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| This is the pre release of the album for Tower Records. |
01 My landscape
02 SHARR
03 GiANT KiLLERS
04 SMACK baby SMACK
05 spare of despair
06 プロミスザスター
07 JAM
08 Here’s looking at you, kid
09 ろっくんろおるのかみさま
10 BODiES
11 ALLS
12 パール
13 FOR HiM
Bish(AKA Brand New Idol Shit) is a Japanese idol female group that was created in 2014. These girls are the second coming of another former group known as BIS and were picked by their manager as a group after Bis(Brand New Idol Society) disbanded that year. True fact about me is that I can't stand female idol groups from Japan unless you want to count the groups that don't have whiny voices, groups that actually sing like women. I actually don't care for male idol groups either. I only still follow Arashi but they release singles too frequently for me now. Anyway, back to the reasons I give Bish the time of day. Bis and Bish both had a very unique concept: Be the absolute opposite of what an Idol group should be. Meaning that these girls are crude, scary, and unforgiving in their goal to destroy the pure virgin image that other female Idols have continued to maintain. Their music videos and photo shoots are the best example of Bish's concept which seems to be working in their favor. The group's success has surpassed that of their mother group even with the revival of Bis earlier last year. The Guerrilla Bish is the groups second major label album release and their forth album release overall.
I was kind of disappointed with The Guerrilla Bish as a full album. My experience with Bis might have also tainted my realistic expectations to the color black. Singles for the album like My landscape made me pumped for a solid consistent album but instead Bish gave fans a crazy fresco of screams and rock tracks so diluted with pop influence that you wonder how these girls pull off being such a group of weird vocalists. I'm not saying that the album is worse than the music that AKB- whatever their names are consistently comes out with. (If you're a fan of them then more power to you.) I just wanted to be blown out the water like I was when I listened to Bis's albums for the first time. Music on Guerrilla Bish has a rock focus point since it's very befitting of their image. Don't be fooled by how hard these girl rock out though, they are still an idol group at the end of the day. This being proven by the increase in softness of the musical productions on some songs. Producers add a light touch of piano followed by violins under the band of guitars and drums. The flow of the instruments go together well making the over composition feel less cheesy. My landscape is a huge example of what I'm talking about. The track diverges away from Bish's harder sound without losing the darkness in their music that makes them great. Sometimes Bish can trick you into forgetting that you're listening to Idol Jpop thanks to them truly being a breath of fresh air. Toward the end of Guerrilla Bish, The tracks remind me more of Bis. Bodies might as well be my favorite track. I always automatically play this song when listening to the album. However, tracks 10 through 12 are all pretty solid. Tracks before these are the girls trying too hard to be crazy(Expect for the perviously released singles.). Sharr would have been a good track had one of the girls added a little harmony at the chorus in my opinion. Screamo being in the album at all was a huge surprise to me but I don't feel that they need to pull out all the stops in order to be different. They already got the concept down with their presences. Matching outfits and all.
Vocal performances for Bish are a selection from cute to mature. One of the reasons I like Bis was that they girls had a various range of voices. Some of the members sound their age. Deeper voice with less emphasis on the high whiny voice. Some thing applies to Bish. There's a cute sounding girl in both groups but they learn to blend well with the other who don't have that kind of voice. It makes having to listen to them sing less torture. Chihiro is the captain of Bish for a damn reason. That girl can hit those high notes no matter if it's during Bish's live performances or in the studio. She's the girl that sings the loudest in Bish's songs. Random ramble about to happen here but I like the girl with the glasses(Atsuka). She's cute in a non idol kind of way. I think it was a great decision having her wear glasses since it helps her stand out a lot.
Guerilla Bish needed Bish doing more of just being themselves than trying to play a role. Being an Idol was all about playing a role for the public until Bish hit the scene. These girls come off as more relatable to listeners when they're music is less prepackaged. Keep being honest in your music girls.
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