First Impressions: green chord
By Owen • Feb 6th, 2007 • Category: Japan, Opinion, Previews, music, rockThere’s going to be a double (or triple, quadruple, depending) review of the album later up on the site, but not till Shay gets his copy of green chord since, in his words, he’d “like to save his ears for the CD” instead of succumbing to the necessary evil of internet piracy. God bless his ardent aural abstinence.
In any case, I thought a little write-up come discussion to coincide with the release date would be proper.
A tour de force.
I’m at my fourth listen of green chord and all seems well. One small, nagging problem’s all I can gather from it: the singles. If you’ve heard the two singles before heading onto green chord, Slow Rain, Prism no Yoru, and Dawn Chorus all stand out far too well and it’s annoying because I can’t seem to get over the 20 or so times that I’ve played them over the months leading up to today. There’s the sense of bloat, a feeling that I’ve cheated somehow, thanks to my knowing every single hook, riff, chord, and melody on an album I’ve just got today. To say nothing of how it skews the perception of the album.
What do I mean by that? Well, while it’s pretty tough for me to objectively assess those three songs at the moment given how overwhelming the rest are, they’re still great, solid hits that fit in right there with the rest of the album. Speaking of which, the rest of green chord’s by no means something to scoff over, bar a certain 1 minute song I find I’m still having issues with. But more on that in the review.
Is this album worth your time and/or money? A confident yes would be my answer, something I decided somewhere between the second to third listen. It’s a different band we’re listening to this time round; none of the colourful-yet-harsh brilliant rock landscapes found on equal. Maybe a little of the thematic mood aesthetic present in and world. What we have here is a charm, an entirely different ACIDMAN, something the fans, both old and new, should warm to after a few listens.
Coming back to what I mentioned earlier about discussion — what do you think after listening to green chord? Would it be, in your opinion, a step forward or backward for ACIDMAN? Which songs immediately stand out, which songs do it for you and which songs don’t; has your opinion about this band changed since then? Would you recommend this album to a non-believer someone who hasn’t heard of them? It would be great to hear about what all you guys out there think — tell us. And keep an eye out for that review in a few days!
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All I can say is that I love ‘green chord’. I’m not an old fan of ACIDMAN, so I can’t say if it’s sounds like what they did before, but I really love their sound on this album!
Your characterization of me is perfect, I REALLY want to listen to green chord (><) but since I wanted the Limited Edtion I decided that buying it would be best for me, a fan and the band (I’m a real charitable guy huh?:P). I’m really excited and can’t wait to bestow ACIDMAN’s coolness upon my ears — needless to say, they will be pleased.
after the first listen i can say: I’m really missing their rock elements. they slowed down a bit with and world, or so it seems. with green chord they did even more. it’s not that edgy anymore, that’s what i’m missing.
First, I’m from Brazil, so don’t kill me if my vocabulary isn’t that vague.
I’m a huge Acidman fan, and the first 2 albums I listened to were Loop and Equal. They made my head and took me totaly to them. And that’s awesome, because I’m not someone who likes any band just by first contact. And of course, later I got to listen the whole discography infinite times liking each day more. Including PV’s, live footages and the And World Tour Final 20060409 DVD
I don’t wanna extend too much my lines. But to discuss this album it would be better to analise each song. Some of them, like Green Chord (introduction), Returning, Ride the Wave and Kenmei no Mei, follow what I expected from the band. But after Slow Rain, something really changes. Real Distance has a so much repetetive chorus. Unnecessary. Same for So far. This one looks like any other band you pick with a slow accoustic guitar song as base. Calm could have some more resources, has a riff that remembers me of Allegro because of that bend, and impressed me a lot by Oki’s new capacity of reaching such a high note keeping tuned.
Sen nen Hokou is cool, and it shows they still have capacity of making new cool stuff. And at 1:10 Oki sings some lyrics that I’m not sure but for me looks like it’s other songs part. He even sings at 1:17: Mawaru, Meguru, Ima Toumei ka. I’d like to know more about it.
To finish, Toward. It’s notable that they saw how the fans liked Mawaru, Meguru… this song is awesome, he got a rhythm I didn’t think he would able to use. That guitar heaviness also caracterize the last Equal song’s rage.
well, I too waited a lot for the album and expected more from it, but it still deservs to be classified as an Acidman album. As a last addition I must note the bigger presence of violins and keyboards. What sometimes may prejudice their live performances. And yeah, I miss their Hibikari/Furuaki/Allegro/Type-A/Kaze, Goyoru/Coda/Freak Out/Aru Shoumei/And World style of headbang.
And I barely talk about Acidman with someone. I’d like to know your thoughts too! cya!