YOSHITSUNE (AS POIL UEDA)

3.5 stars. This is an interesting collaboration between POIL and a Japanese artist named Junko Ueda. And POIL who are normally a 3 piece have added NI's bass player while their bass player switches to guitar. This collaboration released two albums in 2023 and I much prefer the first effort. I do like this one too, but I feel that the Japanese vocals and an instrument called a satsuma biwa are too much of the focus this time. Both bring a folk vibe and a mystery(to me) to the proceedings.

It also feels like the concept of this album is too much of a focus this time as well. If you're into concept albums this is really worth checking out. Sure the singing is in Japanese but they went all out in the liner notes with the lyrics translated to English plus an explanation of each "scene", and more information at the back to explain stuff. Very detailed as Junko is known for her story telling. So many of these tracks blend into each other over the 40 minutes.

My favourite sections tend to be the more adventurous ones and when POIL come in with some power. There's not nearly as many of these moments as there is on the first album unfortunately. And the passages where Junko sings and picks and that's all you hear are my least favourite sections. Now I'm not a fan of concept albums so I can appreciate that these mellow sections have their place in the story, I just can't be bothered to look them up. It's all about the music for me. I'm not going to follow along at home with the story-line.

So a hit and miss affair for the most part. A track like "Ataka" is painful and my least favourite. It's all Junko on that one. I do really like the closer, my favourite. I find the third part of "Kumo" difficult to say the least. Avant is the word. The longest track "Yoshino" is quite good. Especially that intense section after 5 1/2 minutes. I like the crazy atmosphere 2 minutes in on that second part of "Kumo".

A let down for sure after the debut earlier the same year. I actually bought this much later as I'd heard it wasn't as powerful as the debut, or as good. Of course I also later started to see some positive opinions about it so I stepped up. Should have stayed sitting.

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