Review Summary: A turning point in the band's career, Birdy offers some nice lyrics and great hooks but doesn't quite live up to the band's previous work.
Whatever else is popular in the music world clearly has little impact on bloodthirsty butchers, one of Japan's best indie bands. With a sound that transformed from brash, awkward and sometimes aimless punk rock on their first trio of albums, to a hook-laden alternative rock as embodied by artists like Dinosaur Jr. and Guided By Voices, the 'butchers have had a rich career that hasn't been without its missteps.
Birdy, the band's eighth album, is a polarizing one. Since 1989 or so, they existed as a trio. Drummer Masahiro Komatsu would hold down the beat while Takeshi Imoriya delivered catchy, melodic basslines and Hideki Yoshimura shouts and bangs away with wandering melodies on guitar. None of the group are technical wizards that are going to make the likes of Between the Buried and Me shake in their boots; in fact, by most technical standards, the band is actually pretty bad most of the time. But what they lack in instrumental proficiency, they compensate for in melodicism that puts most artists to shame. The 'butchers mastered layered melodies in pop songs to create music that's simultaneously aggressive and endearing, angry and nostalgic. But in 2004, with the addition of former Number Girl lead guitarist Hisako Tabuchi - who, it should be noted, is Yoshimura's wife - the band experienced its first line change-up since the fall of the Iron Curtain - erm, Japanese bubble economy.
It's hardly fair to attribute the addition of a second guitarist to any perceived drop in quality in the band's work. Yoshimura still writes all the songs, and Birdy largely continues the progression towards more accessible songwriting that the band mastered on their previous release, Kouya ni Okeru bloodthirsty butchers. Their sound is difficult to describe due to a lack of similar bands, but if you can visualize a cross between Dinosaur Jr. without the shredding, Pavement without the irony, or even The Smiths without Morrissey, you'll be getting close. On this record, Tabuchi's addition is nearly negligible; the 'butchers have always used multi-tracked guitars to give songs like 'Goblin' and 'July' from previous releases their shimmering, melodic waves of sound. The real force of a fourth member is felt in live performances, where Tabuchi deftly executes howling solos with decidedly more skill than her husband. Whether the Number Girl's ex-buzzsaw riffer suffers or fits into the background on this album is largely up to the individual listener.
The opening track, 'JACK NICHOLSON,' quickly vaporizes any fears of the band losing their touch as Yoshimura's forceful shouting rides the thundering instrumental assault of the band. The lyrics are among their best, as the singer struggles with the pressures of being an independent musician in an earnest and convincing manner. Considered selfish, untalented, and noisy by his critics, the singer fights on with resolve for his challenging and often discouraging life in music: "Go, dammit!" he effectively hollers at the end of the chorus. 'Birdy,' the title track, switches to a more upbeat mood as Yoshimura reflects jealously on a bird's freedom in a punchy, melodic tune that would probably sound sentimental if penned by most other artists. The mostly-instrumental ending segment is particularly pleasing, highlighting Tabuchi's fuzzy - yet still understated - lead guitar.
'FRICTION' is as abrasive and driving as its title suggests but not at the expense of melody; Imoriya is the real star of this track, particularly in delivering a memorable bass fill in the chorus that steals the song. 'SUNN' is another great track that shows the band's skill at combining the crunchy, fuzzed-out sound of late eighties/early nineties indie rock with a strong melody. The mostly-instrumental 'Love Supreme' probably isn't going to have John Coltrane breaking out in a sweat - it shares only its title with the legendary jazz recording - but offers some great-sounding guitar playing under its pleasing chord progression.
Most of the album's weaker points come in the second half. "Walkman" sounds too sing-songy and reads too sentimentally for its own good. 'Bandwagon' sounds like a less-inspired version of 'Saraba, Sekai Kunshu' from the previous album, and "Dischordman" lags in comparison to the band - and album's - stronger moments. The final track, 'Kouya ni Okeru bloodthirsty butchers,' which confusingly shares a name with the band's prior album, is too long and fails to quite capture the depressed sound the band did much better on yamane. But fortunately, the second-to-last song, 'rat music for rat people,' is a spectacular success; it's driven by Imoriya's slow, melodic bass, playing you would normally expect to hear from a guitar, while Yoshimura gently picks lovely melodies out of the ether to top off the song, culminating in the beautiful instrumental interplay in the final thirty seconds of the song.
bloodthirsty butchers have never been a 'singles' band; they excel in the album form, as their best efforts such as 'kocorno' and 'yamane' aptly demonstrate. Birdy doesn't suffer from its comparatively greater popiness, but rather because it's a less cohesive whole. Musically, the band is fantastic, and even on the weaker tracks there are at least one or two layers of sweet-sounding guitar to digest, even if Imoriya's bass doesn't factor in as prominently as in previous albums. The lyrics (to the extent that this writer, not yet fluent in Japanese, can understand them) delicately tread the line between earnest emotion and sentimentality, usually in a good way. But the loose jams and layered instrumentals sometimes cause the album to sound unfocused and awkward - which, depending on the listener, can be a good thing.
There are precious few bands making music like bloodthirsty butchers, wholly and shameless rooted in the early school of alternative rock. As a result, the 'butchers are their own worst enemies, and while Birdy would be an outstanding effort from any other group, it's not quite as strong as the band's prior records. If nothing else, it serves as a good introduction to the band with some of their more accessible material.
