How could a band named Asobi Seksu (roughly translated from Japanese to English as \u201cplayful sex\u201d) not have a sense of jauntiness? Asobi Seksu doesn\u2019t have the kind of smugness that one would expect in a shoegazer\/dream-pop band of their kind. There are unmistakable traces of Lush and My Bloody valentine on the Asobi Seksu\u2019s breakthrough sophomore effort Citrus, <\/i>but with an energy and lightheartedness, which takes the stuffiness out of the band\u2019s particular style of music.<\/p>\n
Hand it to frontwoman Yuki Chikudate, whose flirtatious vocals add whimsy and pep, and also angelic harmoniousness when called for, in the band\u2019s sonically charged lush songs. Chikudate\u2019s sprightly vocals are infectious, which makes even her Japanese-sung songs temptingly singable, also to someone with no knowledge of the language. On \u201cMizu Asobi\u201d and \u201cNefi & Girly,\u201d the combination of the frolicksome music and Chikudate\u2019s vocals results in high-energy punk-pop, the likes of Shonen Knife. But on \u201cThursday\u201d and \u201cStrings,\u201d the blissful guitars meet the same lively vocals and create an aural transport that is haunting.<\/p>\n
Being from New York, Asobi Seksu has distinctly artsy and very \u201cNew York\u201d indie elements that it incorporates from time to time in their music, which adds a new dynamic to their dream pop sound. Oftentimes the band tends to veer off course into psychedelic guitar interludes in a Sonic Youth-like move, but only not as eccentric. On the four minute \u201cExotic Animal Paradise,\u201d the last minute and a half is submerged in a sonic deluge of guitars that turns the song upside down. Even moreso, on the eight minute \u201cRed Sea,\u201d the last three and a half minutes is nothing but a thick wall of guitar surrealism.<\/p>\n
Not just Asobi Seksu, but the whole shoegazer\/dream-pop scene (or the resurgence thereof) is brought to a new light on Citrus.<\/i> Without the glum moodiness of this scene, Asobi Seksu creates deep guitar landscapes with evocative melodies on this record. Citrus<\/i> is as definitive an album as the classics of this genre. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":30811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8769],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42485","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-asobi-seksu","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42485"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42485"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}