12/31/2023 0 Comments Pizzicato five strawberry sleighrideThat’s not to accuse P5 of being insincere, exactly, but this was first and foremost a band fixated on sound over content (it’s right there in the album title) what makes them great is how, despite their poker-faced intensity they can wring considerable emotion out of melody, mood, and all the nonsense words (“do, do do’s”, “la, la, la’s”, etc.) that often provide their most immediate and resonant hooks. Still, P5 were never going to break through to a Western audience in the way their closest American counterparts Deee-Lite did because the level of ironic detachment in their music was through the roof. Given their love of American music and occasional predilection for pastiche (early hit “Sweet Soul Revue” liberally borrows from certain Staples Singers and Sly and the Family Stone hits), it’s no wonder Matador saw potential in introducing them to an American audience, especially as the band was willing to re-record a handful of tracks in English. Additionally, one can spot everything from Motown, funk and soul to disco, new wave and glam coursing throughout the band’s vast catalogue.Ĭome to think of it, there’s nothing overwhelmingly Japanese about P5 apart from nearly all of their lyrics being of that tongue. Think bossa nova, Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson-like chamber pop and the groovier side of ‘60s Serge Gainsbourg, but also a cornucopia of kitsch ranging from vintage TV game show themes to hyperkinetic modern dance pop. Named for the Tokyo district from where it emerged, Shibuya-kei was, as Wikipedia notes, “a mixture of jazz, pop and synth-pop” but with an unambiguously retro tint. P5 was not exactly a new band in 1994-formed nearly a decade before by university friends Yasuhara Konishi and Keitaro Takanami, they went through multiple lineups (early on as a quintet, hence the band name) and musical styles before finding considerable success in their homeland as a Shubiya-kei trio with vocalist Maki Nomiya in the early ‘90s. Then-home to the scruffier, low-fi likes of Liz Phair and Pavement, it was an unlikely fit until you consider the eclecticism of the age-a brief boom period following Nirvana’s massive Nevermind where labels both major and minor looked past previously established parameters as to whom they could sign and presumably make a commercial or at the very least critical success. For instance, you probably would have never heard of a band like Pizzicato Five outside of Japan had not hip American indie label Matador surreptitiously signed them in 1994. Etienne Remix) / Airplane / Rock N’ Roll 2īefore the Internet, the sheer amount of music available for one to discover seemed much smaller. Track listing: We Love Pizzicato Five / Rock N’ Roll / The Night Is Still Young / Happy Sad / Groovy Is My Name / Sophisticated Catchy / Strawberry Sleighride / If I Were A Groupie / Sweet Thursday / CDJ / Fortune Cookie / Good / Number 5 / Peace Music (St. (My 100 favorite albums in chronological order: #50 – released October 31, 1995)
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