Customer Reviews

FLCL Fooly Cooly OST 1: Addict

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Almost everyone who watched FLCL on Cartoon Network was struck by the excellent music by the Pillows, much of which is available on this soundtrack. The music from the Pillows is fantastic, and this soundtrack is definitely worthy of a purchase, but in terms of American release the track arrangement is unfortunate. Other reviewers have noted the absence of the full-length version of "Last Dinosaur", and of the missing "I Think I Can". Also absent from this album is the catchy "Funny Bunny" and one of my personal favorites, "Blues Drive Monster" (from the fight between Haruhara and gatbot in "Brittle Bullet"). These tracks ARE available, but only on the SECOND soundtrack, which includes several LONG radio drama segments which are of limited entertainment value for the casual anime fan. So unfortunately, if you want to get all the best music from this fantastic OVA, you'll have to invest in BOTH soundtracks. I personally thought the price was worth it.

The Pillows perform hook-infested music, ranging from candy pop to rock, with a bit of metal or punk thrown in here and there. Everything they do is pleasant and addictive, creating a feeling of well-being that should legally require a prescription. This album is sung in Japanese, though some of the songs have so much feeling, you just *know* what they're about. Generally their music reminds me of The Beatles, Cheap Trick, and maybe something I listened to in a previous life, because I sure can't place it in this one.

One Life Is the song you hear after the first few minutes of Ep 1 complete. Nicely evocative pop. A prime example of what I mean when I say you don't need to know what the lyrics are.

I love Hybrid Rainbows. Of course, I see in my mind sequences from the series (All these songs come with my own little FLCL videos), and I see Kanchi rising into the sky, circled by crows, and poor Mamimi thinking he's an angel. It's a really beautiful sequence. It's also when you realize Mamimi is slightly nuts.

The Last Dinosaur--Speedy fuzzy pop--don't know what this reminds me of, but something I used to know.

Sad, Sad Kiddie--Boomfy bassy instrumental, bordering on punk.

Carnival--Ennui abounds. The fed-up main character walks out of class right in front of God and everybody, and the teacher doesn't even notice. She's too busy trying to control her chopsticks.

Runner's High--Here's one for Neil. Punky and cheerful.

Instant Music. Very pop, but I *like* it. Where are these guys stealing their harmonic hooks from? God?

Stalker. Metal-ish and fuzzy.

Stalker in Babylon. Chaotic and a bit more metal than the previous track.

Another Morning--This must be one of those mornings when you wake up late for work. Energetic and chaotic.

Beautiful Morning With You--instrumental, just nice-sounding.

Sleepy Head--Mamimi sprouts a robot out of her head. All hell breaks loose, and is partially solved by feeding the robot really hot curry. People just have robots coming out of their heads left and right in this series, always because they've lost control of their emotions. Think the ID monster in Forbidden Planet.

Bran New Love Song--references to fiber aside, this is a plaintive, lovely tune that reminds me strongly of Tom Petty.

Come Down--Things explode into manga for no apparent reason! The fans object! Good rock.

Blues Drive Monster--cute punk.

White Ash--Reminds me of something by the Pretenders.

Advice--A metallic Joe Satriani/Van Halenish number, merciless but tuneful.

Crazy Sunshine--very pop, but has a good sound. This is one of the fans' favorites but I prefer...

Funny Bunny--Another of those happy tracks, emotionally uplifting in spite of the fact that you don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Skeleton Liar--The Cure on Paxil. I *know* that guitar riff; or at least I think I should.

Little Buster--A lovely little victory song. This sounds like it's in English, but is it?

Nightmare--Yeah! Speed metal!

I Think I Can--Heh, check out that Spanish bullfighter riff. Joyful song heard in the last episode; I associate it with a huge phoenix exploding out of Naota's head and destroying the evil steam-iron.

