THE BAWDIES - New Album Thoughts(J-rock)

01. THE EDGE
02. HELLO
03. 45s
04. DANCING SHOES[“NEW” Version]
05. RAINY DAY
06. SUNSHINE
07. POPULAR GIRL
08. MAKE IT SNOW[“NEW” Version]
09. MY EVERYTHING
10. SHAKE, SHOUT & SOUL
11. HOT NIGHT, MOON LIGHT
12. NEW LIGHTS

    I listen to the bawdies every now and then. It took them a long time for them to be added to my favorite Japanese rock bands list. One reason was because I didn't care for the vocals of their band. For a long time I would run across a song or two and just didn't like what I heard. I will say that this was when I was younger, where I wasn't open to different qualities of voices. The Bawdies started their career in the early 2000s and released album after album with a dream of sending their own style of music to as many listeners as possible. Their music didn't get through to me until they did the collaboration single, Love you need you with soul RnB singer AI. I could talk all day about AI but I don't think you guys want to see that on a post about the bawdies. She's one of the best soul female Japanese singers along with Superfly, Ayaka, and Crystal Kay. Love you need you is still on constant replay today and its a track that caused me to rethink how I felt about the bawdies. So I listened to their newest album at the time(1-2-3) and was a fan ever since. They recently dropped a new album that felt like a secret release to me. I knew absolutely nothing about this release.....

   New is the bawdies eight album. ironically, the album is actually called new. What a simple name. An album title can't get anymore simple than this. I had a hard time finding this album online because the album name was so simple. My head was almost bald from me pulling out my hair until I finally found the album. The bawdies are the Japanese reincarnation of the Beatles pretty much. A big quality that makes them stand out is the fact that their lyrics are entirely sung in English. I've never ever heard this band sing a song in Japanese ever. Not only that but their lead singer's English pronunciation is good. I don't know if he studied english really hard or lived outside of Japan but they have mastered english good enough that I understand whats being sung. They have an eighties-ninties rock style influence in their songs. Sometimes I hear a soulful kick to that reminds me of classic singers such as Ray Charles. New carries on this same musical style not really changing up too much. Certain songs like, The Edge, Hello, and Shake, Shout, and Soul, have the guitarists slamming the guitar hard creating a heavier rock sound though. When listening to New, you have the choices of groovy and soulful, or rock and roll. There's no in-between. You might get a mixture of both styles in one track if your lucky enough.

  I hadn't listened to a full bawdies album in a long time. I do listen to Love You Need You and another song from their 1-2-3 album titled Sha la la from time to time but that's about it. So listening to their leader, Roy's voice again was off putting. Roy doesn't hold anything back when he performs. He'll scream then sing then scream again. Don't think a heavy metal kind of scream, its more like a soulful scream that puts me in mind of how Ray Charles vocalized when he sang his famous hit, Night and Day. I had to get used to his singing again because his voice is very distinct. His voice has a natural growl to it. Remember that soul groovy music won't allow you to go screaming all over the place so he knows how to calm things down a bit. I enjoy both sides to his voice. Especially because you would think his kind of vocal wouldn't sound right for soulful rock but songs like Make it snow and Rainy day sound like they came right out of one of those fifty cent music machines that's found in a diner.  I also like the guest vocals on this album done for both tracks mentioned above. They did a good job bringing that old time rock flavor back to the new school.

   The bawdies are a band that doesn't need to change their style too much. I think Japanese people love the fact that Japanese bands can perform songs in english even if they don't understand the lyrics. Japanese people also love the Beatles so this band is loved just by association to them. New was a good album to me. Their other albums, Boys and 1-2-3 are fun listens too if you're interested.