2007年 Jan 4日 Thursday, 10:24

Heeeyy…
Before the Christmas holidays, I was lucky enough to get my hands on the latest Orange Range CD, though I didn’t even knew they had a new album out yet. And after I had the chance to listen to it for the last days, and 'cause I'm bored like hell, I wanted to write a short review for the big void (that is you, non-existing reader). Oh, and everything I write is 100% based on my personal taste, so, if you disagree with me, you can write me your own opinion, and if I don’t know you, be sure that it will be ignored.

But first things first, hardly anybody outside of Japan knows Orange Range, so I have to explain: They are a funny little band from Okinawa (poor guys – it must be so boring there, you just HAVE to form a band…), doing some kind of rock with hip-hop elements. But, fear no more, this is not Japaneses Limp Bizkit, Orange Range prefer to be not too serious, are a lot fun to watch on stage, and even put complete pointless tracks on their albums… If you want to know what I mean, just watch the latest video of “Dance2” ;) They became “famous” for stealing tunes from other artists and make new songs out of it, and to be honest: They've done it very well, so who cares? Though I guess that they stopped ripping off so much and started writing more own stuff after all those bad publicity…

OK, now lets start with the latest album:

The opener “Miracle” is a good song (I really like it), but not the best choice to start the album. The beginning or the song sounds a bit random, something is missing… you feel like getting thrown in cold water (but not the good kind, like Virus), a small intro would’ve been nice. Chest did a way better job. But the song gives a good overview of what is about to come in the next hour.
The next song, “Champione”, was the official song of the 2006 "sakka" world cup here in Germany, a fact I wish I wouldn’t knew, because I despise most things which are connected to soccer. Nice song though, not great, but fun.

Then “Dance2”, a really weird song, and for my taste a bit too “electronic”, but it does its job. As I said, just watch the video clip and you know what I mean. “Fat” is ok, with nice heavy guitars, it is the “rock song” of this album. I suppose it will be a good live-song.
The next, “Beautiful Day” is the first highlight in my opinion: A nice build up, catchy chorus, well done bridge with good use of strings… yep, nothing else to say.
“Fuurinkazan” then again is a small let-down for me, I dislike the chorus, and they repeat it like 20 times… it’s just not doing it for me. I also can’t get warmed up with “Everysing”, a pretty chaotic song. I guess that’s one of the songs you either love or hate, maybe I will change opinions when I know it for some more weeks.

Next is “Walk on”. I like ballads, when they are well done, and this one is. Only the lyrics of the chorus annoy me a bit, they overestimate the aesthetic value of the good ol’ “lala”. Nevertheless, a fun little song. “So Little Time” is a typical Orange Range pointless-track. They can use it perfectly for the next live-dvd, when they want to show Behind-the-stage footage, so, just press skip.
“Fire Bun” goes deep in the “Hip Hop” genre, not my kind of music, but if you like this side of Orange Range, you will enjoy this song for sure. It has something, I can’t get myself to skip this track, the chorus is really fun to listen to.
When “Un Rock Star” started, I had the strong feeling that I know this beginning from some other song, but I cant find out which one… the song itself is ok, I bet it’s cool watching this song being performed.

“Hello” is funny, I really like it, brings me into a good mood. You just want to sing along with them (something much harder then you might think…)
“Lights” is also one of the bright sides of the album (you catched my amazing pun? ;) ), with a very good chorus. It is a fun mix of the different styles Orange Range uses and will stay in your head quite a while.
“Great Escape” is also a nice song, but nothing special, normal Orange Range song. Unlike “Step by Step”, which is written a bit more complex, and is for me the second highlight on this CD. It has a very nice intro, uses the different voices very well, and stands out with a pretty cool acoustic guitar. Though they really could have used less drum machine.

Then, we come to Sayonara, which is the third highlight and my personal favorite song of the album. Yes, hate me, I like this kind of cheese ballads (as long as they aren't too cheese…). It has a wonderful chorus and very atmospheric strings. Atmospheric is probably the best word to describe this song, though I don’t understand it, it manages to get certain feelings linked with the music. OK, I even understand some of the lyrics (boku wa iku yo ;) ), but I don’t think that this helps.
And this song would have made a perfect finish, if the Christmas spirit (speak: alcohol) hasn’t inspired them to make “Silent night”. This song just doesn’t do anything for me, in other words: It’s just plain boring. Sorry to all the fans of this song out there, but I just cant see the point of it… Maybe it would change if I’d understood the lyrics, but I fear that just would make me throw up. You know how horrible the usual Christmas-song is… In the end, there is a little bonus song which is as useful as an asshole right here (what do I mean? Watch Kill Bill 2 ;) )

All in all, this album has hardly any bad song on it, but also hardly any highlight. They changed their style a lot from musiq. I also needed quite some time to get used to Natural, but this one has so many "standard" songs – they aren’t bad, they are fun to listen to, but they don’t stand out. You can rehear this CD for days, and when someone asks you how it was you can’t really tell because there are too few remarkable tracks. Those few tracks (Sayonara, Step by Step, Lights, Fire Bun if you like “Hip-Hop Range” and Beautiful Day) are great though, that’s why I recommend to give the album a try and find out yourself if you like it. It wont disappoint you, but it wont impress you as well. But on the other hand, neither did Natural, so, you will get what you expect.
Maybe they should rip off more again, I want a new Locomotion… ;)
So long, sayonara!