There are indeed a lot of superhero movies, but they're not all identical schlock (megamind vs venom vs kick-ass),  but even more than that, there is a wealth of creative endeavor just beyond the veil of Marvel's cape: just as there are plenty of good anime if you dig past the isekai high school harem wish fulfillment genre that no one wants to keep making but people keep making because it prints money to a very small demographic of the animation equivalent of a mobile game whale thereby allowing this frankly quite-small industry to work on engaging and worthwhile series where the budget permits, Regardless,)

Mushi-shi: -Pros: gorgeous animation, tranquil vibes, episodic stories so you can cram in an episode between classes or on your lunch break. highly recommended by the literal-who typing this out. -Cons: some themes or stories may cause emotional distress, learning to tell apart Urushibara Yuki's characters is a learning curve.

Baccano-Pros: meticulously-researched 20s-and-30s-era mafia violence with a hint of the supernatural, as a treat, told anachronistically with flair and jazz music. practically made to be binge-watched. the novels are finally getting translated into english as well. -Cons: lots of characters to keep track of, fair bit of blood and violence, some scenes or themes may be upsetting, lots of jumping around between different time periods. See Also: Durarara, another series by Ryōgo Narita with a ton of characters and a plot with more threads an overpriced sheet.

Cowboy Bebop-Pros: incredibly well-regarded, space bounty hunters are cool, episodic series that slowly takes on a plot towards the end, fantastic animation, scoring, and even dub work.  -Cons: some scenes or themes may be uncomfortable, some parts have not aged quite so well, the smart doll version of the main character is ugly, you're gonna carry that weight.

Trigun-Pros: starts lighthearted, develops an increasingly investing plot as the series goes along. fictional westerns are cool. this world is made of love and peace -Cons: some scenes or themes may be upsetting, and probably will be. gun violence is naturally present, but that ain't all of it.

Hellsing (standard or Ultimate. or Abridged)Pros: vampires killing nazis. the original adaptation isn't bad, the second adaptation (ultimate) is generally viewed as an improvement. abridged is a youtube parody version that was so popular the voice actors reference it in convention interviews.Cons: a Lot of violence, even trending to the gorey side of things. Uncomfortable Themes Everywhere, but it's a horror-tinged action series about killing nazis, so that's to be expected. 

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood-Pros: while the original anime was quite good, the second iteration is a large improvement. does to alchemy what naruto does to ninjas: It's Basically Battle Magic. the plot starts on a strong note and doesn't let up from there. -Cons: there are distressing scenes and themes that may or may not be tolerable to the viewer. there are moments of cheesecake and even an occasional joke or a moeblob here and there, and it's not all doom and all gloom all the time, but this doesn't detract from the abject horror-despair that comes to permeate this series as it progresses. finally understand why people on the internet respond so negatively to the name 'nina'! 

[Mod: many more recs/reviews under the break, worth reading for those who like more obscure anime and animation]

Grave of the Fireflies-Pros: you will remember how to cry. it's a good reminder that one country's 'triumphs' often come at the expense of another country's people.  -Cons: this movie is incredibly dark, do not watch if you are in a bad headspace. see also: Barefoot Gen, a similar tale but this time from the perspective of an actual survivor from Hiroshima.

Michiko to Hatchin-Pros: an actually diverse cast of characters tangled up in a messy and very humanizing story, interspersed with Shinichiro Watanabe's particular flare for adventure. -Cons: some scenes or themes are very likely to be distressing. can be tricky to find, too.

Mo no no Ke (not the ghibli movie, though it is also quite good.) -Pros: incredibly unique art style and pacing that draws heavily from japanese theatre traditions, every screenshot is wallpaper-worthy. -Cons: may cause motion sickness. it is a psychological horror series, and one that does not need blood, nor gore, to cause visceral emotional response in the viewer. scenes and themes will be distressing- as really, that's the point.

Tokyo Godfathers-Pros: a transwoman, a (self-identified) homeless bum, and a runaway teen girl find a newborn in the baby on christmas. incredibly wholesome, somehow, and grounded in reality, with wonderful animation from the tragically late satoshi kon. -Cons: it is grounded in realism, and sometimes, people are dicks. mild transphobia warning, too, but in-universe- the transwoman herself is portrayed with kindness and allowed to be her own (wonderful!!!) person. still, viewer be mindful.

Kino no Tabi (the first series is my preferred, the second is shinier but lacks emotional impact- in my onion.) -Pros: mostly episodic, very unique series that can be gritty where it counts and kind where it matters. -Cons: some scenes or themes might be disturbing. finding it's not easy, either, and unfortunately, i don't think the novels are being translated right now, either.

Spice and Wolf-Pros: it's mostly about economics. there are shenanigans, a harvest god, and a slowly burgeoning romance, sure, but it's still mostly about economics. -Cons: there are moments of cheesecake and comedy, and moments that may cause distress to the viewer. it may or may not be to your taste.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica-Cons: yeah i know, it's moeblobs.  -Pros: you're gonna watch 'em die, though, in case that may interest you. it's quite a good subversion of the magical girl genre overall. somehow volks hasn't made an MDD of anyone from the series and i will never understand how that didn't happen.

Wolf Children: Ame to Yuki-Pros: watch a family grow together as a newly-single mother does her best to raise her twin children after the tragic loss of their father.  -Cons: keep tissues handy. certain scenes or themes may be uncomfortable.

