4.0 out of 5 stars
Sugee! Dragon Ash does it again. 4 1/2 stars!!!, April 11, 2007
This review is from: Independiente (Audio CD)
I think lead singer/lyricist Kenji must have first fallen in love with the Brasilian culture back in 2002 when the FIFA World Cup came to Japan. Dragon Ash had a song on the official FIFA CD and Ronaldo was definitely the MVP of those games. I say this because their last two studio albums (Rio de Emocion & Independiente) have been greatly influenced by Brasilian music. In fact, Independiente is more than a sequel to Rio de Emocion--it's a remake. And as a result the album offers little sonic variety and it doesn't break any real new ground from their last album, which is why it gets 4.5 instead of 5 stars from me. One of Dragon Ash's greatest attributes is their inventiveness and they're kind of retreading old ground here.
However, Independiente might be a remake or a retread, but it is a better album than Rio de Emocion. Independiente has much more intricate and textured guitar sounds than Rio, which had a few clunkers on the album. Independiente is a mid-tempo gem of an album straight through. And some of that DA inventiveness does shine through on the track Ivory, which utilizes a tap dance solo in a seemless and beautiful way (similar to the way Soundgarden did for spoons back in the day on their song "Spoon Man").
Bottom line on INDEPENDIENTE is the album is definitely fun, definitely summer, definitely worth your money.
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