Review Summary: All love, no sax. Sen Morimoto has a full studio, but his sound is refining still to my ears. I found 2 tracks ‘What You Say’ and ‘Reality’ are worth playlist saves. This album is still worth listening to for the technical musicianship
I am getting a small kick out of bringing a little bit of a divisive view on a very loved album by critics and one other Sputnik user. A quick foreword: I do love Sen Morimoto's previous two albums. (Unincluding For Me & Ladie, can’t find it anywhere) I love the unique and weird vulnerability in his debut albums. Sen's saxophone conveys so much emotion in those earlier works. I have caught interview snippets with Sen Morimoto about his recent success and wave of popularity! This is amazing, I hope all indie musicians make enough money to obtain their dream creative sound. Sen Morimoto now has a full studio to really experiment and refine his signature sound. I feel bad for only having a few cherries that I could register as cherries given this is a full 13 track album.
There is noticeably less sax on this album. I can tell you the two songs where it's still present - and where it still works: ‘What You Say’ and ‘Reality.’
I do like the opening song. It's good enough to carry you through the first three or four tracks. But then something happens- or rather, doesn't happen. The songs start to blend together. The edges soften. The hooks blur. I'm listening, but I'm not grabbed. And by track five, I'm realizing: the sax isn't coming back the way it was here in past albums… Not really.
‘What You Say’ is track 8 of 13, so I find myself more than halfway through the album before looking up. The JAZZ PAYOFF is real in this song. It has a dance-y beat and the lyrical depth is what Sen Morimoto does best, plus his studio band. Is one dancing or bouncing with this song? Or merely keeping up with the lyrics and beat? I don’t want to bore you with the track by track but WOW ‘Surrender’ is the next track and I’m not the biggest fan after the momentum from the previous song. It’s like I’m being told to…. surrender…. to a sax-less life and a guitar experiment. We experience ‘Deeper’… ‘Pain’…. And some flowery Japanese shrubbery (‘Forsythia’), before the final track and second track I can honestly say I like hits, ‘Reality’. The sax and thematic soul is 100 perfect percent back, giving me a massive glimmer of hope for future albums.
As a fan, I didn’t love this album.
I can appreciate the sense of experimentation and say it’s worth the short 43 minute listen. I can see what Sen Morimoto is doing on Diagnosis. Many critics have praised its ‘meandering chromatic harmonies,’ its ‘blending,’ ‘disorientation,’ its ‘odds and ends,’ but I'm being SO real rn: aren't those just polite ways of saying the experiment doesn't quite land?
If you have snippets or songs you love that I missed, please let me know in the comments because I’m happy to keep trying with fresh ears.
I have plenty of hope for future works. From the final track ‘Reality,’ it seems like Sen Morimoto still has the vulnerable sax-y soul I’m craving and missing… This combined with the full experimental concept he was aiming for in this album in his music to come?? Nice. For now?
The emotional resonance only hits for me on the two tracks I mentioned. The rest of Diagnosis?? All love, and no sax.
