Review Summary: Every artist should have their own "Rewolf".
I normally make an effort to avoid reviewing that which has already been reviewed, especially when there's still so much good music yet to receive this basic courtesy (*still* no love for
Dandys Rule OK?), and especially especially when the review there is actually good. Why create needless competition? But then I hear the opening howl to "Breathe Into Glass", and realize that there's one less acknowledgement of
Rewolf than there could be, and suddenly all is wrong in the world.
I must say it feels to weird to be singing this album's praises. I mean, of course I'm singing this album's praises, why shouldn't I? Who has the time or [virtual] ink to waste on an album that doesn't arouse passion? But that's not it. It's an Asobi Seksu album, but it doesn't really sound like an Asobi Seksu album. For those unfamiliar, an Asobi Seksu album sounds like pseudo-faux-Japanese shoegaze. It's their best album, and it doesn't even sound like them! What does that say about Asobi Seksu? What does it say if Nirvana's best album is
Unplugged?
I don't use that
Nirvana Unplugged or however the hell you want to title it comparison accidentally.
Rewolf feels in many ways like Asobi Seksu's own "unplugged" album, but we'll return to that in a moment. More important is the sense that this album is like the realization of an experiment every artist should do, in a perfect world for every release. A Bandcamp artist, charlot, released a single named "ハ*ー、グッバイ" with an interesting gimmick. The B-side is just the same track, but "stripped down". I'd like to imagine this was the intention behind
Rewolf. An entire album of stripped versions of previous hits.
Rewolf isn't exactly the "stripped down" version of Asobi Seksu, but it does seem like that was the starting point for the album. As stated previously
Rewolf feels like an unplugged album, and curiously that feeling intensifies the longer its been since the last listen. I can't speak for anyone else, but there's a spark of life to this LP that really sticks in the mind. Curiously I can't say the same for any of Asobi Seksu's other work except
maybe Hush. It doesn't help that in accordance with my "cutting edge of cool (circa a decade ago)" policy that I worked their discography backwards, something I'm sure no true Scotsman ever would.
Perhaps that spark is *because* of its simplicity. There's an Antoine de Saint-Exupéry quote I'm wont to mention that "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." As we all know, it's easier to change an extant thing than to create something new from scratch. My hunch is that in working on extant things, and doing so with enough distance to gain perspective they were able to distill the essence of their best work and build on it from there.
The "build" in this case takes the form of the production. The album is mixed in a very...lush manner that leaves the listener with the impression that there's more layers to the performance than there actually is. There's a very particular and altogether not uncommon mood and theming to the mix which I'm sure is intentional, something reminiscent of wind chimes, but I don't think such a word exists. At the minimum it's no doubt a very expensive word. Like say, nutmeg, it's not a particularly new or original flavor, but endlessly flexible and in the right hands can be used to great effect.
I've neglected to mention any specific tracks because that's barren ground. This isn't an LP so much as a bundle of tracks. If it weren't for the fact that these are all rerecorded and remixed this would be just a slightly eclectic greatest hits collection, and those don't lend themselves well to specific highlights. This isn't a slight against the LP nor the variety of its offerings, just an admission of facts. This also means this is one of those albums where you'll be able to tell pretty quickly whether its your thing or not. Just hear the first three or four tracks and you'll have a representative sample you can judge.
The awkward thing is, what comes of such a judgement? I've spilled this (virtual) ink because I emphatically think this is a great work worth listening to, Asobi Seksu's best. If you disagree that's no skin off either our noses, but if you agree then you'll be left in an awkward position. New listeners will find Asobi Seksu's other work strangely unsatisfying, even empty, while already fans may no longer be able to go home again. I guess that's my greatest endorsement, and my greatest condemnation.
Rewolf is so good, it may retroactively ruin Asobi Seksu for you.
