I think my aesthetics tend to line up more closely with Ryan's and Wave's than the other guys, especially Alan's lol (no dis on you Alan - it's just music - but I bet I couldn't listen to half the stuff on your playlist). My criteria for ranking an album is simple: how often I feel the urge to go back and listen to it. So for me it's an objective thing: how often I hit replay. For that reason, this album is an easy 10 for me, as this band's sound is addictive to me. Personally, the album ranks up there with everything they've ever done, and comments about it being the baby of UW and Conqueror tend to make me smile. (I agree with you Alan about "The one" - for me it's a beautifully addictive song that easily ranks up there with Daydreaming and Anemone.) On a side note, since discovering Band-Maid some 5 years ago (I think), I've noticed that my playlists are dominated by Japanese bands. Compared to their counterparts in the West, I generally tend to find Japanese music more weird, daring, technical, beautiful, and - above all else - more interesting. Curious if others have had a similar reaction.
Their creative process is so good, and it relies on the fact that they all know each other so well and trust each other so much. Each person is comfortable with letting the others add their own interpretive elements to the whole, and it comes out beautifully. It even extends to the listener, because the lyrics are so often written in such a way that the listener can interpret them in their own personal way. I may get a different meaning from a song, which is very special to me, than what another fan gets. I love that, and not that many bands seem to offer such nuance.
After 11 years, they know each other so well that they are able to communicate in a genuinely complementary way. It's a hive mind, that band, five artists contributing genius. The creative process must be overwhelming.
It seems to me that the order of the songs on the album is similar to the feel of the their show. Start with several rockers, then some mid-tempo and ballad songs, finish with more bangers. I've also tried to change my vocabulary from "best, better, bestie" to "favorite" to emphasis the subjectivity of the exercise of comparing songs. On "Brightest Star" I enjoy the groove, Kanami's riff and the time signature change to 3/4 from verse to chorus. For me this is Kanami's album, her guitar is everywhere. I am totally on board with her harmonizer use and other modern guitar songs.
Sure I loved previous albums, but this album is more complete and emotionally mature. If the other albums had Saiki's current vocal, maybe...but I don't know. I liked 90% of their entire catalogue, but each album has probably 3-4 I consistently listen to, where this album, I have I already have 10 fav, with 2 top 10 songs. So as an album Epic Narratives probably is my favourite album to date. I mean, other albums, to be fair were awesome, I'll probably get back to shuffling all my favourites and listen to them on repeat. But as everyone said, this is the album where I feel sounds the best mix-wise. I hardly ever listen to their old CD, I convert their live videos into audio format and enjoy my favs, while this album, I love the studio sound as is.
Great review of Epic Narratives. Personally I really like this album it has a great variety of styles. Is it my fav from them all time hmmm not sure but it’s my favorite right now 😂. Thanks for your thoughts gaijin guys.
For road driving listening, I have all the Maid's albums on an mp3 player that I can play through the car stereo. When doing my weekly around town driving I start with "Maid in Japan" and listen to each album in order until I reach the end some days later, then start over. I did interrupt the process to give EN multiple listens.
Really interesting assessment, guys! I hasn't really thought about the mixing that much other than feeling it was good and felt less harsh than some of their other stuff.
Regarding the time and care BM gave to the mix, typically the maids crank out one album every year. Less time to mix. This was the largest gap between albums. Frustrating to have to wait longer but understandable and worth the wait
I think Champ brought up a lot of good points. I know a lot of people will disagree that there's no 11/10 songs on this one, but I tend to agree. That's a ridiculous standard, but that's where we've been with Band-Maid. As much as I love songs like "Forbidden Tale", "The one", and "TAMAYA!" (and I love them a lot) they didn't make me lose my mind the way songs from their other albums did. The problem with constantly raising the bar (as I believe Band-Maid has from album to album) is that it just keeps getting more difficult to raise the bar. I didn't know how they would try to do that with "Epic Narratives" because I didn't think they could (or would want to) get too much heavier, or crazier, than "Unseen World" while maintaining the Band-Maid sound. I'm happy that they tried this new direction and that they succeeded with it so well. I think the songs I mentioned, in particular, are some of the most polished and accomplished compositions they've achieved to date.
> The problem with constantly raising the bar (as I believe Band-Maid has from album to album) is that it just keeps getting more difficult to raise the bar. The thing is, this is a lot more a problem with fan expectations than it is with their abilities. The fact that there are people out there saying there *are* songs that surprised and impressed them as much if not more so than their past efforts means that they're still hitting that impossible bar... maybe just not for you. Your last paragraph tells me you're pretty ok with that, which is good perspective.
Why are three albums into the future Band-Maid concerts only 15 songs? They played something like 19 on their US tour last year and do low 20's in Japan. And I think this album would very easily slot 2-3 into the list pretty consistently with the songs themselves varying depending on what exactly the band is trying to do for balancing purposes. Want a face-melter? Play "Shambles". Want to wreck everybody emotionally? Play "The one". Want to hype up the crowd and get people to move around? "Magie" and "TAMAYA!" will work for that. And I still haven't mentioned "Toi et moi" or "Forbidden tale". This is not my favorite B-M album, but it's a very solid effort from them. I'd give it a B or B+.
