Review Summary: Find another role, carry on the show.
Kero Kero Bonito quickly became famous for their unique fusion of J-pop, hip hop and UK house with
Bonito Generation. That album attracted fans and deriders in equal measure, but regardless of your own personal opinion, there’s no denying they had a unique sound and their fans loved them for it. The endearing lyrics of loving your parents, your childhood trampoline and graduating from uni were just the cherry on top. Bearing this in mind, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say
Time ‘n’ Place is one of the boldest and most daring sophomore albums in recent memory. The Japanese rapping? Gone. The wide-eyed wonder? Absent. In its place are lamentations about pasts now abandoned, the ennui that often comes with adult life and the seeming desire to regain the youthful spirit
Bonito Generation had in spades. In other words, Sarah, Gus and Jamie turned the formula on its head.
The two key points of inspiration now seem to be the nosier side of alternative rock and twee-pop of the Belle and Sebastian/Alvvays variety, whilst still retaining a degree of electronic influence. “Outside” launches the listener into the deep-end with a jarring wall of fuzzed-out guitars and glistening synths. Sarah still sounds like Sarah, but there’s an uncertainty and a notable streak of melancholy running through her vocals. If you told me in 2016 that Sonic Youth would be a point of comparison for Kero Kero Bonito I’d have laughed it off but here they are, 2 years later, hammering away with fuzzed out power chords and a kaleidoscope of vocal melodies. The alt-rock worship just continues with the stunning “Only Acting”, where KKB try their hand at more tightly structured songwriting, with the greatest solo and catchiest chorus Rivers Cuomo never wrote to boot. The song ends jarringly, disintegrating into a nightmarish cacophony of chopped and screwed vocal samples and shrieking distortion. In a way, “Only Acting” forces the listener to re-contextualise a great deal of
Bonito Generation, going as far as to suggest the care-free nature of that album was all just an act.
With all these comparisons to so many other great bands, I might be giving you the impression that
Time ‘n’ Place is an album of pastiche, and that really isn’t the case. KKB may not be working with the most original sounds, but they give it enough of a spin for it to sound fresh and when they’re doing it this damn well, you can’t help but appreciate it. You need look no further than the gorgeous “Make Believe” for proof of that. The track features some elements long-time listeners will be familiar with, namely the video-game soundtrack inspired synths. But that sound is filtered through the bittersweet tone of the album, and it becomes a gorgeous piece of electronic-inflected indie pop with a chorus to die for.
”All my life I tried to find the time to make believe, but now as certain as the seasons I know real life will get in-between”
Like its predecessor,
Time ‘n’ Place has an impeccable flow. The band know precisely when to include a lighter cut to relive the tension, with “Time Today” and “Visiting Hours”. The latter is a lyrically beautiful piece of snapshot storytelling about the universal experience of visiting a family member in hospital. The personal details interspersed give it heaps of character and make it all the more charming. These moments of respite really allow Sarah’s vocals and lyrics to shine, and they stand as some of the most memorable of the whole runtime. Conceptually and instrumentally, vulnerability is the emotional core of
Time ‘n’ Place. The band even take the “head in the clouds” topics of tracks like “Big City” and delve into the more grounded aspects. Songs of growing up and moving away become reflections on the existential emptiness of modern life, explored through the emotions we attach to the objects around us on “Dear Future Self”. This track in particular reads as Sarah preparing her younger self for the emotional turmoil of adulthood. Crushing stuff for the band that brought us “Heard a Song”.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom. The out of nowhere upbeat acoustic singalong “Sometimes” offers an important reminder that even the worst days will have silver linings. The united vocals of the credited “Sometimes singers” reinforce one of the album’s key themes and the final (implied) message: things may be bad, and they may just get worse, but it
can always get better. And even if it doesn’t, you still have the people around you to go through it with. Perhaps that’s why Sarah cuts herself (and the track) off mid-sentence on album closer “Rest Stop”, before she can tell the listener how much worse it is to be alone. When everything falls apart, you’ll need your loved ones with you, and being without them isn’t worth thinking about.
