Bump of Chicken ¡°Butterflies¡± (Toy¡¯s Factory)

Butterflies are beautiful. Whether they¡¯re floating around in a garden or tattooed on a woman¡¯s shoulder ¡ª they¡¯re colorful and intricate. Bump of Chicken¡¯s latest release, ¡°Butterflies,¡± is neither of those things.

That¡¯s not to say ¡°Butterflies¡± is all bad, it¡¯s just nothing new. The last album Bump of Chicken gave us was 2014¡¯s ¡°Ray,¡± and it¡¯s good when a band has a signature sound, but ¡°Butterflies¡± ends up feeling like a giant retread of its usual alternative rock. The album opens with the track ¡°Go,¡± but it seems to stall instead. It would¡¯ve been better if the band was more forceful and aggressive. It¡¯s less ¡°go!¡± and more ¡°do you want to go?¡±

Bump Of Chicken experiments with EDM (electronic dance music) on ¡°Butterfly,¡± with the result sounding a little like Coldplay and Avicii¡¯s 2014 collaboration ¡°A Sky Full of Stars.¡± But in 2016 the experiment feels dated. A lot of bands in Japan are blending EDM into their songs and getting better results. Also, given the country¡¯s booming netlabel scene, Bump of Chicken could have had its pick of newer talent to create something truly innovative.

There are still a few bright spots on ¡°Butterflies.¡± ¡°Hello, World!¡± picks up the slack from the album¡¯s other tracks with a complicated melody, and singer Motoo Fujiwara¡¯s vocals really shine. The true highlight, however, is ¡°Parade.¡± It begins with a captivating piano melody before adding on more and more vocals and instruments until it finally hits an explosive climax. It¡¯s unfortunate that the rest of the songs on ¡°Butterflies¡± don¡¯t follow the kind of metamorphosis ¡°Parade¡± does, but fans should be happy nonetheless.