Lupin III (Red Jacket, Ghibli, and the new 3D animation are all A+) pros: heist comedy elevated to an art form before half (or more!) of the people reading this were born. the english dubbed series that used to air on adult swim is a treat. cons: this franchise started in THE SIXTIES, so naturally, some shit has not aged well. certain series (fujiko mine) are darker than others in themes and material. the 3d movie that released recently is an excellent starting point.

Samurai Champloo-Pros: breakdancing samurai, a fascinating roster of characters, and a superb soundtrack by the tragically passed Nujabes. -Cons: it was made in the weird era of the transition from analog to digital animation and so the /series master/ was animated at a painfully low resolution, so even if there's a bluray out there (I haven't looked,) it will be an upscale, which doesn't always look the best. as well, there are scenes and themes that may make the viewer uncomfortable here and there.

The Works of Studio Ghibli Oh, I'm sorry, Ponyo too suffused with childhood wonder for you? My Neighbor Totoro not depressing enough?  In addition to the infamous Grave of the Fireflies, Studio Ghibli has made a wealth of movies that aren't aimed squarely at the kodomo (children's) sector. -Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: climate change existential dread, the movie -Castle in the Sky: government obsession with obtaining weapons of mass destruction destroys everything beautiful, the movie -Pom Poko: human-caused deforestation and urbanization is destroying the natural world and all that live in it, the movie -Princess Mononoke: industrialization will be the death of everything beautiful in the world, the movie, with a side of sometimes everyone (and no one) is the villain when everyone is simply trying to survive -Howl's Moving Castle: The Physical Manifestation of Depression is a Liquid Ooze, the Movie, also War Is Bad It's not all depressing, but let it never be said that Hayao Miyazaki was subtle. Whisper of the Heart is a good coming-of-age story, Kiki's Delivery Service is a classic, Tales from Earthsea is divisive among fans of Ursula K. Le Guin but I personally liked it. From one studio alone there is a wealth of opportunities.

And that's really the point. These are just some from the top of my head. There are so very many options outside of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre that I couldn't list them all if I was here for a week. Or as Madoka Magica so ruthlessly showcases, even series that appear a certain way on the surface might not be what you bargained for once you look into them! These are all (I think) mostly older, mainstream-appeal series that should be easy to track down, too -- there are all kinds of singular animations like The Diary of Tortov Roddle, crowdfunded experiments like KICK-HEART, Masterpiece World Theatre renditions of classic (western) novels that never get talked about, films like A Silent Voice that confront social issues- and of course, series like Rozen Maiden that helped popularize this very hobby!

There is literally an ocean of content to explore from Japanese creators alone, and it opens up even more if you look into works from other parts of Asia- just look at how popular manwha have become, or Chinese animations like Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild! It's a genre unto itself, with all the breadth of content and inter-industry problems that come with it, and without any of the respect that similar art forms have been granted over the years. The way an entire culture's art form is often disparaged, disregarded, and belittled- and by extension, the way most of Asia's animated endeavors are often rolled up into that reductive dismissal along with anime and manga- is honestly Not Great, and there is absolutely a thread of xenophobia that runs through it. The industry has so very many problems (low wages, poor training, overwork of everyone ever, archaic financial modules, the exclusivity and breadth of merchandising necessary to turn a profit and how it leads to consumer burnout and disconnection over time, and yes, the way minors are portrayed not just in anime, but in Japanese media in general- and how much of that is actually bad (some of it is indeed,) and how much if it is cultural difference (I've heard people call the scene where the family in Totoro bathe together problematic because of the nudity, but I've also only heard people say that from the West)

-- none of the actual problems affecting the people who produce this medium are gonna improve when the general response to "animators frequently have to live at home to survive" is "that's what happens when you're a weeb."  It's 5am and I'm gonna point out the problems in the narrative around how we discuss this genre of entertainment because it's important, damn you! Regardless, thank you for coming to my unasked for and overlong TED talk about animation on a doll collecting drama blog, feel free to call me a pathetic weeb etcetera on your way out- but while you do so, might I suggest you also go watch a choice animated series! My current go-to is Bofuri, which is a cute-girls-doing-cute-things moefied isekai series that I refuse to apologize for watching. Be free. (The battle scenes are great and it captures the feeling of learning to play a new MMO with your friends better than most video-game-based anime I've seen in a long, long time. does anyone even still remember .hack? how about serial experiments lain...?)

~Anonymous

[you-turn-it-into-light]

KEIKO – Lantana (2020) Album Review

I’m a bit late to the party, but I was hoping to review Keiko’s debut album after it came out. I’m so happy this album is finally out, it’s been a long time coming. 

Overall thoughts:

The cover for the Limited-Edition A is super pretty. It’s simple and effective. The Super-Duper Limited Edition’s cover is super ugly to me though. I hate the brown and the pink and the way there’s just a square in the middle of the cover. Yuck.

 I don’t like the main outfit either. The two pieces are okay separately (the jacket’s still kind of gaudy) but together it just looks messy. Two different textures and patterns and two different colour pallets is just a no go.

It’s a bit of a shame that there was only really one new song but hearing the studio versions of the other songs were nice and it gave some room to compare.

