I came late to the Merry party. They were featured in many of the music magazines I read while living in Japan a few years ago, and I discounted them based on a few songs I'd heard in passing. I was busy expanding my music collection in other directions, and they slipped right off of my radar. A few months ago, I met up with an old friend who compelled me to listen to his copies of their older albums, and I was shocked. The jazzy chords and vibe switching from swinging to rocking didn't clash, and I found the singer's "lounge-kyo" clean vocal style as endearing as his mid-range aggro voice.
My rapid acclimation with Merry's catalog led up to the release of their major-label debut, Nu Chemical Rhetoric. I had hoped that the band wouldn't go down the easy path of releasing an album full of watered-down and popped-up copies of their earlier work in hopes of gaining mass market approval. I expected the same swing and the same jazz-metal charge as their earlier albums...and I was partly correct.
I feel that Nu Chemical Rhetoric is about half of an album, recorded twice. Most, but not all of their stylistic range is represented, leaving us with a very slightly watered-down merry album that actually sounds like it would be quite at home as 50-75% of a better disc. It sets a nice "album tone", but doesn't depart from it enough - the throttle is held just a bit back in rockers like track 4, and while the vocal lines are memorable, they don't quite hang around your head like the best of the older Merry tracks. This is not to say that it is a weak album compared to the formulaic dreck that seems to dominate the Japanese glam-rock scene - it's still Merry doing what they do, but the highlights aren't quite as high. My friend Jeremy observed that the album sounds like it was produced in a hurry, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was exactly the case. Basically, it sounds like Merry, it's pretty good, but it sure isn't Gendai Stoic or Modern Garde.
Track-By-Track Breakdown
1. デジーノート (Digi Note)
I tend to like the little throwaway electronica tracks on rock albums. This one actually sounds a lot like it could be a Polysics song for the first 50 seconds. It shifts gears into a fairly standard Merry guitar lick with piano covering the chords. Nothing special, but not horrible.
2. 首吊りロンド (Kubitsuri Rondo - "Hanging Rondo" (as in from a noose))
Oh, how I dig that back beat on the closing hi-hat! I was hoping the intro guitar riff wouldn't stick around, and it didnt, shifting into some power chords. Nice slightly processed vocals for the verse, and the vocals rise into angsty, mic-stand gripping territory before the power chords take back the reins. The song continues along the expected path, and doesn't really take any chances with the arrangement. It feels like a great demo track, or a snapshot of the development of a great song, but I feel it would have benefited from a little bit more development.
3. 迷彩ノ紳士 (Meisai no Shinshi - "Camouflage Gentleman")
Again with the standard Merry repeating 4-bar lead guitar intro... pause and... shout! I headbanged as I wrote that sentence. The "whoah whoah" prechorus must be fun to sing along with at a show, but I feel that spot in the tune needs something that contributes a bit more. Later in the track, vocals are laid over the "whoah whoah" and I think it works better. An all-right track.
4. 溺愛の水槽 (Dekiai no Suisou - "Aquarium of fondness / water tank of doting" - you get the idea, it doesn't translate so well)
This is one of my favorite tracks, and was a single with a video. The intro provides a nice calm before the stormy horror-flick guitar lead, then back into the eye of the storm - is this a jazzy head-bopper? NO. SHOUT SHOUT POWER CHORD. Lather, rinse repeat. I like the way it yo-yos between fast-jazzy and fast-angry in the first minute or so until the vocal mood changes into a great little sing-song segment. The song continutes into chill backbeat chords, short but appropriate guitar solo, and then back to the yo-yo. The outro has one of my favorite rock devices, slow and rhythmically steady vocal lines overlaid with high-register quick-moving guitar figures.
5. 薔薇と片隅のブルース (Bara to katasumi no buruusu - "Rose And The Corner Blues")
Lounge jazz/blues time. This song is inoffensive and well executed, but it doesn't really inspire me to say more. Oh well.
6. 哀しみブルートレイン (Kanashimi Buruu Torein - "Sadness Blue Train")
Another from the mid-tempo bouncy category. I like the "lead guitar intro, ska chord chorus, lead guitar interlude" style of songwriting so often seen in Japanese rock bands, but it's at about this point in the album that you realize you've heard Merry do this before - many, many times before. There's an interesting echoey vocal bridge, and I feel the song comes close to redeeming itself near the end with a mood change to the vocals, but it really needed to differentiate the different parts of the song. Much like track 2, I feel this could have been a great song with another few weeks of work.
7. アタシは捨て猫 (Atashi Wa Suteneko - "I(feminine) Am A Stray / Abandoned Cat")
(see track 6)
8. Shambara (A demon from a hindu text, killed by Krishna - unless it has some meaning in Japanese that I am unaware of. I don't have the lyrics sheet to figure it out.)
Why does every song on this album start out the same? EVERY SONG. Same. It's like how every trance song starts with one pattern on the drum machine, and adds one more every 16 bars. I'm sick of it. After fast-forwarding through the intro, I was met with a nice quick vocal figure and some catchy jazz. That's right, you've heard me say this about other tracks on this album. I like the formula, and the albums in which every other song is the formula don't bother me. They flow well as albums that way. In this case, each one reminds you more and more of the tracks that came before, and it doesn't matter how much you like them individually. Nu Chemical Rhetoric screams out for a few rockout tracks and oddball tracks to make it listenable in album format.
9. ニセモノ天国 (Nisemono Tengoku - "Fake Heaven")
Oh hey, what's this? This track doesn't start like every other! I'm bouncing - there's a scream in there for texture - and the track's vocals evoke SADS from the first word. This is a worthy track, and I demand it be released as a single.
10. リフレイン-土曜日の涙 ( Rifurein - Doyoubi no Namida - "Refrain - Saturday's Tears")
Know what this album needs? New guitar tone, and a couple new drum patterns. A well-executed but uninspiring quas-ballad.
11. 空っぽの唄 (Karappo no Uta - "Empty Song")
Hey, happiness. I like the Plastic Tree guitar lines into the major-key vocals over the backbeat chords followed by a few seconds of shouting. I imagine myself in Merry, playing this song on guitar or singing lead, and I imagine tons of fun.
That's it. Merry's Nu Chemical Rhetoric is all right. It's also probably going to be forgotten, save for tracks 4, 9, and 11. Come on, guys, let's take our time and crank out something a little more varied next time, okay? I really liked 3 tracks, and I'll give the rest of them half credit. that's 7/11, or 64%. Merry, you barely pass. Your mother and I are disappointed.
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