CD Review :: flumpool - What's flumpool !?
Tracklist :
1) Calling
2) Hoshi ni Negai wo (Wish Upon A Star)
3) Mitsumeteitai (I Want To Stare At You)
4) MW ~Dear Mr. & Ms. Picaresque~
5) Boku wa Guuzen wo Matteirurashii (I Was Apparently Waiting For A Chance)
6) Merry Go Round (Kaiten Mokuba)
7) Shasou (Car Window)
8) Hills
9) Natsu (Summer) Dive
10) LOVE 2010
11) Quville
12) Saigo no (The Last) Page
13) Kotoshi no (This Year's) Sakura
14) Time Capsule
15) Siren
16) Frame (Album Version)
What's flumpool !? is flumpool's 1st full length debut album . It was released on 23rd Dec last year .
The quartet's 1st 2 physical singles , 2 B-sides & 2 digital singles are included in the album & it debuted at #2 with 1st week sales of 90,102 .
The album is listed in the Guinness Book Of Records as the longest CD album in the world & it's a whopping 79 minutes 58 seconds long .
Its previous record-holder was Mariah Carey's The Ones with 79 minutes 56 seconds .
Calling is the 1st track to kick off What's flumpool ?! & it's the only album track that received a music video .
To finally hear the studio version of Calling , it's nice I say & now I understand why the guys chose to kick off their debut album with this no. as it's basically a really catchy piece of indie tune .
Hoshi ni Negai wo (Wish Upon A Star) is their debut physical single release & even up to now , the song never fails to captivate me .
Such a great infectious song with great fast paced guitar riffs thrown in for good measures . Lead singer/guitarist Ryuuta sounded quite at ease in here for that matter .
Mitsumeteitai (I Want To Stare At You) is the 1st ballad you can find in the album & it's also a digital single .
The song used to promote au's LISMO! de Koi♥suru Campaign in their ads , which revolves around the drama Koibana ~Suika to Bansoukou~ .
flumpool's ballads are really nice & this goes for no exception for Mitsumeteitai's case .
Be it the song or the video , it's very touching & I like the electric guitar solo you can hear after Ryuuta belted out the 2nd chorus of the song which's plain lovely .
MW ~Dear Mr. & Ms. Picaresque~ is the 1st A-side of their 2nd single MW ~Dear Mr. & Ms. Picaresque~ / Natsu Dive .
The song was used to promote the movie MW & this's the 2nd song that I listened to of the guys after Hana ni Nare (When Flowers) .
In MW ~Dear Mr. & Ms. Picaresque~'s case , it's a lot more edgier than their other songs . The drum beats & guitar riffs gel very well together which gives you this upbeat fast paced no. .
Boku wa Guuzen wo Matteirurashii (I Was Apparently Waiting For A Chance) is the 2nd album track after the opening album track Calling .
I frankly find Boku wa Guuzen wo Matteirurashii pretty good for my liking . It's a standard upbeat indie rock no. but somehow or another , the guys were able to make things work in their favour .
Merry Go Round (Kaiten Mokuba) is the B-side of Hoshi ni Negai wo & I'm frankly happy that the guys have included both B-sides of their 1st 2 physical single releases .
I always have like Merry Go Round especially when I 1st gave the song a listen . There's just something about the song that that I like . I'm not sure what it's but probably it's because it's a carefree sounding no. .
Shasou (Car Window) is the 1st album ballad & this's a really sweet song . It's simply a really nice acoustic guitar driven no. & you don't need any extra instruments & etc to make Shasou great already in its own right .
Definitely 1 of my fave songs on What's flumpool ?!
Hills is the next album track & the opening's of Hills which has some xyolophone beats is really cute I have to say but at the end of the day , it's yet another catchy upbeat song that flumpool delivered .
Natsu (Summer) Dive is the 2nd A-side of MW ~Dear Mr. & Ms. Picaresque~ / Natsu Dive .
Well with a title like Natsu Dive , it's naturally expected as a summer influence song which really contrast the 1st A-side quite well .
I think this's so far the group's only summer influenced song so hopefully they will come up with somemore of such tunes in the near future .
LOVE 2010 is an interesting song . In here , LOVE 2010 is a mid tempo piano & driven song which's something that the other songs are not sound in this manner .
Just like LOVE 2010 , I also find Quville interesting (how do you pronounce the title to being with ?) .
For Quville's case , the chorus of the song is definitely the strong point which immediately grabbed my attention . The opening was a bit clunky but the chorus of Quville was something worth checking out for .
Saigo no (The Last) Page is track #12 & I really like the opening as it's so beautiful .
It's a mid tempo song which almost borderlines on the ballad department but you can't help but feel that there's something about Saigo no Page that stuck a chord in you or 2 .
Kotoshi no (This Year's) Sakura opens with nice guitar riffs & it slowly breaks out to a upbeat peppy song .
I frankly find this song nothing special though & I wouldn't really consider this as a fave album track of the guys but it has some nice subtle orchestra influences in here that I was able to detect .
Time Capsule is the only song that does not feature Ryuuta on lead vocals .
Instead in here , lead guitarist Kazuki takes centrestage . He usually sangs backing vocals but not in this case .
I was surprised when I find out it's Kazuki & not Ryuuta that sang on Time Capsule . No wonder I find this song a bit odd on 1st listen .
Kazuki's vocals is not bad frankly speaking but I think it's cool that he's being allowed to sing on here which's something you don't see often in an album where a song for once's not sung by the frontman of a group .
Siren is the B-side of MW ~Dear Mr. & Ms. Picaresque~ / Natsu Dive .
I did wrote a while back ago that Siren took me quite a lot to remember how it sounds like but I'm fine with it now .
From the sound of things , Siren probably can be counted as a summer influence song in a way or 2 .
Frame is a digital single release of the guys & it's also the final track in What's flumpool ?! .
In here it has been given an album mix . The difference between the version that I 1st listened to & in here is the duration & also the ending where it's considerably long .
Frame (Album Version) clocks in at 8:03 mins while the version I heard's about 6 mins + long .
I think this's the perfect song to conclude things seeing that I like Frame on 1st listen & I suspect it's because of this track which got the guys into the Guinness Book Of Records too haha
I don't want to compare What's flumpool ?! against their debut mini album Unreal as obviously , Unreal will lose out against What's flumpool ?! , duration wise .
Perhaps because of this , What's flumpool ?! kind of suffered to a certain extent as the album was really quite long for me to handle . It might have been a bit better should some of the songs were shorten & all .
But regardless of which , there's no denying the fact that What's flumpool ?! is an enjoyable album & this's essentially a pretty solid record that has nice mellow driven rock songs with ballads thrown in for good measures .
The guys's 3rd physical single Zanzou (After Image) will be released on 3rd Feb & it will be used as the theme song for the 2nd season of the drama Bloody Monday 2 so be sure to look out for that .