Be Yourself

Nope, still don’t like it. The song is so generic sounding I didn’t like it when I first heard it and I still don’t. The lyrics don’t make the song any better either. The arrangement is also weird – Why does the pre-chorus try to bring to mood up with a couple of interesting drum phrases only for the chorus to go to a boring repetitive rock beat, with the bass and guitar just plodding along? The only ‘outstanding’ thing about this song is that is has Keiko hit an F#3 and an F#5 which is pretty cool.

七色のフィナレ (Nanairo no Finale)

I was disappointed by this song. It’s boring and repetitive and I’m not a big fan of the arrangement. The lyrics are generic, but I don’t expect much from a beginner lyricist like Keiko. I wish there were more because the ‘lalalala’s got a little annoying. The only part I kind of like is the first verse and the ‘todoku kana’ part because it sounded a little dramatic.

 始まりは (Hajimari wa)

I like the instrumentation and beat of this song, it’s catchy and interesting to use such minimal phrases to get such an interesting sound. I’m not a fan of Keiko’s singing style here at all, the vowels are pronounced in a way that seems so forced. Keiko’s voice doesn’t suit this type of song very much, but I would’ve preferred her usual singing style to this. Overall, it’s a fine song and I don’t dislike it?

茜 (Akane)

Okay, I know I haven’t been very positive thus far and I’m disappointed to say that this isn’t the exception. I don’t like this song at all really. It sounds like a discount worldly Yuki Kajiura song and to me everything about this song is forgettable. The instrumentation, the arrangement, the melody, the lyrics, and even the singing is forgettable. The ��nobashitemo’ is also super annoying imo. Let’s hope I can be more positive in the next song.

溜息の消える街 (Tameiki no Kieru Machi)

I wish this song sounded like the live. The live version was more atmospheric with emphasis on the acoustic guitar, but this studio version has emphasis on the electronic rhythm which really isn’t my cup of tea. If the lyrics were less world building and mysterious I think it’d fit the song more and make the lyrics and the instrumentation sound less like two contrasting elements of a weirdly jumbled picture. Speaking of lyrics, I wish the ending weren’t just a repeat of the first verse. It would’ve been nice for a conclusion of sorts. The melody of this song is very nice and Keiko’s voice in her normal deep timbre makes it sound lovely. I especially love the ‘itsumadedemo uuuuhhh’ it hits my heart in a special way.

Ray

This song is pretty dramatic, it has interesting electronic elements which leads up to a heavy (but a bit generic sounding) chorus. I really love the melody in the pre-chorus, and I like the melody of the chorus. The disappointing factor for me is Keiko’s singing style. Unlike Hajimari wa, this song fits a deeper voice so much better but she for some reason decided to go with this style of weird vowels shapes that don’t fit the song at all and sound like she’s trying too hard. It doesn’t change much in the chorus which unfortunately makes the high notes sound more shouty than resonant.

夕顔 (Yuugao)

Very pleasant surprise. When I first listened to the song I found to be quite melancholic and depressing and that still sticks with me. This song isn’t relaxing to me at all. The melody in the verse is a little annoying and repetitive (I kept trying to end the second phrase with B3 instead of an E4 because I thought that sounded more conclusive), the melody for the rest of the song is so nice and melancholic I love it. The ‘futari de’ especially is lovely. Keiko’s voice is lovely in this song, very quiet and controlled and not cutesy.

エンドロール (End Roll)

Very cool! The arrangement is quite simple, but I think it works rather than detracts. The chorus is my favorite part with the parts that go back and forth, it’s super catchy to me. I quite like that digital effect they use in the chorus, I can’t describe it well but it sounds like an explosion that comes down at the song continues. The only thing I’m not a fan of is Keiko’s singing style of the verses, she uses that annoying vowel sound again (The ‘o’ sounds especially are quite grating imo) and I prefer the live version. If I were to describe this song in a sentence, it’d be ‘Simple yet effective’.

Change The World’s Color

Nope, not a fan. The first thing I thought when I heard the first 10 seconds of this song was ‘wow this sounds like an anisong’ and boy was I right. This song is on about the same level of generic as Be Yourself, but only with added cheesy anisong strings. I found it impressive that Keiko reached a C5 twice in the song, good on her. Not much to say other than even though I don’t like it, it somehow still ends up in my head 24/7.

命の花 (Inochi no Hana)

Keiko’s debut song… it’s boring. The melody is fine but ultimately forgettable. I like the ‘kimi no negau michi e’ part in the bridge but that’s really about it. Keiko’s singing is as lovely as usual, but the song simply doesn’t carry it. For her first lyrics, they’re fine, about as good as I expect from a beginner lyricist. I also cannot forgive using synth violins when you’re a big record label and you’re using them for an artists debut song, ugh.

Overall, I’ve been pretty harsh and negative. Keiko’s singing skills are as great as always, but her singing style can be wonderful and immersing at best and grating at the worst. The songs have a lot of variety, but only two of them really stood out to me as being anything interesting compared to songs of the same style. I’m hoping that Keiko as a solo artist has more interesting things coming up!

[32ortonedge32dh]

Red Hot Chili Peppers - By the Way

　   　   

Background

I’ve been a lifelong fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  I wanted to go back and actually review one of their most lauded albums and one of my favorites of all time.  This is their eighth album overall, their second album after John Frusciante rejoined the band, and one of their most successful.

