06 January 2012

my humble opinion and a couple of interesting facts: Porno Graffitti

meseems, I was listening to them when I first watched Sherlock, and I am listening to them again for the reason I have recently downloaded their new single - and I am again watching Sherlock. that is nice
while many of their songs have a clear Latino mood, I am already fed up with them, and this time I am enjoying the other kind a little bit more. however, I should at least list the ones I liked then and the ones I like now, to be fair
'Apollo' - the very first single, merry and energetic. 'tis a rare thing that the very first single already hath the mood which will be present in the whole band's discography. and I respect them very much that they were confident in their style from the very beginning
'hitori no yoru' was good when 'twas a OP theme from Onizuka, and now I am enjoying it much less
'century lovers' is a good song, and though I do not love it to the extent of adding it to my walkman playlist, I think 'tis a song that is very characteristic of Porno Graffitti
'machine-gun-talk' is a song I have been in love with from the very first time I heard it. what is surprising it that I do not like the verse at all, but the chorus redeems greatly
'dessin #1' is a great song, I cannot name it a soft one, but 'tis so as to say 'smoothed' and slower, reminding thee of the sky or the sea or something like that... it smelleth of freedom, yep
'saudade' is the Latino piece, a great one, making thee wanna dance wearing feathers and fruits and palm leaves as thy clothing, but thou cannot listen to it many times, as it soon makes thee tired with its sound
'tsumetai te' and 'search the best way' are almost the same, as thou canst notice very soon. the problem is, I like both of them and I cannot choose which is better
'saboten' is a good song, but it soon bores me
'guava juice' is a nice piece, especially the 'amai amaaaaaaai guava juice' line. but the melody just doth not make me get off on it
'ore, tenshi' is a cool thing. however, apart from that I cannot say anything good of it
'kuusou kagaku shounen' is a very cheerful song which maketh thee smile a lot. still 'tis also the kind which is worth of being a ringtone or something, but not a song thou wilt constantly listen to
'agehachou' was the first song of Porno that I heard and I probably shall always consider it to be the greatest masterpiece of them. 'tis a song that maketh thee listen to it again and again, even if thou dost not like it that much, thou just cannot stop. I wonder if there are a lot of other songs in the would that have the same strength of the style and special mood, which maketh the image of the song so vivid
'heart' is a nice example of the tender Porno. 6/8 is not a waltz actually, but I cannot help yielding to the rhythm...
'n. t' is a great thing in terms of style. 'tis the first of its kind in Porno's discography, I daresay, as it shows the 'darker' Porno, the despair-crying side of them, if I can say so
'yoru wa shizuka ni' is proving its name, as 'tis calm and maketh thee want to sleep very much...
'wakusei no kimi' is again breaking our previous image of Porno by introducing a greater part of synthetic soundm, making them sound much more modern and... urban?
'vintage' is a very cute song which is really destined to be performed on the stage by a huge company, presumably as a final song for a kind of performance/show/etc
'karma no saka' is again a 'dark' song with a very tragic story. the problem is, however hard I tried to translate the words, I am not very good at guessing, and unfortunately half of the story is not revealed, so I still cannot get where the morals of the story is... well, 'tis clear the girl is dead, but how exactly it happened, and what is the meaning of the boy's feeling in the end? better pay no attention to the lyrics at all
'oto no nai mori' is a good single, but both track #1 and #3 are sleepy... o___O
'melissa' was not as good as I expected, but both 'melissa' and 'mienai sekai' are nice and positive
'lack' was meant to be the only 'heavy' song, as far as I can say. and 'tis quite good, but too noisy for me
'anotherday for "74ers"' is a great theme, but I am a little bit puzzled both with the name and with the melody, as it obviously contains a kind of 'mix' or 'medley' of ther previous songs, but I cannot understand particular song used. well, at least the name of the song is understandable, as it contains the year of birth of the soloist and as far as I remember the second member, too
'sister' is again a Latino thing, positive and nice, though the instrumental part seemeth to be more attractive to me, than the singing part
'neomelodramatic' is a second great masterpiece of Porno. it is energetic and hath a very special mood. I could describe the melody of the verse as 'cunning' and 'intricate' and the chorus is vice versa, 'straight' and 'powerful'
'roll' is the second song I heard in the times of my youth... I clearly remember my first impression of Porno, when I knew nothing about them, and about j-rock in the whole. and 'tis a brilliant thing, wonderful and inspiring. there was a moment I thought I am already tired of it, but then I listened to the 'development' part somewhere on 3-30, which is a modified chorus, and I was conquered by the song again
'utakata' is a very nice oriental thing with a concept I love very much. the instrumental part is very strong while the verse is much softer and maketh an impression of something ethereal
'lightning thunder 99' is another attempt to creat something heavier an this one is quite successful, being a very cute rock'n'roll experiment for Porno
'yo bailo' is loved by many as another Latino piece, better to say tango one. as for me I do not like it, and it even loses to the others of its kind
'haneuma rider' is also a positive thing, especially if watch the vid
'wendy no usui moji' is a very strange song for Porno. let it be, however, if they wanted to have fun
'M-cabi' seemeth the most boring album of them, though 'tis nice and all...
