Sakanaction - DocumentaLy

[Pucchi-Mo]

They're kind of like Base Ball Bear in musicality and the play between male and female vocals. Coincidentally, the bands became friends and the lead singers have worked together on several projects. kimino-me (Base Ball Bear+ICHIRO YAMAGUCHI of SAKANACTION) Ichirou appears when the new beat kicks in.



I would describe their sound as funky, pop rock, with new wave influences and occasionally a feature in their choruses that borders on opera vocals -without being too serious.



[DocumentaLy] (with 5 PV links)



01.RL

02.Identity 3rd single

03.MONOCHROTOKYO

04.Rookie 4th single

05.Antares to Hari

06.Kamen no Machi

07.Ryuusen

08.Endless

09.DocumentaRy

10.[Bach no Senritsu wo Yoru ni Kiita sei Desu.] 5th single

11.years 5th single's B-side

12.DOCUMENT (In Studio PV)

13.HOLY DANCE (Like a Live Mix)New mix of 3rd single's B-side





01.RL: They’re spelling out the word [documentary]. No big deal, it’s not even a song. However, I did predict the one cool aspect of this track. In addition to the Japanese pronunciation related meaning, another association of RL is “Right” “Left”. As they spell it out, it hits me. “Hey, I bet the left channel has the members saying L and the right channel has R.” I took out one earphone and confirmed it!



02.Identity: An energetic single. I really like the power in their songs created from all of the band members singing together. There are 5 of them, 3 men, 2 women, but I think it comes across as much more. I love the sort of tribal drums throughout and the fast and funky bassline. I love where the yelling in the “DOUSHITE???” lines and the lalalas along to the chorus cross paths.



03.MONOCHROTOKYO: I think this song is amazing. The sort of nostalgic synthesizer intro instantly got my attention. I love the attitude in the first few lines, plus the echoes on the vocals and instrumentals. After seeing that the lyrics are “Tokyo Monotone,” I think [monotone] was the idea behind the method of delivering the opening lines, but it still sounds really hot. Quickly looking at the lyrics, it seems that he's describing aspects of city life. There's a line about smelly garbage in the city at 5am. Ichirou follows that line with “Akogare Full Color” and the song explodes with a screaming chorus line. It softens at the end with a nice falsetto on -kokoro wa. Kokoro wa- It’s still very much Sakanaction style, but I’m reminded of a badass British rock band when I hear the chorus. Minor detail, but it's cool how some of the syllables blend together "Hora-Akubi" "Kokoro wa-Ame"



04.Rookie: Initially, this single didn’t do much for me. I watched the PV a few times, and forgot about it. I think I dismissed it as a more simplified version of Identity. Around early summer, I revisited it, and I found a new life in the song. The song doesn’t really take flight until after the one minute mark. The instrumental break is especially cool. It also has an amazing B-side (not featured on this album) Rookie is really cool live, it begins with all of the band members drumming. Damn, can’t find a link.



05.Antares to Hari: This song is a bit more laid back, it kind of strolls along, but with a funky strut. There are snyths every now and then too. The funk side and the synth side kind of battle back and forth, and then they come together. However, the snyths take over at the ending.



06.Kamen no Machi: It’s essentially what I anticipated from the title, but I was blown away by how well they did it. Mask or Disguise makes me think of a superhero, possibly some tension and a sense of danger. They ran with this, and produced a very catchy song. I can hear the urgency from the delivery of the lines and the guitar and bass that jab at each beat. I like how the chorus has a higher pitched soft kind of calling, where they repeat “Waratte~” They made it more interesting by adding onto the line each time. [Waratte-> Waratteta no ni na -> Waratteta no ni naiteitanda] I guess the laughter is masking the tears. There’s a cool short snyth solo, and then a strange echoing ambient part that fades into nothing. It slowly sounds like it's returning in reverse and the instruments emerge with one hit, triggering a vocal moment with a minimal percussion behind it. The chorus picks back up and concludes the song. This song also has blended syllables, there is a "sa" at the end of the very 1st line and the 2nd line starts with sayonara, but you only hear it once. Maybe they've been doing this in songs the whole time but I only noticed now. I just realized that this idea is also used in the band's name: SakanaACTION=Sakanaction.



07.Ryuusen: Now we slow things down. The song flows very slowly, the lyrics are minimal, but there is a definite build up. I like the static and satellite-like effects that appear later.



08.Endless: It begins slowly and gently but still manages to be catchy. Then a different beat kicks in. This is what Sakanaction is all about! The way they building up layers is excellent. More static and satellites, this time there’s random people talking. Then the song becomes kind of dancey. I really like the last part.



09.DocumentaRy: Oh this again, the members saying the title, oh wait, something else is there. A hint of a dance beat. It builds up further, but there are no lyrics. The beat takes you to the next track, their amazing single…



10.[Bach no Senritsu wo Yoru ni Kiita sei Desu.]: This song has pretty much all elements that I love about Sakanaction: Build up of new layers, use of piano & organs, a cool bassline, really catchy melody and finally, the grandiose chorus lines. It’s the perfect single. Gotta love the crazy piano part at 1:49. The keyboardist actually performs this part live, impeccably.



11.years: This is actually the B-side to Bach, I rarely ever listen to it. Since they put it on the album, I decided to see what the big deal was. There’s some nice build up, of course and the pounding and clapping part is cool. Toward the middle, there’s more random people chatter.



12.DOCUMENT: The album closer. I can only describe this as a normal peaceful scene that becomes haunted exactly halfway through. The haunting fades a little and then works its way in with the rest of the song.



~Bonus Track~

13.HOLY DANCE (Like a Live Mix): I can’t say that I notice a difference from the B-side version of this, even after playing both side by side. Not in the instrumentals, and not the vocals. However, the original version is a really cool song. I really like the Oh-o-Oh-o- parts. I don’t understand why they would include a new version of this as a special album bonus, but not actually make it unique. This band has had some interesting remixes, so it’s not like an actual remix was beyond their abilities.



At the first glance, I wasn’t so sure about this album, but I think it came together nicely.

Sometimes strong singles can distract me from seeing the good of album tracks.(Plus getting over the fact that they included 2 b-sides and tracks 1 & 9 have no actual lyrics. I was actually angry about that at first.)



There are only 6 actual new tracks on this, but I found MONOCHROTOKYO & Kamen no Machi to be incredible! Antares to Hari & Endless are pretty cool. Document is ok, & Ryuusen is kind of interesting.



Each single on this album is amazing. If they’re new to you, then it might be even better.

I’d rank the singles as Bach in clear 1st, followed by Identity & Rookie, almost tied with each other.



There is an album link in the audio thread.

It'll be interesting to read the perspectives of those who haven't closely followed the singles included on the album. Their presence just stands out so much for me.



Ok, now I’m going to go listen to MONOCHROTOKYO a bunch of times. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... ohyeah.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D/' />

[Ap2000]

I only know Aruku Around, but that was one of my Top 5 songs last year.

And I'm still listening to it every week.



I only ever checked out one other song from them, not sure why I didn't listen to more. But I guess this is a good time to do this !