Track by Track Thoughts

Even from the introduction to the introduction to the album, “By the Way” is great.  I love how Flea’s bass and John Frusciante’s guitar go from working together to almost playing against each other.  The lyrics, of course, make no sense.  It’s a Red Hot Chili Peppers record, right?  Anthony Kiedis is back rapping, but putting them at the beginning of the album might lead you to believe that they’re more prominent than they actually are throughout.  That’s not a knock on the song itself but it’s an interesting choice for a lead single, title track, and album opener.  There’s a nice buildup into the “heavy” sections of the song, and for a rock band the guitar plays so much less of a role than any listener would come to expect from the genre or the band.  You’ll hear this a lot in this review but John comes through with amazing backing vocals, with tracks both in a high register and matching Kiedis’.  The way they build with every iteration of the hook is really cool, and the timbre between the two singers is really nice on the ears.  My only gripes are that the “bow wow wow” and vocal effects on the verses aren’t too great isolated, but even still they add to the feeling of the song.  I also still wanna know what the hell he’s saying on the bridge even if it’s just gibberish.  (Side note: A while back I made my own remix of this song.  You can listen to it here.  You might not like it but I do, it’s sure different at least.)

“Universally Speaking” is relatively subdued, but since it follows the soft ending of “By the Way,” it feels a little bit more powerful.  There’s almost a tension in the instrumentation which is really interesting to listen for.  This is one of the tracks where you realize the interesting niche genius of Anthony’s vocals.  It’s not technically proficient or amazing on its own but it all always just works so well with the music he’s over.  The guitar tone on this song is really really good, I love it.  One thing I don’t like though is the effect on the guitars in the pre-chorus; it’s mixed so badly as is the final hook on this track.  Rick Rubin is trash.  The backing vocals, on the other hand, are so perfect.  On the subject of Frusciante, this is a typical solo of his: It’s simple and it follows the bones of what’s there, nestling in so nicely the actual technicality is irrelevant.  The song as a whole doesn’t exactly go anywhere musically, but it’s still nice.

“This Is the Place” is the first bass-led song of the album, with a really nice riff that unfortunately disappears in the mix after the intro.  Rick Rubin is trash.  I’m not the biggest fan of the held notes in the vocals, it’s never been Anthony’s strong suit.  A positive thing I can say about the production is that the chorus is mixed so well.  The high end, low end, and mids are all represented really nicely and come through clearly.  The backing vocals are great, naturally (seeing the pattern?).  There’s a terrible transition between vocal takes around 1:22 in, it’s so distracting and takes you out of it if you’re listening intently.  Rick Rubin is trash.  The synthesizer “woo oo ooo” is pleasant, but it sounds so similar to John’s voice that I wonder if it would have been better as a bit that he sang.  The guitar tone on the chorus is so nice.  I like how it bursts into the bridge without needing to be heavy.  The vocal melody is so good they reused it for B-side “Rivers of Avalon.”  The backing vocals are amazing.  Sublime.  The lyrics are powerful throughout this track and are a great microcosm how personal Anthony’s writing has gotten on this album.  It doesn’t have a big ending or anything but it doesn’t need one.

The four part guitar section on “Dosed” absolutely beautiful.  Flea actually contributed to some of the playing.  It’s so hard to accomplish without the magic of a studio or a bunch of players that they didn’t actually play this song live for fifteen years; it took a new guitarist and a lot of loop pedaling to get it done.  There’s delightful vocals on this thing from John and, more surprisingly, Anthony too.  When that hook hits and John’s voice comes through so clearly it’s just awesome.  The way they trade lines, the emotion, Anthony’s counterpoint harmony that’s low but audible in the mix, it’s just a perfect chorus.  The little switch-ups on the last repetition and the transition into the bridge are really great too.  The solo is, again, nothing special on paper, but with the beauty of the song as a whole and in particular the guitar work, any sort of flashiness would almost certainly detract from it all.  One thing that’s often overlooked are Chad’s drums on the Chili Peppers’ studio recordings.  They’re flawless every time.  The tone, the way he creates and sits in the groove, the way he complements all three members of the band while laying down tracks that are so nice to focus on all on their own.  It stuck out to me more than usual here.  This is a perfect track as-is and that’s not easy, usually even less so when you break the five minute mark.

“Don’t Forget Me” is the second song where Flea’s bass leads the charge.  I’ve always been a sucker for pretty bass chords and that’s this whole song.  I’m not a fan of the echo on the vocals though, especially after the solo.  The guitar is simple and nice.  It manages to be organized and frenetic at the same time somehow, peaceful and chaotic at once.  There’s a big explosion into the hook, with nice backing vocals from both Anthony and John that are infinitely more interesting than the main ones, but I suspect they wouldn’t be nearly as cool if they were the focal point.  It’s a well written piece.  It’s fascinating how many errant vowel sounds Kiedis can cram into the word “alone.”  This one has another simple solo, with some vocals mimicking it that build up behind the guitar and sound so cool.  The bass builds too, getting louder and sounding cool as usual.  The ending almost feels improvised, like one of their live jams.  While I’m almost certainly sure it isn’t, it gives the song a cool resolution and a different feeling than others on here.