Honestly, i am fed up with these people trying to rank songs that are not comparable stylistically and are prone to everyone’s subjective tastes. Just saying you like or don’t like a song is perfectly ok but don’t pretend you are in any position to establish any kind of universally objective ranking as it does not make any sense.
@@TheChampOfMedium Well I did not get the feeling for instance that Ryan or Alan or Wave, were keen about giving a fixed ranking to the album until you asked for it. What I was meaning actually is that rating a song with a 0 to 10 notation, or an entire album even more so, does not make objective sense to me. It annoys me as being reductive. Music is not maths, so any kind of fixed rating is only the reflection of the listener's subjective tastes. Unless you relate a rating to a specific and objectively comparable element such as quality of audio mixing, comparing and ranking albums as supposedly homogeneous blocks and saying bold statements such as "this one is better or worse than the other" does not bring anything interesting nor positive to the debate around what music truely is, that is a matter of feelings first and technicallity coming afterward. We, music lovers, which I think form the large majority of people who are fond of bands such as Band-Maid, are probably not listening to the Gaijin Guys for getting the same hit parade nonsensical classment of songs or albums we find on other channels that are comparing music like calibrated oranges and apples. So I am fond of the much pertinent musical insights and analysis that you guys provide (especially from Ryan and Alan) most of the times, but honestly the kind of narrow statistical observations about ranking songs 0 to 10 will never be of any kind of interest to me.
@@septimusseverus7237 giving them numbers are just for fun man. They're not objective, subjective, just to get an overall view on how we may feel overall on first listen. I wouldn't take them too seriously my dude.
GG GG GG! Alan I understand completely how a song can make you feel in the case of "The One" Loving it ,it is the same with me about "Memorable" for the complete opposite feelings I Cannot listen to "Memorable" because I start thinking how petty and envious I was/am towards the US audiences that not only got 2 years of tours but also a song DEDICATED to them. So it now holds the unwanted position of being the ONLY Band-Maid song I skip.
I think my aesthetics tend to line up more closely with Ryan's and Wave's than the other guys, especially Alan's lol (no dis on you Alan - it's just music - but I bet I couldn't listen to half the stuff on your playlist). My criteria for ranking an album is simple: how often I feel the urge to go back and listen to it. So for me it's an objective thing: how often I hit replay. For that reason, this album is an easy 10 for me, as this band's sound is addictive to me. Personally, the album ranks up there with everything they've ever done, and comments about it being the baby of UW and Conqueror tend to make me smile. (I agree with you Alan about "The one" - for me it's a beautifully addictive song that easily ranks up there with Daydreaming and Anemone.)
On a side note, since discovering Band-Maid some 5 years ago (I think), I've noticed that my playlists are dominated by Japanese bands. Compared to their counterparts in the West, I generally tend to find Japanese music more weird, daring, technical, beautiful, and - above all else - more interesting. Curious if others have had a similar reaction.
Their creative process is so good, and it relies on the fact that they all know each other so well and trust each other so much. Each person is comfortable with letting the others add their own interpretive elements to the whole, and it comes out beautifully. It even extends to the listener, because the lyrics are so often written in such a way that the listener can interpret them in their own personal way. I may get a different meaning from a song, which is very special to me, than what another fan gets. I love that, and not that many bands seem to offer such nuance.
Well said!
After 11 years, they know each other so well that they are able to communicate in a genuinely complementary way. It's a hive mind, that band, five artists contributing genius. The creative process must be overwhelming.
It seems to me that the order of the songs on the album is similar to the feel of the their show. Start with several rockers, then some mid-tempo and ballad songs, finish with more bangers. I've also tried to change my vocabulary from "best, better, bestie" to "favorite" to emphasis the subjectivity of the exercise of comparing songs. On "Brightest Star" I enjoy the groove, Kanami's riff and the time signature change to 3/4 from verse to chorus. For me this is Kanami's album, her guitar is everywhere. I am totally on board with her harmonizer use and other modern guitar songs.
Sure I loved previous albums, but this album is more complete and emotionally mature. If the other albums had Saiki's current vocal, maybe...but I don't know. I liked 90% of their entire catalogue, but each album has probably 3-4 I consistently listen to, where this album, I have I already have 10 fav, with 2 top 10 songs. So as an album Epic Narratives probably is my favourite album to date.
I mean, other albums, to be fair were awesome, I'll probably get back to shuffling all my favourites and listen to them on repeat. But as everyone said, this is the album where I feel sounds the best mix-wise. I hardly ever listen to their old CD, I convert their live videos into audio format and enjoy my favs, while this album, I love the studio sound as is.
