I was a huge Shonen Knife fan back in the early ‘80s. I have a decent collection of their releases that I have amassed through the years. Like having your favorite pair of underwear or brand of beer, that tends to change over time. I kind of fell off their map when they went on a U.S. major label. Nothing of their later material has the magic of the early material to my ears. The magic in their earlier music was they could barely play and recorded in cheap studios and the songs were bubblegum cute. The new material is not the same for me. It sounds like they are trying too hard to sound garage. They play the same formula as their later material and worse, they continue to sing in English. When they were singing mostly in Japanese and broken English, the music was great. I read that for this U.S. release, they re-recorded the songs in English. I much would have preferred the Japanese vocals.
–don (Glue Factory)