Look at that album title! And they’re Japanese. Anyway, this is more of that stuff that Snuffy Smile seems so fond of putting out at the moment. Emo punk / rock. While they may share some similarities with the likes of Blew and Lovemen, they are far from being 3rd rate copyists.
Crammed into half an hour are nine medium paced tunes, pumped up full of those big crunchy guitars you get with this style. There is definitely a bit of Braid in the likes of the choppy “Fireworks”, with it’s stuttery chorus and more laidback and chiming verse. What makes Wall stand it out, is that they aren’t afraid to be slightly less pop than you might expect. They do have their more uplifting sounding moments, but more often than not they are kicking out the powerfully relentless guitar assault, and it’s more a kind of downbeat pop. One of my favourites is “Contradiction” which has a late summers afternoon, laidback feel to the verse before going all Braid on the chorus. Lazy. Hazy. Stunning.
What often amazes me with the Japanese bands is the way they come up with such poetic lyrics at times. All metaphors and deep and meaningful sounding stuff, even if you can’t always figure it out. Dead impressive.
I like Wall. I’d jump about to them if they came and played in England. So go buy this so that they and Yoichi Snuffy can come over here. Please?