4 out of 5

Label: Biotope Records

Produced by: 池田洋 (recorded by, mixed by)

My holy goodness – this rocks. I mean, that is what リーガルリリー does, with greater or lesser amounts of shoegaze or pop, but then band comes tearing out of the gate on this one, and makes an almighty bluster. While that’s peak-noise for the remainder of the mini-album, it sets a tonal standard which the rest of the album is then able to poke at, amping up the guitars and drumming to incensed heights at key points. I keep coming back to The Breeders as a good comparison for this band, given their very 90s sound and tendency towards an off-key looseness that reminds of Kim Deal’s group, but this isn’t just a case of a Japanese soundalike band: リーガルリリー combine the indie rock sensibility of Breeders with good dose of sing-song California alt-rock, and then, very especially on The Telephone, a good dollop of straight up grunge as well. And that combo damn rocks, y’all.

Opener スターノイズ is terrifyingly powerful, and shows the group’s ability to break from verse-chorus-verse patterns, and also how much skill each of the players has, going way past riffage into really complex guitar lines, weaving bass, and pummeling drumming. This tunes you in to how dense the music is throughout Telephone; thus when the kind of folk-tinged ditty of Overture trickles in, it’s a super fun contrast, and done with a sincerity that prevents it from feeling kitsch.

While it makes sense to follow スターノイズ with some lighter fare, the two succeeding tracks are of similar pace and pitch, making the only flaw here that they tend to blend together. But Overture perks things up, and then 僕のリリー starts blending in some harsh guitar rock again, leading to some shoegazey majesty on closer せかいのおわり.