Ryusenkai 2,373 Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Track-List: 1. WILL 2. Niji wo Matsu Hito 3. ray 4. Southern Cross 5. Last One 6. morning glow 7. Zero 8. Torch 9. Smile 10. firefly 11. white note 12. Tomodachi no Uta 13. (please) forgive 14. Good Luck 15. Hidden Track -- Well, where to begin. This is an album that I've been looking forward to for a long, long time now, ever since it was announced back at the end of October. This week has been full of a lot of excitement and trepidation for me, since even though I was extremely hyped up for this release, that can sometimes get the better of you and make you disappointed when you first listen to an album. Nonetheless, I think that's enough lead-up - from here forward, I'm going to review the album track-by-track and then give my opinion on the release overall (I can't promise that I'm not going to be a little bias), both alone and in comparison to their past couple of studio sets. RAY starts off with "WILL", an interestingly playful mix of electronics and guitar that seems to invoke the signature space theme that Bump of Chicken have carried through most of their albums. WILL is both alive and immersive, definitely fulfilling its purpose of pulling you in and preparing for the rest of what's to come. Next up, we have "Niji wo Matsu Hito", which was used as the theme for the "Gatchaman" movie back in August. I'd loosely classify this as a mixture of synth-rock with a pop-rock anthem, with the most notable difference from the version we've all heard thus far being that the balance seems to have been altered slightly so that the song's electronic elements are more predominant. Overall, Niji wo Matsu Hito is a pretty good song and continues the mood set forth in the album's intro, which is in turn, passed on to the album's title track, "ray". I adore this track, plain and simple. It's playful, it's happy, and yet it's both instrumentally adventurous and, from what I can gather from my rudimentary Japanese knowledge, much deeper than it appears at first glance. ray ends what I consider to be the first movement of the album (I feel as though there are four total) and the fourth song, "Southern Cross", ushers us into the second. After being greeted by a loud guitar riff, Southern Cross launches into a softer, mid-tempo song that seems to be slowing us down a bit after the first couple of really upbeat tracks. However, this is a bit deceptive, as the song does pick up as it proceeds on, eventually ending up pretty close to up-tempo itself, even including a nice guitar solo. While there were a couple lyrics that sounded a bit odd for the rhythm, I felt that this was a pretty nice song on the whole. Southern Cross is followed up by "Last One", which is probably the only song on RAY that I feel could also fit on another Bump of Chicken album (that being "orbital period"). It brings back the style of guitar-ing that was really prominent on songs like "Hammer Song to Itami no Tou" and "Kasabutabutabu" and is just as playful as the latter song, with a bit more rock sensibility and motion infused into it. "Last One" is probably one of my favorite new songs, since it's just so fun to listen to, plus Motoo sounds particularly great on it. This leads us to the sixth track, "morning glow", which is a bright folk-rock track that just makes me think of "the West" for some reason. morning glow reminds me of the style of some of their more recent B-sides, like "good friends" and "Aruku Yuurei", so if you liked those, you'll probably like this song too, and vice-versa. I was kind of hoping that there'd be a track like this on the album, honestly, since it so rarely appears outside of their single back-logs. Following it up we have "Zero" (which begins the third movement), which was the theme song to the video game "Final Fantasy Type-0", undoubtedly the biggest hit of the era. Zero slows us down quite a bit (I'm honestly surprised the transition here worked as well as it did) and finally gives us a song that doesn't really reach beyond mid-tempo at its highest moments. The biggest highlight to the song is quite honestly the instrumental, which is unlike anything that Motoo has ever composed before; it's lush and varied (and a little celtic-influenced at times), yet still keeps the band at the core of the song's sound. Zero's final moments fade into "Torch", which I'd class as an "upbeat mid-tempo" song, if that makes sense. Torch is ... smooth, and plays with some rather interesting sounds in addition to the conventional band setup. There are some notably faint choral vocals on this track which I think help to push Motoo's voice even more to the fore (the folk edge seems to come out more in this song than it has anywhere thus far). After Torch, we have "Smile" (the "band version" of their acoustic earthquake charity song), which I know is in many ways going to be the most difficult song for some people to listen to. Smile is a rock ballad - a LONG rock ballad that clocks in at almost eight and a half minutes, half of which is an instrumental outro. I promise though, it really does go by faster than you'd expect. The first half of Smile is very much the rock ballad I described, the lyrics almost possessing a sing-song, nursery rhyme-like quality to them, each verse separated by a few "ah-ah"'s from Motoo. That's ... quite honestly the best way to describe the noise. The outro is basically a four minute jam session from the band, which if you like rock instrumentals you'll probably appreciate, though I understand that some people don't. This leads us into "firefly", which starts a bit subdued, but is definitely an upbeat song, trust me. firefly is a song that builds - it starts off soft and then crescendos into cathedrals by its end before slipping back to its subdued