The four piece feminine powerhouse is back with a brand new album called Honey(I always think about the song called Honey by Otsuka Ai.). These girls….. No scratch that. These women have been in the Japanese music scene since they were young. They were selling out shows, modeling, and, hosting all while being in high school. After completing high school, SCANDAL show no plans of stopping their musical activities. Their look changed to show an all new mature side of the band and a new sound. SCANDAL has grown greatly in popularity over the years. Most of their albums hit within the top ten on the Oricon Charts and they have a huge following in Taiwan.
01 Platform Syndrome
02 Over
03 Take Me Out
04 Oh! No!
05 Midnight City
06 Short Short
07 窓を開けたら
08 ふたり
09 Electric Girl
10 恋するユニバース
Honey sets the tone for the girls's comeback with a strong list of tracks. I haven't been keeping up with Scandal's single releases so most of the songs are a first time experience for me. Their last album showed the girls trying to go the mainstream pop road which didn't hurt the band's music too much to me. They know how to make pop work for their music. Some musical artists go pop only for it to destroy the music foundation that they created well already. Honey slides in a few pop numbers too but this album takes a step back to remind all of use that the women of Scandal still rock hard when they choose to. I'm one of those fans that doesn't jump on every release because the band has songs that could be classified as a hit or miss. You win some then lose some when listening to them. Whats great about Honey is that there's more winning tracks than losing ones. All thanks to the rock n roll juice that was pumped into tracks such as Over or the motion driven Take me out. The album takes it's hand at mixing pop and rock together for some jumpy dance numbers that don't bring down the album at all. I believe this is because pop rock is the girl's sound. They've been in high school so they know what type of songs along with lyrical content will be a big hit with the Japan's youth. I was a bit surprised how tracks like Electric Girl felt solid even though it's a track that uses a generic mainstream pop formula. Not all the tracks are my style but Honey shows the band's desire to be around for awhile. Maybe they will go down in history like PUFFY. You never know……
I could stand the second singer's voice a bit more this time. I might have just gotten so used to her voice that it doesn't matter anymore. I enjoy Scandal's vocals overall though….. However, some of the vocals ruined certain songs on the album to me. So damned high pitched...
Honey proved it's point to me: Scandal is still here to stay. I would like to see them continue to experiment with their sound. I'm going to scream if they ever try adding rap in their music.
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