I love the electronic drum beat that plays throughout “The Zephyr Song,” just below the live drums.  The riff is so cool, I swear I could listen to it on repeat all day.  The backing vocals on the verses are just profoundly gorgeous.  The bass adds to the low end without distracting or taking away from anything.  It’s just filling the sound out and I’d bet that’s a Frusciante decision.  The hi-hat work is excellent.  I feel like the chorus could be improved but I’m not really sure how...maybe more interesting vocals?  Maybe more guitar?  I dunno.  You tell me.  The transition back into verses is awesome, and John just keeps coming with the vocals until we’re right back in the chorus.  The ooh la las are so great.  You could count the notes in the solo on your fingers but it’s a nice little eight bar change-up.  There’s more great vocals on the bridge too.  There’s a really, really annoying AutoTune hiccup three minutes in.  Rick Rubin is trash.  The dreamy ending is the cherry on top of this song, I especially like how Anthony’s “forever” fades into John’s vocals until he’s the only one that’s left singing.

Next is “Can’t Stop.”  (Side note: I'm using the Frusciante single/video mix because it's the one I have and I respect myself too much to listen to Rubin's mix.  Rick Rubin is trash.)  This song has such a fun riff and buildup to start it off.  Anthony brings back the raps.  The bass is so good, especially when it kicks in; it makes the song.  Then you get the backing vocals, which are awesome and turn amazing in the second verse and perfect in the third.  I kinda wish the chorus would evolve in the same sort of way that the verses do, but it’s still a good one.  All the elements hit you at once and come together.  You can pick out any one to focus on and you’ll feel how good it is.  The hand claps in the rhythm section add to the general fun feeling of the song.  The reggae-influenced breakdown is cool, I wish the drums would have let up here but it still works the way it is.  The solo is, in my eyes, really just an excuse to let the bass get over, it’s just so many held notes you can relegate it to the back of your ears if that makes sense.  You get to really appreciate what Flea’s doing.  I wish Anthony’s energy would come down with the rest of the song, but as long as we don’t get a repeat of this, I guess I’ll take it.

“I Could Die for You�� is a slower, chiller number.  I find myself coming back to it less for some reason even though I enjoy it.  There’s a little issue with the vocals again at thirty seconds, maybe another problem mixing different tracks.  Rick Rubin is trash.  This overall just feels like a quick little mini-ballad.  The vocals on the chorus, all the voices and notes complement so well.  The best part of the entire song is John singing “how we are.”  The swirly atmospheric effects could have been left out for sure.  There’s really cool guitar ideas just sprinkled in, mostly at the end.

“Midnight” has some of my favorite strings in any song ever.  They add so much all throughout.  It’s a hard track not to sing along to, especially as John joins in on the pre-chorus.  They’re easy notes to reach, too, but they sound good.  And who doesn’t wanna be a lotus kid?  It doesn’t really venture anywhere musically, but it builds so well and sounds so good that it’s another one you can’t tinker with.  On Anthony’s end there’s some great multisyllabic rhymes, at least great on the ear.  I can’t really speak to the quality of the lyrics themselves.

Right away on “Throw Away Your Television” you hear this cool bassline, and then the drums kick in, bringing this cool primal energy to the track.  The guitar starts off just playing these little stabs and scratches for the most part; it’s another exercise in buildup.  This is a very digital track for this stage in their career, lots of effects and glitchy sounds and effects.  I can’t tell if there’s an effect on the vocals at some points or if it’s bad editing, but I’m not a fan either way.  The solo here is so cool.  On the surface it’s just this series of random notes, no connection to each other, all thrown at you so quickly with no breather, but it works together to create the resolution to all this craziness.  It’s like the whole song is a vehicle for it and it works really well.

“Cabron.”  What a cute, pretty song.  All acoustic which is rare for the Chilis.  It’s got this Spanish feel to it which makes perfect sense when you hear the lyrics and understand it’s from the perspective of a gang member trying to end this warfare between his gang and another.  It’s so upbeat and happy but still trying to get that feeling across and it does it well.  And using “cabrón” as the title and hook is a genius move.  It’s something you’d call your best friend and your worst enemy.  No matter how the subject’s message and efforts are received, it fits as his response to theirs.  This is one of my favorites.

“Tear” is too long if not unnecessary.  It could easily be cut down to three, three and a half minutes if it even had to make the album.  There’s no reason for it to though when there’s so many great B-sides like “Fortune Faded,” “Havana Affair,” and even the instrumental “Slowly Deeply.”  The keyboard is nice but this is one that can’t afford to not go anywhere.  It should evolve somehow.  The song’s best feature, as is par for the course on this project, is the backing vocals on the chorus.  The bass is kinda nice and the trumpet is better, so John and Flea’s contributions are the only reasons to really play this one.

“On Mercury” is an amazing song and it picks up the pace after “Tear.”  That sound is really nice, from the...horn?  Maybe something else.  It’s definitely some sort of wind instrument and it’s reminiscent of a car horn, but not in a bad way.  It’s such a fun song with the bass, the guitar, the drums (especially the hi-hats), and the great vocals from Anthony and John (but we all know who the MVP is at this point).  The way they expand on the pre-chorus the second go-round is cool.  The second chorus repetition having the dueling backing vocals is even cooler, but the third, wow.  You get absolutely steamrolled by this sexy, lush wall of sound.  Synths and some dreamy guitar and John’s voice, all playing together and separately and making something better than the sum of its parts.  Beautiful.

