3 out of 5

Label: Sony

Produced by: Daiki Tsuneta

This is a fascinating cross-section of J-Pop and modern American pop ethos, led in what seems like a Gorillaz-esque collective way by King Gnu frontman Daiki Tsuneta. Displaying an amazing amount of compositional depth, the mingling of styles lands some really impressive singles… but also gets a bit lost in finding a definitive sound, resulting in the album’s middle sagging with tracks that bury their more fascinating ledes behind generically digital and sanitized melodies. These are songs that end up being very close to tunes you’ve heard before, to an extent that it becomes a bit too easy to tune them out as the kind of overplayed things that are on background in a Gap or somesuch. Which has utility, but these renditions feel about a generation past in terms of style, and are negatively impacted by that cross-sectioning, as all the fascinating bits bumped into the song or distracted by the “I kind of recognize this” vibe.

The J-Pop influence in here is in how busy these tracks are, stuffing in layers and layers of vocals and instrumentation; the general complexity of even the most sparkly of J-Pop stuff always astounds me – it’s an amped up version of what might pass for pop in the states, as it’s not just busy, but always keeps changing the definition of what that means, not content to just verse-chorus-verse. I mean, the stuff is still honed for the mainstream, but it’s a different take on that. Whereas in the US – and elsewhere, including the UK, but I’ll focus on what I’m most familiar with – the produced-by-a-team stuff has much more gloss to it, often with more of a beat-based focus and a ton of focus on an upfront vocal and melody hook. If you score those two, and gear it towards your genre (hip-hop, rock, country), you’ll have an in, then escalated by a noteworthy voice or whatever marketing you can afford to make it cool. There’s skill at all levels there, even if that sounds like a critical read.

So Millenium Parade applies the US template of hooks, but then stuffs the tracks to the gills with J-Pop variability, with the added tweak of how the band feels like something of a rotating circuit of leads, which is the Gorillaz vibe: so we can come out swinging with R&B-influenced rock, lean more into the latter, then soften down for some grinding grooves. A heavy low-end being the focus very much feels like the US influence, as does the kind of autotuned nature of the production in the aforementioned middle of the disc, which has the effect of paring off all the fun edges of the instrumentation, burying it all behind slippery beats and vocals. Compare this to the album’s openings and closings, which match that digital vibe with organic horns, and swells of vocals; these tracks are such catchy and emotive hits that it’s easy to overlook what comes between… until you’re stuck in those songs, several in a row, wondering if MP is a flash in the pan.

And I really don’t think they are, but: though, conceptually, the cultural mash-up is really interesting, and makes for some amazing bookends, the general execution of it isn’t perfected in a way to highlight what the band does well.