“The latest CD single from The Pillows features a trio of songs with catchy guitar riffs, all-out fun atmosphere and a polished sound. Definitely one of their best releases so far.”
GROUP: the pillows
CD SINGLE: TOKYO BAMBI
LABEL: avex trax
CATALOG #: AVCD-31309
RELEASED ON JANUARY 30, 2008
- Tokyo Bambi
- Go! Go! Jupiter
- Across the metropolis
DVD: Region 2, 4:3, Duration: 7 minutes
- Tokyo Bambi (Video Clip)
- Go! Go! Jupiter
Perhaps a move to a new label definitely makes a difference?
The trio known as the pillows featuring Yamanaka Sawao (Vocals and rhythm guitar), Manabe Yoshiaki (lead guitar) and Sato Shinichirou (drums) have released quality material since their move to the Avex Trax label and their 27th CD single “Tokyo Bambi” features three songs that did fairly well on the Oricon Daily Charts (#4) and the Weekly Charts (#9).
I’ve listened to this CD single so many times and it’s quite an enjoyable CD single with each song featuring catchy riffs and overall a hip sound and easy to get into and I have to definitely give lead vocals Yamanaka Sawao another thumbs up for three awesome songs.
The first track “Tokyo Bambi” features a fun rock track that incorporates brass horns and in a similar fun, hip track with “Go! Go! Jupiter” (track 2) and both have catchy riffs and smooth like butter vocals from Yamanaka. And I like the chiming guitars from Manabe and Yamanaka, especially Manabe’s solo portions of each song.
The the third track “Across the Metropolis” is actually a mild track from the band but performed in a way that the vocals become hypnotic and you just relisten to the chorus of “Nothing’s gonna change…your world today”. The guitar playing by Manabe was quite atmospheric and I suppose you can say fairly rote.
All in all, I felt the three songs to be enjoyable and having seen videos of them performing “Tokyo Bambi” live, they save the bulging chord progressions and reverbed guitar playing for the live performance, a difference from what you would hear on the CD single track.
Nevertheless, the fact that it has been on rotation for nearly a week now for daily listening is because of it’s catchy and enjoyable and melodic feel throughout each song.
The DVD features two music videos.
“Tokyo Bambi” feels more of a party video as the group are in party-like atmosphere with Sato in a party hat and playing drums in a bathtub, while Sawao is singing while holding a trumpet and dancing with balloons and confetti throughout the room.
The music video fro “Go! Go! Jupiter” features an animated music video with the guys performing in a space ship in space. The video was created by long time designer/illustrator for the Pillows, Ohshika Ken-ichi of Shikachan Studio who has designed many of the covers and t-shirts for both the Pillows and Noodles.
The CD insert is a bi-fold that includes the lyrics and production credits and flyer promotion for the pillows official fan club “What’s pillows”.
As mentioned in my review, this CD single is one of my favorites from the band. Since signing with avex trax, I noticed an increase in production quality with their music. The music sounds polished but yet still keeping the coolness that the pillows are known for and a lot of their jumpy, rock out craziness is still evident from this year’s performance at various venues in the US.
Twenty years later and these guys still are great to listen to and even watch them perform live.
All in all, “TOKYO BAMBI” features three awesome songs. The DVD inclusion of two music videos was pretty cool and if you are a pillows fan, definitely check this CD single out!