{"id":2448,"date":"2015-06-05T18:59:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T17:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=2448"},"modified":"2011-08-04T15:13:46","modified_gmt":"2011-08-04T15:13:46","slug":"shonen-knife-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98free-time%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/shonen-knife-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98free-time%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Shonen Knife \u2013 \u2018Free Time\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>(album, Damnably)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The legendary Osaka trio\u2019s 15<sup>th<\/sup> studio album finds Shonen Knife refining their Ramonic poppery to a fine point across a disc that also showcases their expanding range and assured structuring.<\/p>\n<p>Always best when they\u2019re giving a song the full fuzzed-up day-glo treatment, <em>Free Time <\/em>features a trio of tracks that clearly demonstrate why the band have remained cult superstars for so long: Angular opener, \u2018Perfect Freedom\u2019 shows the band\u2019s mastery of mixing garage and punk tropes into a searing broth of melodically distorted power, while \u2018Economic Crisis\u2019 is a visceral hook-ridden sugar rush that detonates tuneful fuzz bombs amid sherbet flares of thrash and rhythm. Perhaps best of all is the primary coloured sci-fi romp of \u2018Monster Jellyfish\u2019 \u2013 an irresistible drum salvo driven depth-charge that\u2019ll have you singing its \u2018Outbreak\u2019 chorus in the tub.<\/p>\n<p>The less serrated side of Shonen Knife is represented by bittersweet confections such as \u2018Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll Cake\u2019, and the bubblegum fluff of \u2018Do You Happen To Know\u2019 \u2013 two songs that encompass two poles of Naoko Yamono\u2019s vocal range; from the plaintive former, through to the Fay Fife power piping of the latter. There\u2019s strange and wondrous fare on offer, too \u2013 \u2018Capybara\u2019 is an appropriately semi-aquatic upbeat shuffle that for some reason calls to mind Blondie\u2019s \u2018Tide Is High\u2019, \u2018An Old Stationary Shop\u2019 evokes past times and sounds a lot like Peter, Paul and Mary have been given a new wave makeover, while \u2018Pick Your Own\u2019 (an agricultural, berry-fixated chant-a-long) is at times reminiscent of a punked up \u2018Smurf Song\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Penultimate track \u2018Love Song\u2019 finds the trio mining a classic seam of girl groupery, all ankle socks and angst, whereas the closing \u2018Star\u2019 is an effects assaulted aspirational hymn with a cosmic sonic subtext that wraps around a guitar break, which, oddly, goes a bit Frampton in places. Such strangeness is part of Shonen Knife\u2019s considerable charm, and across this album there\u2019s an artful simplicity that \u2013 as with the Ramones \u2013 is indicative of a group of a group that is smart enough to keep things simple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(album, Damnably) The legendary Osaka trio\u2019s 15th studio album finds Shonen Knife refining their Ramonic poppery to a fine point across a disc that also showcases their expanding range and assured structuring. Always best when they\u2019re giving a song the full fuzzed-up day-glo treatment, Free Time features a trio of tracks that clearly demonstrate why &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,87,80,86],"tags":[151,121,481,482,480],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-pop","category-punk","category-rock","tag-dick-porter","tag-eyeplug","tag-free-time","tag-naoko-yamono","tag-shonen-knife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}