I'm a newbie joining from the lollapalooza concert on youtube. So I love Epic Narratives yet my third most listened to song in 2024 was Freezer. I have not gone through album by album however but that's my new year's resolution.
I like all their albums since Brand New World right through to the current one. I like the newer ones just as much as the older ones and have favourites from each Album. Love their changes and experimentation and evolution. Some fans prefer the older suff , maybe don't like change but a band can't keep pumping out the same stuff. Epic Narratives has been listened to by me dozens of times, love it. Thank god Kanami never stamds still in her compositions.. Listening to Epic Narratives has caused me to go back and listen to all their previous Albums (available under the Releases tab on their UA-cam channel. So love Epic Narratives, Unleash, Unseen World and of the older ones really like Just Bring it, Conqueror and World Domination. Ooop almost all their albums!!!!
For me, who grew up in the 70s and 80s, and was a young adult in the 90s, many of the songs on MIJ give me that nostalgic feeling that I still hear today in their own compositions. Be OK reminds me of that late 80s/early nineties pop punk feel of The Romantics, The Producers and the Replacements, and Yoaka Mae strongly reminds me of early Green Day. The others like Key, Bye My Tears and Knocking on Your Heart I could possibly dismiss if the live videos of those songs from those days weren't so enjoyable to look back on. Yes, I agree that it is their least "strong" album, but plenty of weaker albums have sold millions of units. I just think that market wasn't there at the time. It is interesting think about where they would have gone if one or two of those songs "took off." Based on what MISA was thinking at the time, we may have lost the BA, and Kanami may have become bored quickly.
From what I've heard about MISA's taste in music, I think she would be unhappy if the maids were to go back to the more pop sound. Best not to disappoint the barefoot assassin ;)
From what I recall from previous discussions, the songs on Maid in Japan were written by songwriters previously used by Platinum Passport before the band had come together - effectively the album constitutes their demo recordings tidied up for public consumption. The band had no identity at this stage apart from the image (maid costumes) and a vague idea to make "cool" music. PP were mainly working with idol singers and groups, so the songs were more pop orientated, very generic but professionally written. As an album it has its enjoyable moments, the re-release has Summer Days and Ai to Jonetsu from the subsequent EP (Thrill making on to New Beginning)
We can really only speculate but we do have enough information to make some reasonable if unconfirmed inferences: All the members have stated that they weren't convinced about the early musical direction. That's evidenced by the fact that, while seemingly nostalgic about a couple of those songs, they've virtually buried that material. Platinum Passport's expertise was in vocal pop music and, as far as we can tell, they had little to no experience developing rock bands. B-M was an early foray into the "girl rock boom." It's telling that PP seemed to have had no suitable instrumentalists on its roster at the time. And it's probably why the original audition call for musicians for the project apparently got exactly zero responses (according to Miku). PP was probably playing it very safe, understandably. I get the feeling that they thought that if they just had cute young women actually playing instruments, performing mild, nearly-edgy rock music, and a visual gimmick, that might have been enough to light a spark. I don't think it's a big leap to speculate that if they had continued that way, the band would have been a short-lived curiosity.
I've said from the beginning that Nek! Reminds me (so far) of MIJ Band-Maid if they had not added Saiki. Granted, Netsu and Cocoro are not as technically advanced as Kanami and Akane were at the same age, but they are much farther ahead of most bands with their first offering.
i quite like MiJ and don't feel like 'it was rushed" at all. But, I like it as an album and would relisten to several songs from there although not every song. I like the album is totally appropriate for where they were in their musical journey and considering they hadn't moved from the idol-ish band circuit to the indies bands circuit. I think a lot of people don't the album because they're metal fans and it's not a musical creation in their preferred wheelhouse; that's totally fine. But, for indies pop rock and indies idol band circuit pop rock, I think this album is totally good for its niche. full writing control - really not important that at stage of their career. i think people are too quick to blame everything on management and labels. They were learning at that stage of their careers which they could later take that experience and use it through their careers to do their own thing. forward - predia (passpo sister group) also did this song - although it might have been the members of predia who did mochi and cheese with kanami and akane. I think this song works well for both the predia idol group and for band-maid. the live version of knockin' on your heart was great and could easily still be a great kobato acoustic song (even though it was a dual vocal song originally). Foward was also a dual vocal song. I think that's something they could sprinkle in on one song on any future album. I like songs like bittersweet love, etc but I totally understand that these styles of songs are not favoured by a lot of fans who are largely metal fans. Personally, I'm okay if they had a variety of songs in their albums as they have a variety of fans. BUT, I've seen blogs of some old fans who used to see them a lot on the circuit, then fell off a lot when they moved away to hard rock. I think it's easy to forget that some pretty hardcore fans have been dropped along the way so they've moved in a direction that isn't moving backwards.
I'm much more a fan of their self-written songs, though there are several on Brand New Maid and New Beginnings that are favorites of mine. But for me, there's no stand out tracks on Maid in Japan. I much prefer Hatoful by Cluppo. The way I typically listen to Band-Maid is on a playlist, set on shuffle, that contains all their music that I own -- except Maid in Japan. Sometimes I'll skip Rock in Me too.
