Last month, a good friend of mine restarted her Last.fm profile and started using the site more fully. To be exact, she started using the recommendations page, which I’d only glanced at before, to great success. It seemed every day she was finding a new artist she loved! So I decided to take a look at the recommendations, still somewhat skeptical but willing to take a chance.
One of those artists was RADWIMPS. The name alone caught my interest, because all good Japanese bands have a strange name, right? (At least, a good chunk of them do…) Their artist profile described them as having “the funk of Red Hot Chili Peppers,” so I knew I’d have to give them a try.
So off to Youtube I went to see if any of their PVs were there. The first one I stumbled upon was “Sentsuna Rensa.”
And all I could say was WTF?
If there’s some greater meaning in the PV, it’s utterly lost on me. The song itself, however, is awesome. The vocalist, Yojiro Noda, easily sings in both Japanese and English, both with superb pronunciation, and the song leaves you wanting to hear more. (And, admittedly, wondering why he’s singing about meeting Eddie Murphy in Hollywood.)
The second PV I came across, “Futarigoto,” assured me that they have more “normal” songs as well. Their sound is still incredibly catchy and memorable, and by then I knew I had to hear more of this band.
What I found was “Order Made.” This PV does have a deeper meaning, one I’m sure would have been lost on me if I hadn’t found a subtitled PV. It makes a fascinating analogy of the human body to making a sandwich and requesting what’ll be put in it, and the song itself is slow without ever really being boring. It certainly leaves you thinking.
RADWIMPS is definitely a band I’m going to keep an eye out for — I’ve enjoyed just about everything I’ve heard of them, and I hope they release more soon. In the meantime, I’ve become quite fond of their latest album, “Alto Colony no Teiri,” and I know I’ll be playing it all summer long.
Oh, I do understand you so well. They have so many slow and “silent” songs, but I’m never getting tired of listening to them.
Not to mention the louder rock songs! <3
Seriously, if there would be an official fanclub and they would accept overseas I definitly already would have send my request to them.
I love it how they still are so natural and normal (or at least it seems so, ne).
I'm looking forward to the new songs (but I have to be happy they finally released the new album. So I don't want to be too greedy…)