It’s been about a year since THE ORAL CIGARETTES‘ released their major debut album “The BKW Show!!“, today we’re here to briefly inspect the new album FIXION to see just how much they’ve grown!
THE ORAL CIGARETTES is a rock band with attitude, they create music with a rebellious and catchy sound. Earlier today (January 5) the quadruplet finally made its latest album FIXION available. After many teasers and promotion material, the band now unleashed every remaining song to the public! FIXION is indeed a new 10-track album, however, five of the included songs were in fact released in earlier stages. Beside the new songs, they included three previous main tracks from their second, third and fourth major single release, Amy, Kantan nakoto and the opening theme song of the highly praised anime Noragami Aragoto, Kyouran Hey Kids!! respectively. During the promotion period, the band also revealed two new music videos Kidzuke yo baby, and the album’s main track, A-E-U-I.
That being said, the direction of the album was basically all set before it even hit the market, so in that department, we already knew what we’re getting into. But, did the anti-climax stop the album from being a pleasant surprise, and more importantly, did the album meet or exceed our expectations?
FIXION is a funky rock album with lots of attitude! It was able to evoke feelings of reminiscence, determination and hope during my time with it, three of the more dominating keywords to describe the album. Cheesy as it sounds, that’s me being all honest. One of the better notably and interesting component of this album are the melody lines, produced by the lead guitar. Not only is it prominent during instrumental parts, but shares the same priority as the vocals, and is constantly being played alongside it, like a duet. The man behind the vocals, Takuya Yamanaka, has a very soothing voice as demonstrated best in the ending track Everything. Of course, not limited to only that, proven throughout the entire album, where you’ll also hear his cocky characteristics come to play. As a side note, fans of another rock band MUCC, might find it interesting that THE ORAL CIGARETTES’ vocalist has a strikingly similar voice to vocalist Tatsuro, although a bit less nasal.
Comparing FIXION with THE ORAL CIGARETTES’ previous album The BKW Show!!, it is clear that their sound matured. The new album offers songs with smoother and elegant transitions, unlike the abrupt, change-in-pace transitions previously seen. Unfortunately, the rebellious sound was brought down a notch, in return they spiced it up with their “charming” and “charismatic” sound.
THE ORAL CIGARETTES’ latest album FIXION was a pleasant listening experience that did meet my expectations, no more, no less. In the end, the album would probably have been more exciting to pick up if they replaced the three previous releases with brand new tracks.
 | FIXIONRegular editionCD
Buy at CDJapan |
| FIXIONDigital editionCD
Buy at iTunes |
 | FIXIONLimited editionCD
DVD
Buy at CDJapan |
More info:
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