MIJ was never one for me. I don't know if their management wanted a pop-rock band originally, or they just set them up with a set of basic tunes just to get them out there and proving themselves as a live act, but it never sounds convincing. I can broadly rank tracks on a scale of 1-4, based on how I'd feel if the song came up next in the mp3 bucket of songs I have on a memory stick in my car. 1 - usually skip, 2 - ok, but skippable sometimes depending on my mood, 3 - I like this one, 4 - great, I love this track. Nothing on MIJ gets beyond a 2, mostly ones. In fact it's worse, as it's the only album I didn't bother buying, and I've bought every album after that, even if I don't think they've brought out a single song after Unseen World which ranks above a 2 either.
They would never release MIJ now. Why pay those songwriters again when they can write new music and get paid themselves? I certainly wouldn't waste the time if it were me. And most of those songs they haven't even played live since 2015. I think, to them, those songs are an old yoke they have stripped and have no desire to go back and put it back on.
The earlier BAND-MAID albums are by far the best and almost all of their best songs pre-date WORLD DOMINATION. Nowadays, they seem to just be writing songs to show off how good they are at playing their instruments instead of just writing good songs. I don't particularly like the new self-penned songs. They're either too slow and boring or they're far too chaotic and noisy. Ai to Jonetsu and Summer Drive are both infinitely re-playable and Forward is an all-time classic.
While I respect your opinion and tastes, I am interpreting your definition of "best" to be " what I like best." You are certainly in the minority, but that is the great thing about Band-Maid. I much more enjoy the NB-WD era over both MIJ and UW through EN. But that isn't to say that I do not respect the vast improvement in songwriting and musical execution post WD.
ai to jonetsu no matador, summer drive, and forward are all really fun songs. I'd totally listen to those songs a lot more if youtube music had them (youtube music in Japan has everything except for MiJ and the Ai to Jo./Summer Drive single. Personally, JBI is my favourite of the albums but all the albums have songs I really like and songs I like less. But, I think newer songs are trying to be very complicated, very layered, etc which I don't think is actually needed but I get that some of their fans are really into. So, I think it's good if they add some more laid back or stripped back or ballads etc to each album and hope they add those to all future albums.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm a newbie joining from the lollapalooza concert on youtube. So I love Epic Narratives yet my third most listened to song in 2024 was Freezer. I have not gone through album by album however but that's my new year's resolution.
Welcome! It's always cool to see new fans become interested enough to start watching videos like this.
@tinyhato Thanks. Does your tag line refer to Akane's hat she wore early on, or just a coincidence? 🦍🥁
Certainly not a coincidence. @@msquare249 RIP Tiny Hato! 🦍
I like all their albums since Brand New World right through to the current one. I like the newer ones just as much as the older ones and have favourites from each Album. Love their changes and experimentation and evolution. Some fans prefer the older suff , maybe don't like change but a band can't keep pumping out the same stuff. Epic Narratives has been listened to by me dozens of times, love it. Thank god Kanami never stamds still in her compositions.. Listening to Epic Narratives has caused me to go back and listen to all their previous Albums (available under the Releases tab on their UA-cam channel. So love Epic Narratives, Unleash, Unseen World and of the older ones really like Just Bring it, Conqueror and World Domination. Ooop almost all their albums!!!!
🤘🤘🤘🤘❤💛💙
For me, who grew up in the 70s and 80s, and was a young adult in the 90s, many of the songs on MIJ give me that nostalgic feeling that I still hear today in their own compositions. Be OK reminds me of that late 80s/early nineties pop punk feel of The Romantics, The Producers and the Replacements, and Yoaka Mae strongly reminds me of early Green Day. The others like Key, Bye My Tears and Knocking on Your Heart I could possibly dismiss if the live videos of those songs from those days weren't so enjoyable to look back on. Yes, I agree that it is their least "strong" album, but plenty of weaker albums have sold millions of units. I just think that market wasn't there at the time. It is interesting think about where they would have gone if one or two of those songs "took off." Based on what MISA was thinking at the time, we may have lost the BA, and Kanami may have become bored quickly.
From what I've heard about MISA's taste in music, I think she would be unhappy if the maids were to go back to the more pop sound. Best not to disappoint the barefoot assassin ;)
I'll be very disappointed if they go the more mainstream sound.
From what I recall from previous discussions, the songs on Maid in Japan were written by songwriters previously used by Platinum Passport before the band had come together - effectively the album constitutes their demo recordings tidied up for public consumption. The band had no identity at this stage apart from the image (maid costumes) and a vague idea to make "cool" music. PP were mainly working with idol singers and groups, so the songs were more pop orientated, very generic but professionally written. As an album it has its enjoyable moments, the re-release has Summer Days and Ai to Jonetsu from the subsequent EP (Thrill making on to New Beginning)
We can really only speculate but we do have enough information to make some reasonable if unconfirmed inferences:
All the members have stated that they weren't convinced about the early musical direction. That's evidenced by the fact that, while seemingly nostalgic about a couple of those songs, they've virtually buried that material.
