Fine Lines on the ‘Substratosphere’
By Psycho_Dad • Jun 22nd, 2008 • Category: Check it Out, Reviews, Top StoryFine Lines is a Japanese pop-rock band that many love without knowing a thing about the so-called formation of ‘Fine Lines’.
How come? Well, if you’ve ever watched the anime ‘BECK’ and also liked what you’ve seen and heard, then you’re a fan of Fine Lines for sure! If you loved the music Husking Bee, well that’s better yet!
The reason for all the nonsense written above is the line-up of the band. On vocals and guitar you can welcome the voice actor for the main character of ‘BECK’ and former member of Husking Bee, Kazuya Hirabayashi. Heart-warming vocals are guaranteed for sure. The other members are George Kurosawa (lead guitar and backing vocals) and Yutaka Katayama (drums). Tetsuya Kudo, the ex-bassist of Husking Bee also took part in the activities of Fine Lines until 2008 when he quit the band.
In 2003 when Kazuya Hirabayashi formed the band with the help of George Kurosawa they started out as an ‘all-acoustic’ band, but at that time they didn’t have any intention of going major. However, when Husking Bee ceased to exist the opportunity was given, so they put more effort into this new band and developed a unique music style that mixes upbeat rock with ‘folkish’/western guitar sounds. The most recent result of this is a full-length album that was released in 2007 titled ‘Substratosphere’.
Substratosphere contains thirteen tracks including two instrumental songs, so there are
eleven fully-qualified songs actually.
1 - ”Shiron” - Shiron is the first song on the album (an instrumental), it is a very melodic, quite lovable intro song. Although my opinion on short instrumental songs on albums (intros, intermezzos, etc.) is not too good (I think those could be quite a bother after the twentieth listen), I can say that Shiron can put you in right mood really well.
2 - ”Unbounded” - After the intro, Fine Lines kicks it off with Unbounded, one of the most upbeat and positive songs from the album. The riffs and the drums are powerful and the vocals are there just to top these.
3 - ”Write to Me” - This song is an upbeat one too, but it has more lyrics than the previous song; it’s also a bit more melodic.
4 - ”Turnpike” - Mellow lyrics with folk-style sounds with some rocking out halfway through the song. Very good piece if you like slower paced ballads with emotional vocals.
5 - ”Spin Into Love” - George Kurosawa shows off some of the vocal skills he has. You could think that it couldn’t be as good as if Hirabayashi were singing, but that’s wrong! The playful rock music accompanies the lower toned voice of Kurosawa very well.
6 - ”The Wind the Night When You Sound” - Compared to the other songs this could be described as one of the ‘weaker’ ones on the album. If looked at this way, it doesn’t adds too much to the album’s sound, but as an individual track it’s very good. The singing is good as ‘always’ and the music is based on western folk melodies, but it’s hard to describe, you have to listen to it yourself.
7 - ”Bronze Miscanthus” - Another instrumental. To describe it… this one could be a soundtrack to a cowboy movie : )
8 - ”I Don’t Say the Words” - This song is similar to the previous ‘The Wind the Night When You Sound’. Personally I like these two song, they’re decent ones, but they ‘won’t redeem the World’.
9 - ”Remember & Disaster” - This is the climax of the album; the lyrics, the drums, the guitar parts are top notch and everything is in place. The voice of Hirabayashi is so charged with feelings, emotions that it’s almost ‘embarrassing’ to listen, simply beautiful.
10 - ”Blaze” - Another personal favourite. Just like in the previous song the vocals are beautiful, but this one is faster paced.
11 - ”Almost There” - Hirabayashi and Kurosawa singing side by side in this mid tempo acoustic ballad.
12 - ”Small Red Light” - The most powerful ballad on Substratosphere, also this is the only song from the album which has a PV.
13 - ”Setting Sun” - Like the track title suggests, this is the closing song of the album. One of the ‘insignificant’ kinda’ songs, after a few listens it’s easy ‘to get the hang of it’.
To sum up, it’s a very-very good album. It has its high and lows like every album in history, but if you take the time and listen to the songs more than just once you will definitely come to love all of them (this was the scenario with me and if you just can’t manage with the slower songs, well then you always have the catchy ones like “Blaze”, “Spin Into Love”, “Remember & Disaster”, “Unbounded”… you just can’t help and love these)
8.5/10 (9.5/10 if I don’t count the instrumentals)
Watch the PV for ‘Small Red Light’
Psycho_Dad is eating music!
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I forgot to mention that Fine Lines is going to release a new full-length album in the near future, maybe at the end of the summer or in the fall, so be sure check out that out if you liked the band ; )
Hi Psycho_Dad and great review!! Being a fan of Husking Bee (of course), they’re definetly a band worth checking out. It’s great news that a new album is on the way. Please keep us posted about it :)
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Never expected to see a review for this album on my RSS. ^_^ My only issue with this album was the lack of many standout tracks, and with Kurosawa’s vocals not being similar to but not at quite the same level as Hirabayashi’s, which was most obvious on ‘Almost There’. I hope he’s ironed out the wrinkles and developed his own ‘voice’ more for this next album, which I didn’t know about but I’m now looking forward to.
Ah, ‘vocals not being similar to’ should be ‘vocals being similar to.
M. Nestor: “I hope he’s ironed out the wrinkles and developed his own ‘voice’ more for this next album”
I really like the contrast between the two vocals in ‘Almost There’, although I won’t have a problem with Kurosawa improving his skills also : )
Concerning tracks that “stands out” I don’t think that the album was lacking them. Remember & Disaster for example is pretty much standing out (for me at least) and Small Reg Light also, because its much more laid back compared to the albums overall tempo and feeling. The only problem I can think of are the instrumental tracks, because a band like this (with cool vocals, I mean really cool vocals here!) don’t cut out to do instrumentals, their music is not so sophisticated like MUCCs for exmaple (I could mention other bands, but I meant to stay ‘in the waters of Japanese music’ : ). They can shoot instrumentals on their albums because of the serious composing skills Miya (the guitarist) has. I love Fine Lines, but this music is ’simple’ in a way.
And yeah I’m also looking forward to the next album (will review it ASAP when its released : ).
Also, I was glad you liked the article ; )
Cheers!