'tettsui' is again a dark piece, and 'tis a surprise 'tis put in the middle of very nice and positive songs... that doth not mean I dislike this fact, I love the song very much
'light and shadow' is a very good song and could be considered as a classics, not only for Porno, but for the whole j-rock in its best manifestation
'rock band ga yatte kita' is a thing one should listen to when sad or bored. a nice cure for bad mood
'itai tachi ichi' is the energetic kind thou might have missed for a long time in Porno's discography. a brilliant and Pornish thing, I daresay, and a good improvement for the song not to bee too alike the previous of its kind - I mean the sax parts, which can be heard in the very beginning and throughout the whole song
'night train' is a sad thing, and I like it, though I did not imagine a night train to be that sad...
'love too death too' is a nice thing, though I do not like it very much. it hath the ancient Pornish style and the rhythm is very cheerful, especially coupled with the hands clasping on the background
'time or distance' is a great thing, the 'freedom' one, inspiring and making thee want to sing together with Porno. do not be deceived by the verse, it might seem a little boring
'koyoi tsuki ga miezu tomo' is a surprise, as usually Porno did not make such disco things. but the experiment went well, and I am only more and more impressed with the quality of Bleach theme songs, while the anime itself is not that prominent with its high quality
'anima rossa' - am I right, is this again a Bleach song? I am asking as I love the piece very much again. actually I was almost rejecting the song because of its verse, but the chorus is great, and I am glad I did listen until it starts. and especially the part which goes after the main chorus part... 'tu-ru-ru, tu-tu-tu-ru-ru...'
'hitomi no oku o nozokasete' was actually a little disappointing, but 'tis the rare case when b-side is better than the title song itself
'cliche' is a calmer piece, and I should say 'tis nice, well, the chorus part, at least
'in the dark' hath a very nice trembling thing on the background, and that is again an improvement, as the song itself would be not that great
'introduction ~ semarikuru monster' is a very big surprise. if thou wantst to know what is said, I can provide thee with a link
I have written down the words and checked my spelling by putting them in Google. then I saw this blog post, and to my surprise I was almost right in my guessing of the words I did not know (and which could not be checked in a dictionary, as there are no such words usually in dictionaries), but as I had some minor mistakes, I better show thee the original
I tried very hard to guess what it might be, but I am at a loss. 'tis obviously a dialogue read by seiyuu, but whether it belongs to an anime or not, remains unclear. the author of the post mentioned that one of the voices sounds like Hitagi's, and as far as I can understand 'tis the Hitagi from 'bakemonogatari'. the name of the anime corresponds very well with the name of the next song in the album 'monster', and this could be a great evidence, but for one thing: the anime (if it exists) in the 'introduction' has another kind of monsters in it, and presumably involves mecha or some kind of special equipment - otherwise the 'low interval limit' is not explained. if thou ask for my own prediction, the voice of the younger girl sound very much as that of Yukana's, but that might be an impression she left on me after I watched 'Code Geass' and some other things
*upd* checked another site and all that's provided there is the same text, but with seiyuu's names written there. so, the main text is read by Nana Mizuki and Yukana. that's better than before, but still unclear where 'tis from
'hikari no ya' is much more brutal than one might expect of it. though, I like it this way very much
'lost' is also a very sad but beautiful song. not very characteristic of Porno, however, so I would not advise it to those not acquainted with Porno's 'brand' ones
'kimi wa 100%' is a little boring but very nice
'kemuri' is also too boring to listen repeatedly, but still a nice thing, and the chorus is even enrergetic enough to make thee dance a little, and there is a very rockish guitar instrumental part in the middle to make us less bored (though it doth not cope with this problem)
'get it on' is also not a great masterpiece, but I should admit their attempt to add a little rock'n'roll is laudable
'exit' reminds us of the good old Porno from the very first moments when it starts to play. still the chorus is too plain to be considered a great invention
'regret' is a quite unexpected reggae, which is also good, as they should surprise us more and more, eh?
'live on live' is a much more touching thing, the only problem - 'tis really live, so the sound is not as 'clean' as we wish it to be
'one more time' is a very nice pop thing, even a little parapara, if not for the electro-guitar in the space between the chorus and the next verse, I daresay. is it not good that Porno is so diverse and is still trying every possible style?
the next songs in the single, however, were written as if in a hurry and do not present anything outstanding
'yuki no iro' is just as it should be - a calm and romantic Christmas song. I am not fond of this kind of songs, so let me skip it
actually the other songs in the single are in the same calm winter mood, and we even have some kind of... bossa nova? in 'GensoL'. 'tis not bad, 'tis that I just do not like such songs very much. still, they can become a good Christmas background, very cute and peaceful - while thou pack gifts and decorate the Christmas tree
what is really wonderful is that the style and voice of Porno doth not change at all, though 12 years passed since the band was formed...
definitely Porno is one of my favourite bands, and the only thing that pisses me off about them is that they named their band after some album of some star of the XX century, and I can see no link between that star and Porno music style. and Porno music style couled with the voice of soloist is one of the most memorable in the Japanese rock community

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