Ride On Shooting Star--The song that got me hooked on the music in this series. This tune, and its accompanying animation (A jet taking off for parts unknown, Haruko doing trick riding stuff on her Vespa), always makes me feel like school has let out for the summer and wonderful things are awaiting me. *sigh*

First off, if you're reading this, you know the pillows are brilliant. Their virtues are unquestioned, and their songs are wonderful alternative/pop punk bliss. They've brought me musical joy, even if it's from half the world away. However, I have to agree with the other reviewer about the sound quality on this CD. Played at slightly less than normal volume, it sounds fine, but upon cranking it (like any fan of the pillow's music would), it does sound like compressed mp3s. Or something between normal CD quality and a brand new cassette tape (with no hiss). It's kind of a downer, and it takes a little getting used to. However, if that's the price we pay for a cheap domestic version of the FLCL OST, then I'm all for it. By the way, this may just be a rumor, but keep your eyes open for a domestic release of OST 2 sometime this fall...

Okay, so this is the first flcl soundtrack(there are 2 in japan)and it's amazing especially if you love the FLCL anime.It's exactly the same as the japanese version but cheaper.For those looking for the longer version of Last Dinosaur with lyrics and Fool On The Planet(I think i can)those are on FLCL soundtrack 2 which hasn't been released in america yet,but probably will be sometime in the near future now that the first one has.

Anyone who's seen FLCL knows why they should own this album. I loved FLCL even though I hate most anime. Sadly, after purchasing the soundtrack, I'm forced to express some disappointment, though I don't know that I regret the purchase. Unfortunately, this CD suffers from a malady that plagues the whole music industry today. Compression. No - not mp3 compression -- dynamic-range compression. The loudness race.

This album has the worst mastering of any CD I have ever heard. Replaygain values on most tracks range from -10 to -12db. The clipping and distortion are actually worse than other CDs I've seen with compression in that range. Some of the best songs, such as "Hybrid Rainbow" and "Ride on a Shooting Star" seem to have been the most harsly victimized. The engineer that did this and the pinhead label exec that ordered it should be taken out and shot. Destroying music to this degree is a crime against man and nature.

The same crooks who are doing this are going to come back in a few years and try to sell us better sounding "remastered" versions of all the music we've already purchased on some crippled format like SACD or DVD-Audio. Make no mistake - it's a scam, plain and simple. The poor audio quality on CDs today is a result of the mastering, not a limitation of the format. SACD and DVD-A have nothing to do with quality and everything to do with selling you the same music twice in a format that limits what you can do with your music and ties you to THEIR choice of proprietary playback devices.

The other flaw, as other reviewers have mentioned, is that there are essential tracks missing from Volume 1 (Addict). Volume 2 (King of Pirates) has the missing tracks, but also has several long "drama" tracks that aren't interesting unless you understand Japanese and are a hard-core anime fanatic. The mastering isn't QUITE as bad on Volume 2, but most of the non-drama tracks are still heavily distorted. I have not heard the Pillows regular releases such as Happy Bivouac, so I don't know if they are mangled to the same degree. Many of their releases are from the early 90s, so it is likely that they do not. If that is the case, less distorted versions of the same songs are probably available.

The Pillows are a fantastic, and this is an excellent CD, especially if you are a FLCL fan. I highly recomend it. However, I am a little disapointed that certain tracks were absent or abrieviated; I'm pretty sure that there are longer versions of 'the last dinosaur' and 'carnival' with lyrics, and 'I think I can' is nowhere to be found - thus the 4 star rating. Still, the Pillows are excellent and I am very happy I purchased the CD, as I'm sure you will be.

its a pretty awesome cd. i bought it because of the pillows tracks on it, and i got what i wanted. the only thing is that it is mostly instrumental tracks. but if you want a disc with some awesome guitar work, this is a great cd.

I tripped over "Fooly Cooly" on Adult Swim around 2:00am one night and thought that it was the wierdest things I'd ever seen. Now I've got the whole series on DVD. Even after watching it repeatedly, I STILL think it's one of the trippiest, acid-induced, wacked out, STRANGEST series anywhere. The visual style (and the plot line) is truly something from a seriously deranged mind. In other words: I loved it inside the first 5 minutes.
One of the things that grabbed me and held on tight was the music. It plays against the story and setting perfectly and will make you watch the episodes JUST to hear the tracks. I finally found out about the soundtrack and had to have it. I quickly discovered that there are 4 or 5 FLCL soundtracks and started trying to figure out WHICH ONE had the tracks I wanted. I finally stumbled over "Addict" and this is definitely the one for the FLCL fan. (The track that had my brain totally stuck is from the beginning of episode 1 called "One Life").
The music has alot of heavy power-chord distorted guitar riffs set against a range of sounds that are up and down the scale. This is one of those CD's that will definitely test your ability to fine-tune the equalizer because one second it's all high's and the next there's a LOUD old-school distorted electric guitar roar with a banging tough back beat.
It's a great CD and even though "The Last Dinosaur" is only the 30 second version (apparently there is a "full" version, but I haven't heard it). The rest of the CD has all of the familiar sounds that makes the series so groovy and it MORE than makes up for that.
The Pillows are a groovy hardcore band with a sound that doesn't feel like anything else. This CD should NOT be listened to while driving because your foot gets really heavy when it rocks! (especially track #7 "Stalker"!)

