Japanese Motors
Japanese Motors
Vice
By Eavvon O'Neal
For the most part, I hate winter. It aggravates my more melancholy side. It brings higher electricity bills, tax season, and snow—which wouldn’t be so bad if I were still in school, but now acts as a frigid symbol of my murdered youth. Japanese Motor’s self-titled album is a summer album released in the fall; its perpetual warmth will, at the very least, act as a slight buffer from the realization that summer is now packed away, with only its spirit left to hang on to.
“Single Fins & Safety Pins” is probably going to be proven, in the future, to have been penned by Albert Hammond Jr. or Julian Casablacas. It’s a fantastic first single, with a lead vocalist, Alex Knost, who has a less annoying voice than his Strokes equivalent. He’s not trying to croon, so much as not inspire comparison with Julian—it’s like younger brother envy syndrome via .wav file. It’s funny, once you give the album a once through, you start to realize that each track starts with the Strokes’ post-garage/post- punk/post-emotive rock blueprint, adding some cool tribal drum (“Regrets A Paradise”), a Ska bass line (“Pseudo Elitist Vagueness”), or some straight up disco (“Crooked Gun”) to shake things up. Japanese Motors know what they’re working with, and how they’re packaged, and they are toying with the idea that you can be cooler (than…..?) by knowing you won’t be cool out of the gate and by blowing that shit out of the water with every sweet Police riff (again, “Crooked Gun”). Meanwhile, they attempt to widen the static demographic that is supposed to be in love with them by appeasing everyone. “Coors Lite” is as perfect an example as any: it opens with the confusion of a Motown/Rolling Stones hybrid thug, riding pokey the clay horse playfully through a sandstorm. Is it a down and dirty fuck song (Stones), or a me & my sweetheart ode to…bad beer? It’s up to you, and your bros mostly, ya know?!
“Better Trends”, one of the most fun summer & surf songs, solidifies the propagated cool of Japanese Motors, but also acts as their admittance of self-awareness. They know all the elements that have been sprinkled into their work, know how each square peg somehow fits universally, and they know these trends make for good records. This is their honestly spilling across the divide and allowing us the understanding that sometimes coincidences don’t really exist in music. This awareness is almost as strong as on the final track “Misery & Profits”. This last track opens with the same sincerity as The Walkmen’s cover of “Another One”, but has Alex hiding behind a vocal filter that distances him from his subject. Style over substance, I suppose. Still, Knost strains to hit the word “again” in the chorus, pleading with his dreams to match up with his realities, optimistically reaching for notes he can’t possibly, yet falling short at each attempt, both during the chorus and in life.
The Japanese Motors, who have succeeded in transplanting seasons, have also managed to pull out a solid debut from used material, with some moments of original flare. While it remains to be seen if they have copied the Strokes’ career progression, or just their sound, it is safe to wager that at least they have managed to play more than just one song, over and over and over and over….
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