We had a thread in 2017 so now we have one in 2018 for music that comes out in the year of this one year right now.
Scandal,
Honey On Valentine's Day Scandal are back with a 10 track album, full of rockin' and sweet elements. Their previous release Yellow took on many American styles and was a great step forward. Scandal are a band that evolves, they are past their old days while still keeping the spark alive, Honey continues to find new ground among the classic Scandal rocking. Right away on "Platform Syndrome" we hear a drum sound like the indie era, but with a much more refined tune. Rina's drums sound awesome here, and Mami is always ripping some new tones. Tomomi's basslines are popping especially on "Electric Girl", their are some crafty grooves like the verses of "Midnight City".
Haruna sings almost everything like on Yellow, but Mami gets a song with the energy filled "Oh! No!" and Rina does the verses of "Midnight City" an almost great song that is let down by the chorus. "Madwoaketara" is amazing, the best song on the album. It's a wonderful lovely R&B tune. Scandal take on the sound so well, it's great when they try new things, this track comes as quite the surprise and I instantly clicked with it. The same with "ShortShort". The album takes off in it's last half, with 5 really excellent songs. The old single "Take Me Out" is still great also and fits in well on the album. "Koisuru Universe" is mad fun also.
The group still rocks and by now they are much better at their craft, to my ears they are vastly improved from the beginning. The spirit of Scandal is high. Ever since Hello World they evolved into something of their own, Honey is another fine effort. With many fantastic new songs, it's less varied then Yellow but it's no problem as all 10 tracks do something interesting. In many ways it's a more consistent album. Good stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c24sCLSVg-E Band-Maid,
World Domination DAMN BAND-MAID STEPPING UP THE GAME! My God, their last release was good but they sound even more fired up with higher aims. Some of the riffs are pure 80's thrash, but in the same song it will explode into fast and hard rocking alt. rock goodness. "Domination" showcases this in the amazing lead into the chorus with some really great guitars. This is the kind of album where a song will start and I'll just raise my hands like, dude another awesome track. It just rocks, there is variety to and a mix of styles. The album takes a refreshing break near the end with the slower "Daydreaming" and the very great power ballad "Anemone".
The melodies and Saiki Atsumi's vocals are so good! On that song and on the whole album, Saiki is such a powerful rock vocalist but she shows range on this album. I love "Anemone"! It's my favorite on the album along with "Domination". Band-Maid take on J-Rock styling but add thrash, heavy metal and other elements of American rock music, mostly on the same song! It makes for a pretty great sound, and the band is much improved from before. This is their first great album. The group is a lot more then a gimmick. The gothic maids make for an interesting band dynamic, their music holds it's own very well. This album is cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxEuQXTHUU Palm,
Rock Island I don't know what's more surprising the music or the fact that a modern day indie album can actually be this shocking, interesting, creative and...new. The songs are just wild, build on a lot of looping glitchy sounds and uncertain progressions. This album is actually kind of alarming and it instantly is gripping and sounds like something I need to buy and listen to a lot. It's actually a new sound to my ears, and the style is just so perfectly strange in a way that is unexpected. As the album goes on it creates a tone of it's own, it's certainly a nice sounding record. I quite like the sounds and the world it creates, it's so unique and actually good to the ears. This is a very fascinating and compelling record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dnKnwamoKo GARNiDELiA and fhana are also releasing new albums on the same day next month. I hope that GARNiDELiA make a better album then Violet Cry which was a bit of a letdown after how good Linkage Ring was. Some singles like "Error" have been fairly good. and fhana, well if they can have one song as great as "Relief" on the next album then it's fine. Normally their album songs are better then the singles it seems.
The Idol Formerly Known As Ladybaby have split..they are releasing a full length of all the singles and a few new songs, I had to order it for the nice slipcase packaging and because it's their end! Utada has a new album coming as well, pretty cool. Her music is on Spotify now! Well aside from Fantome it seems. She's also doing a domestic tour! It's nice that she is really back in business. I can imagine Seiko Oomori will have something new, if it's a full length with draw(a)drow I can only imagine what else it may hold...I imagine BiSH will do an album at the end of the year unless they split as well.
Topic: 2018 In Music (Read 21846 times)
