Shonen Knife - Adventure
8/10
With a career spanning 35 years, that has seen them playing on bills with alternative rock royalty like Nirvana and Sonic Youth, Shonen Knife deliver their nineteenth album of pop-punk.
Opener Jump Into The New World combines Ramones ram-a-lama with 60s girl group harmonies and pop smarts. Paean to my favourite item of clothing, the KISS-a-like Rock ‘n’ Roll T-Shirt might be the smartest dumb-ass rock ‘n’ roll song of the year. Things step up a gear with the Ash-meets-(80’s Jap metal heroes) Loudness of Callabash. Despite its title, Dog Fight is the lightest thing here and just about stays on the right side of twee.
Throughout their career, Shonen Knife have sung about food. Would anyone else dare to write songs extolling the virtues of Wasabi and a Green Tangerine? The former is a rollicking glam romp, the latter a 70s soft-rock stroll. Iml is Motorhead’s Ace of Spades played backwards whilst there’s an unsurprising hint of surf to Hawaii. Tasmanian Devil is the kind of hard rock that makes me raise the devil horns. Cotton Candy Clouds brings things to a close with a slice of Beatles-referencing psyche.
This isn’t doing anything Shonen Knife haven’t done before, it is not a classic nor is their best but it is damnably good fun.
8/10
