jchertudi's cd collection.

My first song I heard was HITORI NO yoru, which was pretty much the catchiest pop song I had ever heard. As it turns out, Porno Graffitti's first album was simply full of these insanely infectious songs. Every single song has something going for it. Even the slow songs are great: yuushoku is a gentler, acoustic guitar piece, and DESSAN #1 is a fantastic, rockier, intense slow song. Needless to say all the upbeat songs feature great variety and are all good. I was so impressed with their debut and I feel Romantist Egoist is their quintessential album.

The second album, foo?, seemed to up the ante when it came to the singles released before the album. The three singles were all fantastic, and I thought the album would be really great. Well, most of the songs are good, with my favorite album tracks being the almost rap-like INNERVISIONS, the slow and bluesy ai naki..., and the synthpop with tragic lyrics kuusou kagaku shounen. The album is primarily marred by Name is man, a plodding soft rock piece that moves at a boring pace, and DESSAN #2, which sounds like a very cheesy pop ballad, contrasting greatly with the awesome DESSAN #1 from the first album. foo? just doesn't quite measure up to the high standard set by its predecessor, even if it has some great tunes.

A few things happened in Porno Graffitti land. The album had the salsa-themed AGEHA chou as its first single, but the next two singles weren't quite as good as what had come previously. Apparently, the band wanted to move into more of a "band sound" with this album, even hiring some session drummers for the recording. Most songs feature a stripped down guitar/bass/drums arrangement, which ends up making it seem bland compared to their other albums. These songs just aren't nearly as memorable. There are some highlights, including a return to form with the beautiful ballad HAATO, but otherwise I was disappointed with this album.

This is the last album to feature bassist Tama. Maybe they've turned things around since, but this album was even more of a letdown than the previous one. We're back to a more vibrant pop sound, but there are an absurd number of crappy songs on this one. The album starts fine, with four good songs in a row, but then it just dies. DESSAN #2, VINTEEJI, subarashiki jinsei kana?, and akai ORENJI all bore me. In the middle is WAARUDO-SATADEE GURAFUTI, which would be an excellent, catchy single; except it sounds like a cheap MYUUJIKKU AWAA knock-off. There's a couple more songs I like towards the end, but otherwise I found this album so unimpressive that I stopped following Porno Graffitti, even though they've continued to be hugely successful.