You gotta love that bass sound on “Minor Thing.”  This is another fun one, but less than the one that precedes it.  There’s a pretty cool percussive vocal pattern and almost a Hendrix-like solo sound, although not as obvious as what we’ll see later in their discography on “Dani California.”  The strings are nice here but they’re not so necessary.  They don’t add enough to be warranted in my opinion.

The penultimate song, “Warm Tape,” is more chill than the previous two by far.  I’m not a fan at all of the big room effect on Anthony’s verses.  The acoustic guitar is used so well on the chorus, and gives you almost a Western feel when combined with the electric guitar’s notes in the background and the voices of Anthony and John.  It’s a really cool song.  The synthesizer is a nice touch.  The “settle for love” vocals just don’t sound good though.  It’s got its charm, but it feels like a cool down before the main event.

“Venice Queen” has a really beautiful riff to start with.  Nice and understated, too.  The atmosphere is built so well.  It reminds me a lot of the album Shadows Collide with People, which just shows me it’s a Frusciante production.  Both singers do great here, the melody, the harmony, everything.  The piano and acoustic guitar that’s peppered in sound so good.

Then you get to 2:40 and you get an entirely different song.  It’s chiller and more exciting all at once.  The acoustic guitar goes from afterthought to forefront, while the electric slides to the background just giving the track texture.  We get another great new vocal melody and, at the “G-L-O-R-I-A” bit, a really cool new riff, ascending and descending all at once.  John’s backing vocals take the forefront at times here to great effect.  The emotions are palpable again on this song, but interestingly more so through John than Anthony, even though these lyrics are presumably only personal to Anthony.  Maybe John’s drawing from something in his own past, or maybe he’s just that good.  My educated guess is that it’s both.  This is the longest song on the album and for good reason.  It’s essentially a twofer and both are amazing.

Final Thoughts

There were hints on Californication, but the funk rock, the punkiness, the youth-gone-wild je ne sais quoi of old is all but gone with this incarnation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  There’s not much rap on this release, there’s not much of that old funky energy.  Maybe you get hints on songs like “Can’t Stop” or “On Mercury.”  But don’t mistake that for a bad thing.  You trade that off but you get a grown man energy on tracks like “Throw Away Your Television.”  You get better songwriting like on “Venice Queen.”  You get a wider range of emotion.  It’s definitely an evolution for the better.

This is as close to a John Frusciante passion project as the Chili Peppers could ever put out and it shows in the energies, textures, and guitar work that they never truly replicated before or since.  If you’re new to this new group and looking for a follow-up, I’d recommend their latest album The Getaway from 2016, or Frusciante’s aforementioned solo album Shadows Collide with People.

There’s definitely things that could have been executed better or tinkered with here, but overall you can’t hate on this.  There’s so many perfect songs and parts of songs all throughout.  To me this is an easy 9.5/10, but since I don’t do decimals on here for whatever reason, my final score is a 9/10.

[coll2mitts]

#89 Head (1968)

From the minds of Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson, is a 110 minute acid trip featuring The Monkees.  Their television show had been recently cancelled, and this movie is essentially their former-Disney star “I’m an adult!” moment in an attempt to break free of their preassigned roles and become Serious Artists.

I cannot adequately express the despair I felt when Head literally announced there would be no plot to this movie, and would instead be a series of skits.  It makes sense in the context of The Monkees, since they were formed for a television show.  Each section of the movie has a different genre, ranging from a traditional Western, a boxing movie, a television commercial, a stage-performed musical number, horror... they are all here, which makes an overall narrative pretty hard to discern, other than The Monkees’ general discontentment with their current position.

It begins similarly to A Hard Day’s Night, where the Monkees are being chased by... we don’t know what yet, but we can assume it is not excited teenage girls.  They then launch themselves off of a bridge, trip on LSD, find some mermaids, and hold a kissing contest that only triggered my Covid-spread panic.  The movie doesn’t give you much time to breathe before it comes in hot with a football player attacking soldiers, a football stadium cheering for war, and The Monkees playing a live concert with a screaming crowd cut together with scenes of civilians being killed during the Vietnam war.

Not gonna lie, I didn't think I'd have to address the Vietnam War at all during this project (unfortunately, Meet the Feebles took that assumption away from me rather quickly).  To be honest, I was really expecting this more from The Beatles, especially with John Lennon's very famous pivot to anti-war protest songs.  In college, I wrote a sociology paper on the Vietnam War's influence on popular culture and the function of the media created, and not once in all my research were The Monkees even seriously cited, other than some coy allusion that “Last Train to Clarksville” might have had something to do with a soldier travelling to an army base.  I was so taken aback by the opening scene of this movie, that I literally pulled out my paper and the books I had purchased to write it to see if I had missed something.  There was ONE sentence about Mike Nesmith singing a protest song before he joined The Monkees.  Granted, if you were alive during the 1960s, to be ignorant of the war in general would have been so incredibly tone-deaf.  Had I realized this movie would be political in any way, I would have expected this.  In one book, the author had compiled over 750 songs that directly addressed the war.  Record sales tripled during the decade, and Woodstock might be the most famous festival we’ve ever held in the US - processing the war through music was very much *a thing*.  So, of course, I had to dive into this, because my brain can't just be like, "Well, I guess The Monkees hated the Vietnam War like the majority of the population, I guess.”

