Asobi Seksu Album: “Citrus”

whenever a new bands surfaces and mines old territory, the naysayers inevitably appear and begin to knock down the current in favor of the past. not only is comparing the present to past generally unfair and shortsighted, it's also amounts to a display on narrow-mindedness. no, asobi seksu aren't my bloody valentine, slowdive, ride, swervedriver, or any number of other shoegazer bands. shoegazing hit its peak nearly 15 years ago. those who hold on to as though it were some holy grail do themselves a disservice by refusing to properly acknowledge a band who has nothing but love for the aforementioned band.

asobi seksu, a nyc quarted, is a crazily fantastic band. sure, the elements of shoegazing are there, name in the swirling, kaleidoscopic guitars and yuki's occasional elizabeth-frasier-esque vocals tics. but yuki owes more of debt to harriet wheeler than elizabeth frasier. asobi seksu is everything that's right about great pop/rock music. tight, effecient songs, effortless melodies, intricate and interesting musicianship, and enough energy to light a city for weeks. if it seems that asobi seksu is a highly calculated band, nothing could be futher from the truth.

through they do mine familiar shoegazer territory, asobi seksu is a highly orginal and exciting band. the first 1/2 of the album is as good as anything i've heard in a LONG time (and i listen to a lot of music). the one-two punch of 'new years' and 'thursday' is as great as anything you'll hear this year. both are heavy, exciting, i dare say thrilling, tracks. the choruses, particularly 'thursday,' are spine chilling.

sure, asobi seksu will make you a bit nostalgic for the days of mbv and slowdive, but they'll also make you excited about the future of music. with a soundtrack like this, how can life be anything but beautiful and wonderful? a really remarkable album.

(Okay. My self-imposed goal with this Asobi Seksu album is to write a fair and solid review without giving-in to the temptation to fill the page with My Bloody Valentine comparisons. I mean, yea, Asobi Seksu do employ that wall of sound reverb that My Bloody Valentine perfected 20 years prior. And yes, Kevin Shield's band was among the seminal acts of the genre. But Asobi Seksu move beyond their influences and infuse themselves into most of the songs on this album. A detailed comparison of the two bands would be unfair to each).

Asobi Seksu is a shoegazey quartet from New York. The songs on Citrus, their second album, balance fuzzy guitar noise, keyboard washes, and infectious melodies. The guitar of James Hana establishes and frames most of the songs while the work of singer/keyboardist Yuki Chikudate makes the band distinct. Chikudate's girlishly cute singing, which alternates from Japanese to English, provide the hookiest moments on the album. She is not perfect. There are a few instances where the vocals detract; the off-key chorus yelped during "Strings" damages the otherwise perfect song and "Goodbye" suffers from an awkward transition between verses. But the bulk of the music is led by Chikudate's ethereal charm.

Of the 12 tracks on the album, "Thursday" is the strongest. Poppy vocals and steady beats slide over building strings and feedback. At well-positioned points throughout the song, the lush chorus fades to heighten the more atmospheric elements of the track. During these segments, a guitar and keyboard play off of each other and set up for the next change. The song's finale is marked with a deep barrage of sound and two vocalists, male and female, pushing their chords into the fray.

Another highlight is "Nefi and Girly." With its psychedelic guitar intro, bouncing beats, and punching vocals, this track borrows a bit of sound from the Stone Roses. The rhythm jumps and the guitar bends alongside of catchy vocals and contagious hooks. "Nefi and Girly," continuously sets itself up for points of erupting distortion. These blasts of sound intersect with the track's lighter instances and create a push-pull dynamic that makes the song as intricate much as it is poppy.

It is a pattern that is repeated on many songs throughout Citrus. Often, it works very well. On "Exotic Animal Paradise," however, it is less successful. The song lags for a full 2 minutes and 47 seconds, repeating itself in an empty, generic fashion, until an explosion of distortion rips through the speakers. The outburst is skillfully executed, but the transition from the first movement of the song is clumsy. It sounds less like the song's climax, and more like another track altogether.

Still, such cases are rare and, in general, the band has put together a solid album. Asobi Seksu is, at points, derivate of My Bloody Valentine. (Well... I tried). They recycle some already established genre staples, but they do so with flair, solid songwriting, and personal reinterpretations. Instrumentation builds up, drops out, and reprises with the moments of thick sound punctuated by falling emptiness. The band shifts enough sounds throughout the album to keep each of the tracks separate from one another while allowing enough common noises to suture the different songs into one cohesive album. Citrus proves that good shoegaze did not die in 1991.

Read reviews of this CD and thought it was worth a try: truly excellent deep grooves and solid dance vibes.

I am surprised I like this as much as I do. It pretty much happenned straight away and it seems to be the one record I continue to play over and over. Yes, she borrows a lot from others and the obvious influence is MBV. I love all kinds of music but lately it is the dream pop and shoegazer stuff that I prefer. There is a dream quality and maybe a bit too happy for most shoegazers. The heavy 180 gram vinyl and the high quality artwork makes it a collectable. I don't see how she will ever be able to top the music on this record. I think she did just about as good a job as anyone could do with the genre, as artifice. It might take longer for others to get. Some may never. I love it.

I can't believe someone would give this album 1 star. I bought it today and I just cannot believe how good this is. My only concern is that I did not buy it earlier. It has the perfect balance between ethereal Cocteaus and grinding MBV style discordance. Those are the two reference points (yes, this New York band are as far from American alternative music as it is possible to get) but it pushes them in all sorts of interesting directions.