I am not a big live recording fan (classical music is an exception). I prefer studio recording whereby all the tracks are perfectly recorded and mastered. A great live recording requires every band member to do well and the song rendition should offer something different, something better than studio recording (otherwise, why bother?). Live Tour 2022 “A revolution” at Showa Women’s University Hitomi Memorial Hall 2022/11/23 ticks all the boxes for me. Before writing this blog entry, I was thinking hard about what other live albums I like. I can only come up with one. Pink Floyd’s Pulse (Live).
Celebrating their 10 years of music career, the Japanese band Love Psychedelico has released a new album “Abbot Kinney”. I still like their debut “The Greatest Hits” the most (how appropriately titled!). But “Abbot Kinney” is growing on me. I guess I was looking for that dark melodic track “Last Smile” in this new album – like I have been searching on their previous albums – and couldn’t find any. Having said that, “Abbot Kinney” is a lot brighter, the tunes are a lot happier. It is mood uplifting and the album has a coherent feel. Even down to the very last song – their rendition of “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?”. Love Psychedelico is one of my favorite bands of all time. Their music style is unique. Below is the official sampler of their new album.
There are many reasons why Love Psychedelico (or better known as Delico in Japan) is different from some of the typical J-pop artists. Vocalist and guitarist Kumi may not have the level of sex appeal like most of the J-pop female artists, the good thing is, she doesn’t have the typical high pitch voice nor the strong Japanese accent in terms of English pronunciation either. In fact, the voice of Kumi reminds me of Avril Lavigne in some bizarre way. The duo of Kumi and Naoki (who plays guitars, bass guitars, and keyboard) keep the sound of Love Psychedelico simple and memorable and there is a certain sense of honestly as compare to the tend-to-be overly produced J-pop albums. Their songs are often in half-English-half-Japanese with a few exceptions that are totally written in English. Cynthia does not listen to any CD from my J-pop collection except Love Psychedelico. If there is one song that may convert you into a Love Psychedelico fan, Last Smile would be it. Go on, click onto it and let it plays as a background music (a video created by a fan).
Love Psychedelico’s album line-up confuses the living crap out of me. Probably part of the sales strategy so that people like me will keep buying the albums. Their first album is titled as “The Greatest Hits”. At first I thought this band has quite a few productions beforehand but it doesn’t seem so. Their 2nd album is “Love Psychedelic Orchestra” while their 3rd album is … “Love Psychedelico III”. Finally came the 4th one “Early Times – The Best of Love Psychedelico”. So how does the 4th one relates to the 1st one? Turns out that the 4th one is their greatest hits for real. Almost. After I bought the album have I realised that it does come with 3 tracks that I did not own (“Fantastic World”, “Everyone, Everyone”, and “Rosy”). It is this kind of confusion that keeps me buying their album I guess.
After their “real” greatest hits album, Love Psychedelico released a live album titled “Live Psychedelico”. Again, why did I buy it? Okay, I am a huge fan and surprise, surprise … it does come with 1 track that I do not have – “Wasting”.
At first listen, I actually enjoyed “Golden Grapefruit” (thank God, finally an album title that doesn’t come with the word “Psychedelico” in any form). Then came the second last song “Everyone, Everyone”. Wait, I have heard of that before! Hasn’t it already been featured in the “real” greatest hits? Also, “Golden Grapefruit” does not come with a translated lyrics in Chinese like the rest.
Besides these two minor complains, “Golden Grapefruit” is yet another goold old Delico album. I enjoy the mellow songs of “Carnation” and “Sad Story” a lot. What stand out in this album are the tracks “Help!” and “Good Day, Celebration”. Both are infused with strong dance beat. Kind of refreshing away from their normal style. So yes, “Golden Grapefruit” is almost another good old Delico album with some level of progression.