beginnings, the whole way guided by the haunting guitar melody that opens the track. I feel as though just a bit of the band's remaining angst infused into this song, particularly based on how forceful the vocals become towards the song's climax. The fourth and final movement of the album is opened by its shortest and most playful track - "white note". This song is just a nice little folky, acoustic jam, complete with whistling, clapping, foot stomping, and a full chorus as the song grows. It's just one of those songs that you can't help but smile while you listen to. white note flows into "Tomodachi no Uta", which was the theme to 2011's Doraemon movie. This transition is probably the only one on the album that I look at a little askance, since I'm not quite sure it really works as well as they wanted it to. Still, Tomodachi no Uta is cute - it's a song about friendship, what would you expect really? While it's not my favorite song on the album, I do rather like the trumpet parts when they show up. I really wish you'd see horns more (outside of genres like jazz) these days. Anyway, I'm digressing - Tomodachi no Uta flows very nicely into the last new track (kind of) on the album, "(please) forgive". Before I shower this song with my appreciation, I want to mention one particular detail about it. Bump's singer, Motoo, originally wrote it back in the summer of 2008, almost 6 years ago, and was a song that Japanese fans have been curious about ever since he mentioned it in a magazine around that time. Now then, (please) forgive is a very smooth, understated mid-tempo song, with some flute parts (these might be sound fonts, I'm not sure) interspersed within the very bass-driven track. For some reason, the vocals on this song reminds me of some of their older stuff back in the early 2000s, even though the song is a lot more firmly in their current style. This brings us to the album proper's closer, "Good Luck". This was a song I pegged as a closing track for an album when I first heard it back in early 2012, and I'm kind of happy that I was right. There's no other song on this record that really fits the position as well, both in terms of sound and lyrical content. In many ways, it's also the song that can be most immediately recognized as "Bump-ish" on the record, just because of the melody and vocal style that they ended up using on it. It's just a nice, if a bit generic for them, acoustic closer. This is technically the end of the album, but as is tradition on all of Bump of Chicken's releases, there IS a bonus track, albeit a rather short one in this case. It might appear to be a little over 4 minutes, but the track itself doesn't start until 3:11 in. Whatever it's called, the bonus track is a fun little blues breakdown which I expect was probably composed by the band's guitarist, Hiro. On the whole, I like "RAY" - a lot really. It's a very solid and surprisingly varied release from Bump, but it's not perfect (despite what some of my descriptions might have you think >_>), as there are a couple of glitches to be found here and there. Still, it's a great effort from them and probably my favorite album released thus far this year now. Compared to their previous two releases, I'd say that "RAY" is stronger than "COSMONAUT", but a bit weaker than "orbital period", which doesn't surprise me at all, considering that's my favorite record from the band. So, what do those of you who've listened think of the album? I'm legitimately curious to see what others thought of the release. Lastly, I hope that I've convinced some of you who were on the fence to actually give "RAY" a chance - I promise that you won't regret it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemlock 1,537 Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 It was a nice write up that i enjoyed reading. I have little exposure to Bump's music. Back before the migration i made it through maybe a dozen of their songs for the jrock song battle and i remember enjoying a few here and there. I don't exactly remember what they sound like since it's been quite a while but your review makes me want to give this album a listen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocumentaLy 6,033 Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 I'm going to listen to this tomorrow. I've had such a packed few days with all the releases recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avanpiper 217 Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Glad you liked the album, I haven't had the chance maybe tonight so hearing positive reviews brings me relief I only listened to ray and I liked it, even the one feat. Hatsune Miku. So many releases, just finished listening to Jas Vegas and Man with a Mission's Tales of Purefly. Still have androp's Period waiting in line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryusenkai 2,373 Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 It's also worth mentioning that the album is actually on US iTunes and is actually properly priced - if you buy the whole thing at once, it's only $10. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ray/id826171342 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryusenkai 2,373 Posted March 15, 2014 Author Share Posted March 15, 2014 Normally I wouldn't double-post, but I actually have reason to here - translated lyrics to "ray" are up here: http://bumpawesomeenglish.blogspot.com/2014/03/ray_2404.html ^I know this guy - he'll probably have the rest of the album translated soon enough, so look forward to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nttllng 468 Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 morning glow is my fav among the new songs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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