The Pillows: My Foot
There’s some magical quality to the music of the Pillows that, regardless of time or mood, it can somehow make everything seem that little bit brighter and happier. Even when they’re dealing with issues such as lost love and regret for good times gone, their own brand of upbeat guitar pop lifts me without ever coming across as trite or insincere. How in heaven’s name do they do it?
The track My Foot, which opens their LP of the same name, is a case in point. With a short drum intro from Shinichirou Sato and a rattling, fuzzy bassline courtesy of nigh-on permanent ’stand in’ Jun Suzuki, it rattles merrily along, delivering lyrics (they’re in Japanese but don’t worry, translations are provided in the sleevenotes) that are actually quite introspective and wistful. Look back, resign to the fact that things aren’t how they were and move on.
Fans of the anime series FLCL undoubtedly make up much of the band’s fanbase outside their home country; after the superb use of their songs on the soundtrack, their early 2000s material is therefore their most well-known. The first half of this album is very much in the vein of this, their Runners High era and after - it’s quintissential Pillows. Fast, insistent beats, rasping guitar, a delightfully lo-fi vocal delivery that begs to be sung along to, if only you could pronounce the words of a foreign language…it’s all here.
Musically, the relative simplicity is deceptive: on the face of it this all sounds like the typical punk-inspired power chord fare but the arrangements of syncopated drums and eternally catchy guitar harmonies indicate that Sawayo Yamanaka and Yoshioki Manabe have more proficiency than even some of their most enthusiastic fans give them credit for. The rhythm parts are punctuated by melodic but not overly showy solos that never outstay their welcome; it’s all solidly written stuff that ably shows how effortlessly things fall into place when a band have been performing together for so many years.
Sadly not even the title track or The Air Resistor reach the heights scaled by the likes of Instant Music and Hybrid Rainbow though; there’s a sensation that the band are repeatedly returning to old territory. When the track listing provides one upbeat, poppy offering after another they begin to sound a bit samey and the whole affair begins to fall into a bit of a rut. It is possible to have too much of a good thing or, at the very least, it’s possible to fail to appreciate something when there’s so much of it served up in one sitting.
The second half of the album, then, is the surprise: there’s a fantastic instrumental track in the form of The March of the God in which hints of 60s-era psychadelia creep in and there are even a couple of slower songs. By any similar rock outfit’s standards So Long Universe and the heartfelt My Girl are slow ballads; especially so by the Pillows’ own usually energetic approach. It works brilliantly though, and provides enough of a change for these two songs to feel almost like the product of a separate band. They do try to explore darker territory in the form of Degeneration but they always come back to portraying a difficult situation with liveliness and near-optimism, as demonstrated by the closing track. Gazelle City is a startling parting shot as the album heads for the door: for one thing it’s sung in (heavily accented!) English, but it also brings things back around to the opener’s view of looking ahead. “Come on sunshine, let’s be off/it’s time for a change.” summing up the album’s overall theme and bookending the whole disc with two of its best tracks.
Summary
Fans of the Pillows will already know what they are letting themselves in for with this album - equally it’s a good example to newcomers as to what they’ve missed out on to date. Although their ability to deliver consistently catchy tunes is predictable at times, it’s not hard to justify this album in any guitar pop fan’s collection. It’s not up there with their best material but is nevertheless an enjoyable experience that even offers some moments in which the band experiment with their winning formula. My Foot ensures that the Pillows are one of J-rock’s most enduring exports.
Tracklisting
- My Foot
- Rock ‘n’ Roll Sinners
- The Air Resistor
- The Third Eye
- Mighty Lovers
- Non Fiction
- Degeneration
- March of the God
- My Girl [Document Version]
- So Long Universe
- Gazelle City
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