There wasn’t much to find, other than this bizarre clip of Davey Jones on an 80s talk show bragging and singing about how he had evaded the draft.  Turns out, the writer/director of this picture, Bob Rafelson, really controlled the message of this movie, and he inserted these scenes as commentary on the performative aspect of war, and how television “...makes you inured to the realities of life.  Oh yes, it brings it into the living room, but then you don’t have to fucking deal with it.  There is no distinction made between the close-up of the young girl responding hysterically to the appearance of The Monkees and to the shot of the assassination at the same time.  And then the hysterical girls attack the stage where The Monkees are playing and shred their clothing off.  But they’re not The Monkees, they are wooden dummies.  They’ll shred anything, as long as it’s the thing to do.  Rape the stage, attack the musicians, real or unreal, who cares?  And it was just pointing out that there was a sort of a mindlessness to, as The Beatles used to complain all the time, to the appreciation of the music.”

There’s a lot going on in this statement...  I’ll agree that the constant barrage of violence and unrest eventually numbs you to it.  Especially now, with a 24-hour news cycle, and twitter just bombarding you with every fucking egregious thing going on in the world at once.  A sense of hopelessness overtakes you; The doom-scrolling will only pacify you into not acting, because what the fuck can you do to change anything?  There are too many problems, and they’re too large to solve on your own.

The second part of this statement, where teenage girls will do anything “as long as it’s the thing to do” is pretty insulting.  I suppose the attitude of teenage girls being easily manipulated to enjoying things was amplified with Beatlemania.  Its continued on, where bands like New Kids on the Block, The Backstreet Boys, and One Direction are immediately dismissed as superfluous because teenage girls like them, and teenage girls are shallow because they’re driven by their hormones.  What’s unbelievably frustrating about this mindset is it has been disproved time and time again, INCLUDING The Beatles.  I know more dudes who rep for them than I do women.  Shit, in this dumpsterfire of a year, Harry Styles’ new album has been one of the few positive things that has kept me going, and that came out 10 months ago.  With the success of kpop as well, a lot more people are starting to come around to “manufactured content that teenage girls like can be good, actually”.

The Beatles complaining about how their music is secondary to the mania about them is really rich, considering their legacy now.  It’s not like they were that attractive or charming... I sat through 2 of their movies and the only person I even mildly connected with was Ringo, because he was a goofy dope.  I’m fairly certain teenage girls were buying their records and going to their shows because they liked the music.  As a former teenage girl, let me tell you, the illusion of depth and sensitivity is way more attractive than a pretty face.

Teenage girls made The Monkees and The Beatles successful, and for the director, who directly profited off of that success, to make a movie that criticizes them really rubs me the wrong way.  Also, it was the fucking 1960s, about as volatile of a decade as you could get *until* now.  Maybe teenage girls focused so much on The Monkees and The Beatles because it was one of the few uncomplicated things that could bring them reprise from the violence unfolding around them.  But whatever, disparage their money lining your pockets, I guess.

The skits afterward are pretty unremarkable.  Micky is in the middle of a desert trying to get happiness out of a Coke machine, only to find it, and the task itself empty.  He then blows up the Coke machine with a tank given to him by the Italian army.

The Monkees are given a tour of a manufacturing facility, only to see what they are producing isn’t a quality product, and the workers themselves are either fake, or endangered by the endeavor.  There’s a few scenes where they fight against their predetermined personalities in the band, or what their fans might think of their behaviors.  They are used in a dandruff shampoo advertisement and vacuumed up and held hostage in a black box.  There is an outstanding upbeat musical number performed by Davy (and Toni Basil!) about a boy whose father left him.  He lays it all out on the dance floor, only to be criticized by Frank Zappa of all people, for not having a message in his music that will save the youth of America.

While they are searching for answers on how to escape the box they’re trapped in, or purpose in what they’ve accomplished, they find nothing.  Peter tries to enlighten them with a bunch of culty bullshit, but instead Davy loses his shit and starts physically attacking literally everything featured throughout the movie, culminating in The Monkees running from their movie studio and jumping off a bridge to free themselves.  They unfortunately are captured and shoved back in the black box, awaiting the next time they will be carted out to market something else for The Teens to buy.

I probably don’t need to tell you that this movie flopped.  The studio purposely left The Monkees out of all the promotional material because they thought it might detract from the serious motion picture they were trying to release.  The problem with this, however, is if you don’t know anything about The Monkees, this movie is not going to make sense to you.  I had to watch several behind-the-scenes clips to get any semblance of an idea what they were trying to achieve.  Sure, the Capitalism and Manufactured Entertainment is Bad theme is pretty easy to pick out, but why The Monkees were the ones saying this after being immersed in the middle of it for three years is an important position to understand beforehand.  And even if you were a Monkees fan, like my mother was, this basically shits on their entire experience in show business, so it probably doesn’t hit too well with their core demographic, either.  I respect what they were trying to do here, but it’s no mystery to me why this movie has almost entirely been lost to time.

I’d like to say this ends my series on rock bands that decided to make musical movies, but next on the list is a little story about a pinball-wizard-that-could, Tommy.