I don't know about the other fans of the show, but I just didn't feel whole until I bought this. I first caught the show while channel surfing around damn near 12:30 last summer and got hooked. I saw the last fifteen minuets of the last show and was at loose ends with myself until CN played the series again. But what got me at first wasn't the show (I didn't quite get it then, but it becomes clearer and more cohesive every time I watch it) it was the soundtrack.
I was stunned by how well the music complimented the show, adding its own dramatic element to the whole mess. In my opinion FLCL is one of the best Animes of all time (although this is coming from someone who isn't a particular fan of the well loved anime conventions so I suppose I am a little biased.) Its off the wall and unlike ANYTHING produced before- its closer to MTV's Liquid Television then to any other anime melodrama. Maybe its just Gainax, I don't know... Anyway the music is awesome, powerful, and great listning too.
I do have to confess though- you probably wont enjoy it too much unless you are a fan of the show (personally I think the music is the hook and the story is like an added bonus at the end when it all comes together.) But who would be reading this if they hadn't seen the show anyway?... The tracks are all excellent but are out of order, I think. I don't know why the twenty second version of 'Last Dinosaur' is the opening song. Also there are some weird tracks by different artists (only a couple, check the track listing)that I honestly cannot place in the show- Track 15??? But on the whole it is an excellent collection of Pillows tunes and worth every cent.
And as for the comment by "Anonymous"... Personally, I think his narrow opinion of the music is out of place here. Has he even seen the show? Does the thought of "Japanese Punk" boggle his mind? The music isn't about the TECHNIQUE, MORON! Wake up an smell the curry! Its about the emotion, the drama, and the poetry- read the translations in the liner notes, the lyrics are excellent.
FIVE STARS BABY!

Hmm, FLCL, what a great way to start to become a Pillows fan. Without this amazing anime, I would never of met one of my now favorite bands. Though that's how many americans met them.

This CD features much of the music from FLCL, and really gave the show it's good feel, but I'm going to break this down. The FLCL Soundtracks are basically a mix of many of The Pillows past work. It features many different types of music that they can play as well, which shows their creaitivity in music. They also bring a whole heartedly good feel to it as well. From the haunting song Stalker Goes To Babylon (From their 2nd Compliation, Another Morning, Another Pillows, which came out in 2002) to the Japanese equse Bran-New Lovesong (From their 1999 album Runner's High) , there's a lot of variety and a lot to love.

Basically many songs from their 5th album through their 8th album are on this and the other cd. A few of which are tweaked slightly , like Advice, which was originally a little lighter with Sawao using a funny english accent to even funnier lyrics. And also Runner's High. However many of the songs were cut so they aren't the original verison. Don't start thinking these guys are an instrumental band by any means, they aren't. Well, yes they do have instruamental songs, but most of the songs on here are or were with lyrics in them. A few songs that were changed include Carnival, my personal favorite of theirs and they basically took out the lyrics and cut it down so it was only a minute or so long, compared to the original 4 and a half minute song, and Stalker wasn't really cut down, but the lyrics were taken out.

However this CD doesn't just feature The Pillows, it also has the works of Shinkichi Mitsumune, who uses syntesiers combined with actul insturments to create some very nice songs. Including the somber Rever's Edge to the poppy Pink.

This CD is a great CD, if not the best way to introduce yourself to The Pillows. It'll be helpful in your choosing of wheater or not you want to own more of their CDs, and definatly shows their amazing variety.