Shonen Knife – Overdrive

Who doesn’t want to hear lady Japanese garage-rock vets bop to ramen on fortune cookies?...
Shonen Knife : Overdrive
7.2 Good Charamel
2014 

Shonen Knife : OverdriveOsaka’s Shonen Knife preceded the J-pop boom (which preceded the K-pop boom), the grunge rock-boom, and even the garage rock-boom, and yet are still here – and still haven’t aged/grown up. Indeed, their music shifted even more poppy on 2012’s relatively lightweight Pop Tune (QRO review), and stays sugar-cheery on Overdrive – but it’s a better sugar-cheer as the band sings about their favorite things.

Simple garage-rock is not for the weightiest of subjects, but Shonen Knife go particularly light on Overdrive, in shade as well as heft. There are songs about ramen noodles (“Ramen Rock”), shopping (“Shopping”), fortune cookies (“Fortune Cookie”), cats (“Like a Cat”), and even green tea (“Green Tea”) – and yet they work. Who doesn’t want to hear lady Japanese garage-rock vets bop to ramen on fortune cookies (“Shopping” is more sarcastic, at least one hopes…)? Even opener “Bad Luck Song” is an upbeat one – “The bad luck song might be my good luck song / That is the best way of thinking.”

After well over thirty years of garage girl-group, are you really expecting Shonen Knife to be auteurs? Aren’t you really looking for them to sing “Dance to the Rock”?

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