Review Summary: The Pillows make a ruckus in the J-Rock scene with their legendary sixth studio album.
The Pillows: You may have first heard of them through the Japanese rock scene, or even more-so, you may have first heard of them through the Gainax anime miniseries, FLCL. Either way, if you're familiar with the band, you will notice their way of performing western-style indie/alternative rock. More specifically, the unique voice of frontman Sawao Yamanaka, which has a spacey and nasally kick to it. Up there with "Happy Bivouac", "Please Mr. Lostman, and perhaps, "Runner's High", "Little Busters" is regarded as one of The Pillows' most definitive works to date.
When you first start the album, you are greeted with the opening track, "Hello, Welcome to Bubbletown's Happy Zoo", which is a unique take on the indie sound, with pounding distorted guitars, pummeling bass and drums, and melodious vocals. The first two tracks sound like a brilliant mixture of bare-boned alternative/indie rock, before the fourth track is introduced, which is pretty much straightforward melodious indie rock. No complaints here.
However, "Like a Lovesong" takes a much more simplistic approach. The whole song is basically a very tedious formula that wears very thin before the duration reaches a minute. However, it is a fun song, and shouldn't be taken too seriously, as it is just over three minutes long. Thankfully, the following track, "Nowhere", which is a very spacey track, takes the album back to excellent status, with its dreamy appeal.
But the real standout track has to be eighth track, "Blues Drive Monster". With its heavy alternative bite in the beginning, The Pillows switch up once again, and create a brilliant track using catchy hooks and melodic verses to mix up a classic Japanese rock track.
Overall, "Little Busters" by The Pillows makes for a very entertaining and fun listen. Although the middle of the album does start to wear on the listener, the last few tracks helps bring the album back up to excellent status. A recommended album to indie/alternative fans, as well as all J-rock fans.
