We here at sparkplugged pride ourselves on pluggin’ rockin’ tunes as soon as we find out about them; and this goes doubly so for bands that we absolutely adore and fervently follow, -such as tacica. But due to circumstances beyond our control we kind of missed out on tacica’s rockin releases of 2009. So here’s a recap of what they’ve been up to.

January 14 – 人鳥哀歌 e.p.

Last years parallel park was a phenomenal success. After much jubilation we would have to suffer through half a year of fervent anticipation for their next glorious work. And then finally, with the dawn of ’09 came penguin elegy e.p. Our minds were blown. This single represents everything we love about tacica. The driving energy of “人鳥哀歌”, to the low-fi bliss that is “オニヤンマ”. Like yin and yang, they achieved perfect equilibrium in a bite sized EP. Any uncertainty on whether they could deliver was instantly obliterated. This was tacica at the top of their game.

April 08 2009 – メトロ

So, like Twilight fangirls bursting with excitement over a Robert Pattinson sans-shirt, there we were, eagerly awaiting the release of tacica’s next would-be-masterpiece: a single entitiled Metro. And then, disaster struck.

Allow me to provide some backstory. Back in the summer of ’08 there was a certain band that showed endless potential and was surely ‘flowering’ into greatness. We were ecstatic and we rooted with all our hearts for them. And after all our acclamation we were rewarded with this. Slow, softish, instantly forgettable J-Drama material. Some dirty corporation-paid producer got his hands on them and now they are forever dead to us. (Please excuse the melodrama.)

“‘Metro’ is tacica’s ‘over the rain’” we thought. At best, this is just one single for them to “break in” with but at worst, our drama fears are realized, how can they follow up such an awesome single as penguin elegy with… this kind of stuff?

But, after our initial anguish had cleared, we realized that this release was nowhere near flumpool-caliber-catastrophe. Perhaps we were just a little shocked at their slight change of direction. The song even grew on us… a bit. But now there was an apprehension surrounding what would be their second full length album.

May 13 2009 – jacaranda
With the advent of this major release, we had exercise some caution. The last time had left our excitement unchecked we were battered with bitter disappointment. “So how did jacaranda fare,” you ask? “Not bad,” we say.

They managed to equalize this album quite a bit compared to PP; not in terms of evenly spreading out the songs, but in averaging the quality of the album as a whole. The track list isn’t mediocre by any means, but nothing really jumps out at you save for the tracks previously released as singles. アトリエ and タイル do shine ever so slightly though. You can feel them experimenting with a bit of a folky sound and the album is more laid back than their previous work. Perhaps as they mature, there’s less of a need to be loud and bursting with energy; they’re beginning to feel a bit more comfortable in they’re own skin as they’re aiming for a more calm and carefully orchestrated sound. (’though admittedly the “loud, energy bursting” stuff is what I tend to gravitate towards.)

I won’t lie, I am slightly disappointed with jacaranda. Perhaps my expectations were a bit to high after Parallel Park and penguin elegy, (even after they were drastically reduced by Metro). But I do think, taken out of that context, when you look at the album by itself, and compare it to bands of similar caliber, you’ll find that jacaranda is a very solid release and can definitely hold its own. It just wasn’t the universe shattering spectacle everyone was hoping for.

Hopefully their next release can fill that roll.