Platinum Passport's expertise was in vocal pop music and, as far as we can tell, they had little to no experience developing rock bands. B-M was an early foray into the "girl rock boom." It's telling that PP seemed to have had no suitable instrumentalists on its roster at the time. And it's probably why the original audition call for musicians for the project apparently got exactly zero responses (according to Miku).
PP was probably playing it very safe, understandably. I get the feeling that they thought that if they just had cute young women actually playing instruments, performing mild, nearly-edgy rock music, and a visual gimmick, that might have been enough to light a spark.
I don't think it's a big leap to speculate that if they had continued that way, the band would have been a short-lived curiosity.
I've said from the beginning that Nek! Reminds me (so far) of MIJ Band-Maid if they had not added Saiki. Granted, Netsu and Cocoro are not as technically advanced as Kanami and Akane were at the same age, but they are much farther ahead of most bands with their first offering.
i quite like MiJ and don't feel like 'it was rushed" at all. But, I like it as an album and would relisten to several songs from there although not every song. I like the album is totally appropriate for where they were in their musical journey and considering they hadn't moved from the idol-ish band circuit to the indies bands circuit. I think a lot of people don't the album because they're metal fans and it's not a musical creation in their preferred wheelhouse; that's totally fine. But, for indies pop rock and indies idol band circuit pop rock, I think this album is totally good for its niche.
full writing control - really not important that at stage of their career. i think people are too quick to blame everything on management and labels. They were learning at that stage of their careers which they could later take that experience and use it through their careers to do their own thing.
forward - predia (passpo sister group) also did this song - although it might have been the members of predia who did mochi and cheese with kanami and akane. I think this song works well for both the predia idol group and for band-maid. the live version of knockin' on your heart was great and could easily still be a great kobato acoustic song (even though it was a dual vocal song originally). Foward was also a dual vocal song. I think that's something they could sprinkle in on one song on any future album. I like songs like bittersweet love, etc but I totally understand that these styles of songs are not favoured by a lot of fans who are largely metal fans. Personally, I'm okay if they had a variety of songs in their albums as they have a variety of fans. BUT, I've seen blogs of some old fans who used to see them a lot on the circuit, then fell off a lot when they moved away to hard rock. I think it's easy to forget that some pretty hardcore fans have been dropped along the way so they've moved in a direction that isn't moving backwards.
I'm much more a fan of their self-written songs, though there are several on Brand New Maid and New Beginnings that are favorites of mine. But for me, there's no stand out tracks on Maid in Japan. I much prefer Hatoful by Cluppo.
The way I typically listen to Band-Maid is on a playlist, set on shuffle, that contains all their music that I own -- except Maid in Japan. Sometimes I'll skip Rock in Me too.
MIJ was never one for me. I don't know if their management wanted a pop-rock band originally, or they just set them up with a set of basic tunes just to get them out there and proving themselves as a live act, but it never sounds convincing. I can broadly rank tracks on a scale of 1-4, based on how I'd feel if the song came up next in the mp3 bucket of songs I have on a memory stick in my car. 1 - usually skip, 2 - ok, but skippable sometimes depending on my mood, 3 - I like this one, 4 - great, I love this track. Nothing on MIJ gets beyond a 2, mostly ones. In fact it's worse, as it's the only album I didn't bother buying, and I've bought every album after that, even if I don't think they've brought out a single song after Unseen World which ranks above a 2 either.
They would never release MIJ now. Why pay those songwriters again when they can write new music and get paid themselves? I certainly wouldn't waste the time if it were me. And most of those songs they haven't even played live since 2015. I think, to them, those songs are an old yoke they have stripped and have no desire to go back and put it back on.
The earlier BAND-MAID albums are by far the best and almost all of their best songs pre-date WORLD DOMINATION. Nowadays, they seem to just be writing songs to show off how good they are at playing their instruments instead of just writing good songs. I don't particularly like the new self-penned songs. They're either too slow and boring or they're far too chaotic and noisy.
Ai to Jonetsu and Summer Drive are both infinitely re-playable and Forward is an all-time classic.
While I respect your opinion and tastes, I am interpreting your definition of "best" to be " what I like best." You are certainly in the minority, but that is the great thing about Band-Maid. I much more enjoy the NB-WD era over both MIJ and UW through EN. But that isn't to say that I do not respect the vast improvement in songwriting and musical execution post WD.
ai to jonetsu no matador, summer drive, and forward are all really fun songs. I'd totally listen to those songs a lot more if youtube music had them (youtube music in Japan has everything except for MiJ and the Ai to Jo./Summer Drive single.
Personally, JBI is my favourite of the albums but all the albums have songs I really like and songs I like less. But, I think newer songs are trying to be very complicated, very layered, etc which I don't think is actually needed but I get that some of their fans are really into. So, I think it's good if they add some more laid back or stripped back or ballads etc to each album and hope they add those to all future albums.