[bonerhitler]

I Miss Monster Raising Games

Pokemon was pretty rad. Not just rad, but somewhat revolutionary. While the concept of capturing and repurposeing monsters wasn't exactly new to video games, the Shin Megami Tensei series having made a similar concept one of its gameplay staples years before Pokemon came about, Pokemon was certainly one of the first mainstream titles to do such a thing and gain as big a following. This isn't about Pokemon though. This is about the games that surfed in on Pokemon's tide, the Pokemon clones as they're often called even though several of them were interesting departures from the Pokemon format. I'm going to excuse still existing franchises from this list, SMT and Digimon still thrive for example, as I'd rather talk about the cool games that never had the same star power.

So, up first on my list of monster raising games that were cool is Robopon. The first Robopon game put the clone in Pokemon Clone. The monsters were all robots and you used magnets instead of pokeballs to capture them and force them to fight for you,  but otherwise the game was incredibly similar to Pokemon. Robots even somehow evolved when they gained arbitrary levels. Even the basic plot was similar, you played as a kid who set out on his grand robopon adventure to fight all the league trainers and win the biggest tournament. The first robopon game wasn't very remarkable. No, what I'd like to talk about is the second one.

It came out on the GBA and it completely changed the formula to drop the pokemon clone aspect as much as possible. No longer did you catch wild robopon, instead you gained new ones by “sparking” batteries together, basically meaning you find or buy different types of batteries throughout the game and combine them in various different ways to get a lot of different combinations with rarer batteries leading to rarer and more powerful robopon. Where it shined though was that the plot went off the rails involving some novel ideas such as the protagonist accidentally murdering a crazy wanna-be pharoh, escaping an antagonist because you knock out his manslave and leave him locked up in his bdsm gear, and some bizarre apple and microsoft joke characters, the game is so weird I genuinely can't tell if the translation team is just having a go, or if the original release was this weird too. And I love it. If you have the means to do so I wholly recommend playing this game, skip the first one it's entirely lackluster, just to experience the insane story.

Second series I want to profess my love for is Monster Rancher. This one was a bit more popular, it even had a brief anime in the 90's. Despite being almost nothing like Pokemon, it gets branded as a Pokemon Clone for the sole reason that you train monsters to fight. Gameplay-wise the whole series has very little in common with Pokemon. Rather than just capturing wild monsters and making them fight wild beasts until they get strong, you have to generate your own personal monster from a CD and then have to train it. You feed it, pick how it trains and have to take care of it. Monsters can die if they get too old, or if you mistreat them. You have to fight it in tournaments to earn money, you need money to train future monsters. The whole goal of the game is to beat the top ranked tournaments, but once you start playing there's so much more to motivate you. Whether it's unlocking your favorite breed, or just raising the strongest creature possible.

The series took off in popularity with Monster Rancher 2, and to this day that's still my favorite entry in the series. It had the single highest variety of monsters and monster species over any of its sequels and it was the most open about combining monsters as well. Later entries introduced some really cool species, and had some neat concepts but they also tacked on less fun gimmicks and awkward story modes and adventure segments that detracted from the game's core gameplay, which was raising a monster. In the first two games you never really had to worry about the date much, you were free to play the game at your own pace as much as you wanted and the game rewarded you for it even. Whether it was having one specific monster at a specific time of year, resulting in a strange event that unlocked two new monster types, or a gradual event that took place over several in-game years and unlocked yet another breed for you to play with. In three and later it was entirely possible to get stuck because the story wanted you to face off against a boss monster, but you had just started raising a new monster yourself and now you couldn't progress the game, but the story events were hindering your ability to train your monster.

The closest Monster Rancher would ever come to hitting that Monster Rancher 2 high again was Monster Rancher DS. Which, strangely enough, was actually Monster Rancher DS 2 but the first one had never been localized. In the DS games rather than using disks to generate monsters, you used words. While monster variety was still far smaller than in Monster Rancher 2, the game almost managed to capture 2's heart again with far less story and more focus on just raising your monster and having fun. Unfortunately the game was just too shallow in the end and the localization was buggy enough that getting all of the monsters was rendered impossible due to a glitch.

Third, and last up for now is Jade Cocoon. Jade Cocoon will always hold a special place in my heart for being a fantastic and unique game, with character designs seemingly straight out of a Studio Ghibli film. On the surface it's fairly Pokemon Clone-ish where in you play as a kid tasked with saving his village by delving into a mystical forest and figuring out what's what, except you can't defend yourself for shit. You have a knife, the monsters are monsters. So you play a magical flute and seal them in cocoons, take them to your girlfriend who purifies them into usable minions and you're set. Make them fight and all is well.

Except that only lasts so far, a weak monster will always be weak, even when you level it up. So you have to fuse monsters! And that's where this game gets cool. It has a sort of system where it takes the skin from one monster, applies it to the skeleton of the other and sorts out what skills and body parts it gets from there. So not only do you wind up with unholy abominations against nature, but if you're really bad at planning you might wind up with something that only knows how to punch but doesn't have any fists. But if you're good at planning, and keep fusing all your punch monsters real well then you'll get a monster with some big ol' punchy ham hands and some good punching skills. It'll still look like something that crawled out of a broken demo disk, but hey it's a cool idea. The environments are also interesting, mostly just spooky overgrown forests and jungles, but there's always something about PS1 era pre-rendered backgrounds I love.

There's also a Jade Cocoon 2 but it's bad. It's so, so bad.