Customer Reviews

Brand New Knife

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Back in the mid to late 90's there seemed to a quite a few Japanese female bands with a sort of go go style and none of them were nearly as fun as Shonen Knife.

What separates this band from many similiar ones is the way they mix great garage rock with professional musicianship.

Although this style of music has seemed to die out in both mainstream and indy circles there will always be a place for this almost perfect pop left to us by the band.

The album starts out really strong with the energetic Explosion and has other good 'rock out' songs you can speed down the highway while listening with your windows down.

But there are a few spots where an almost lazy feel takes over.

Hey Magic Joe and The Perfect World aren't bad songs but they don't really 'fit' in the feel of everything.

The inclusion of several japanese lanuage music tracks is a nice bonus.

Still a great purchase if you're a fan of the groups other albums, but I enjoyed their newer album Happy Hour a little more...

The late Kurt Cobain said of Shonen Knife, "The first time I heard them I was transformed into a giddy teenager at a Beatles concert." I know how he felt! Nirvana helped promote Shonen Knife in the USA and for that they will have my eternal gratitude. "Brand New Knife" must be Shonen Knive's best work! The more I listen to it the more I MUST listen to it! The 70's best rock sounds are given new, vibrant life here. These three ladies from Osaka blast out waves of guitar crunching, drum bashing sound taking me back to rock's golden era simultaniously adding their unique new-age touch. Their songs cover many subjects, from a simple message about good nutrition to ESP. This is classic Shonen Knife at their best!

Of the US releases for Shonen Knife, I believe this is the best of the bunch. The CD goes through a few change-ups in tempo and is consistantly entertaining. My personal favorites on the album are Tower of the Sun, Explosion and Wonder Wine. But there really is not a lemon anywhere to be found.

The bonus part of the album is really neat in the fact that a number of Japanese versions of the songs are included. Which I find just as listenable as the English versions. This I think tells much about the quality of music a band produces.

Though the non-artistic benefits of their brief popularity were probably worth their while, the sudden fascination with Shonen Knife when Happy Hour came out gave Shonen Knife more of a gimmick than a spotlight on their talents. They became more of a food band than a versatile pop trio, and the result was easy to predict--a quick fade of their limelight.

The shame is that at their best moments, Shonen Knife have an interest in almost everything, from food to sumo wrestling to frogs to roller coasters. And their wonderful naivete (or supposed innocence, however you want to look at it) is all over the place on this album. The guitar strumming is a little more indie-pop, the production a little lower in standard than their later, popular work, but this album is just full of gems...and if you weren't convinced yet that they were gems, they appear once again towards in end of the album in Japanese.

Great tracks on this disc: "Explosion!" whether in your native language or not; "Fruits & Vegetables," although I like it less when I think about how they later gimmicked themselves; their pseudo-serious, dark stab at songwriting, "Buddha's Face," which might make you think you've switched albums at first; and "One Week" is the most wonderful clunky Xanga entry put to song ever.

Forget The 5, 6, 7, 8's, forget Puffy Amiyumi, and maybe Melt-Banana is stepping into some more poppy shoes, but Shonen Knife is the bee's knees when it comes to Japanese girl-pop, and if you are going to start anywhere (or, if you've started to venture into Shonen province and haven't been duly impressed yet), this is the place to go. Who knows--you might even jiggle a bit while listening.

shonen knife specializes in ramones/beatles-inspired pop-punk, so the most surprising thing about this disc is that many of the songs are at mid-tempo and reveal a depth that we haven't seen before. don't worry, there are still awesome songs about food, but the slower numbers have a beauty that i think shows artistic growth. how does one describe his love for "the perfect world," which covers rumor-mongering, boredom and military action in a three minute melody? this is one of my favorite shonen knife albums.

I was enchanted the first time I heard this SHONEN KNIFE album - a triumphant mixture of rockin' rhythms, irresistible hooks, and memorable lyrics. Nearly every song jumps off the disk, and the few that don't exploit the band's feeling for unique themes. Maybe not as funny as their other work, but it's hard to push these songs out of your mind.

On its original release, "Brand New Knife" had Japanese and American versions of all the songs - the perfect way to capture SK's phrasing. In either case, this is a pop-punk jewel.