3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watashi Wa review, August 13, 2003
"Lost a Few Battles...Won the War" was the first full-length album (to my knowledge) of punkers Watashi Wa. (One of the members is brother to Jeff, lead singer of Noggin Toboggan.) Although their musical style has drastically changed since this first effort, this album is still my favorite of their albums, although I enjoyed their more recent works. I would have to recommend this to fans of more "pop-friendly" punk minus the "sell-out" flavor. Meaning to say, listeners will appreciate the musicality of the album without finding that the band has to compromise and sound mainstream for the sake of building a fan base. (In reality, more listeners would probably be turned off because of the lyrical nature. It is not your typical punk album, partly because it was done by a punk band of Christians.) The anthemesque song "Ship Up or Shape Out" is far from the cliché "punk" or "music," for that matter, that is seen on the likes of MTV--which really is no longer a music channel--for it talks about true love in a Biblical, albeit not explicitly, sense. The other songs are well done and sound different from most typical punk bands, even the ones who claim to be underground (i.e., they don't need to play in the typical lightning-fast punk tempo to retain their punk rock status).
Then again, why label such as "punk"? Have we become such a product of our classifying society that we ought to label everything we hear? Let's leave it at this: Watashi Wa, from this first effort on down to their newest material, is simply a band who puts forth meaningful music. If you can't get this title from this website, please do yourself a favor and try to find it somehow.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excelent Debut from Young West Coast Punks, April 22, 2004
Watashi Wa puts out an impressive debut album here. I was under the impression that I was listening to old school Blink 182 (Dude Ranch and earlier) when I first heard "Lost A Few Battles But Won the War" at my friends house. It's not that "Lost A Few Battles..." has one awesome killer song, or that it delves into uncharted musical waters, but that it's just a good album. I can listen to this thing all the way through, without skipping a single song. The melodies are catchy, and the lyrics are sincere, there's nothing fake or watered down about this CD. Watashi Wa puts out an effort of a band with twice their maturity, while still remaining their youthful edge. Although the CD may not have as fast of a tempo as some of their peers' have "Lost A Few Battles..." is still a catchy punk album. I highly reccomend it if you like: Asfyxia, MxPx, Relient K, or Yellow Card.
~Peace
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