Great review of Epic Narratives. Personally I really like this album it has a great variety of styles. Is it my fav from them all time hmmm not sure but it’s my favorite right now 😂. Thanks for your thoughts gaijin guys.
For road driving listening, I have all the Maid's albums on an mp3 player that I can play through the car stereo. When doing my weekly around town driving I start with "Maid in Japan" and listen to each album in order until I reach the end some days later, then start over. I did interrupt the process to give EN multiple listens.
Really interesting assessment, guys! I hasn't really thought about the mixing that much other than feeling it was good and felt less harsh than some of their other stuff.
Regarding the time and care BM gave to the mix, typically the maids crank out one album every year. Less time to mix. This was the largest gap between albums. Frustrating to have to wait longer but understandable and worth the wait
I think they ordered the album the same way they do their concert setlist
Alan is all about the mix. Music mix….concrete mix….mixed drinks….cake mix….Chex mix….
I think Champ brought up a lot of good points. I know a lot of people will disagree that there's no 11/10 songs on this one, but I tend to agree. That's a ridiculous standard, but that's where we've been with Band-Maid. As much as I love songs like "Forbidden Tale", "The one", and "TAMAYA!" (and I love them a lot) they didn't make me lose my mind the way songs from their other albums did.
The problem with constantly raising the bar (as I believe Band-Maid has from album to album) is that it just keeps getting more difficult to raise the bar. I didn't know how they would try to do that with "Epic Narratives" because I didn't think they could (or would want to) get too much heavier, or crazier, than "Unseen World" while maintaining the Band-Maid sound.
I'm happy that they tried this new direction and that they succeeded with it so well. I think the songs I mentioned, in particular, are some of the most polished and accomplished compositions they've achieved to date.
> The problem with constantly raising the bar (as I believe Band-Maid has from album to album) is that it just keeps getting more difficult to raise the bar.
The thing is, this is a lot more a problem with fan expectations than it is with their abilities. The fact that there are people out there saying there *are* songs that surprised and impressed them as much if not more so than their past efforts means that they're still hitting that impossible bar... maybe just not for you. Your last paragraph tells me you're pretty ok with that, which is good perspective.
It is a fantastic album and is at least an 8, probably a 9. Great discussion
I have typed and deleted so many comments. But I'll leave this one for the algorithm. 🙏
🤘🤘🤘
Great listen
Have to say i dont at all agree with most of your views here, no songs that will be played 3 albums from now? 7 for the album? Crazy
Why are three albums into the future Band-Maid concerts only 15 songs? They played something like 19 on their US tour last year and do low 20's in Japan.
And I think this album would very easily slot 2-3 into the list pretty consistently with the songs themselves varying depending on what exactly the band is trying to do for balancing purposes. Want a face-melter? Play "Shambles". Want to wreck everybody emotionally? Play "The one". Want to hype up the crowd and get people to move around? "Magie" and "TAMAYA!" will work for that. And I still haven't mentioned "Toi et moi" or "Forbidden tale".
This is not my favorite B-M album, but it's a very solid effort from them. I'd give it a B or B+.
Honestly, i am fed up with these people trying to rank songs that are not comparable stylistically and are prone to everyone’s subjective tastes. Just saying you like or don’t like a song is perfectly ok but don’t pretend you are in any position to establish any kind of universally objective ranking as it does not make any sense.
These are strictly our individual opinions and we by no means believe that makes ours any more valid than anyone else's.
@@TheChampOfMedium Well I did not get the feeling for instance that Ryan or Alan or Wave, were keen about giving a fixed ranking to the album until you asked for it. What I was meaning actually is that rating a song with a 0 to 10 notation, or an entire album even more so, does not make objective sense to me. It annoys me as being reductive. Music is not maths, so any kind of fixed rating is only the reflection of the listener's subjective tastes. Unless you relate a rating to a specific and objectively comparable element such as quality of audio mixing, comparing and ranking albums as supposedly homogeneous blocks and saying bold statements such as "this one is better or worse than the other" does not bring anything interesting nor positive to the debate around what music truely is, that is a matter of feelings first and technicallity coming afterward. We, music lovers, which I think form the large majority of people who are fond of bands such as Band-Maid, are probably not listening to the Gaijin Guys for getting the same hit parade nonsensical classment of songs or albums we find on other channels that are comparing music like calibrated oranges and apples. So I am fond of the much pertinent musical insights and analysis that you guys provide (especially from Ryan and Alan) most of the times, but honestly the kind of narrow statistical observations about ranking songs 0 to 10 will never be of any kind of interest to me.
@@septimusseverus7237 giving them numbers are just for fun man. They're not objective, subjective, just to get an overall view on how we may feel overall on first listen. I wouldn't take them too seriously my dude.
@@TheChampOfMediumI was gonna read this thread but it’s too long. 😂
GG GG GG! Alan I understand completely how a song can make you feel in the case of "The One" Loving it ,it is the same with me about "Memorable" for the complete opposite feelings I Cannot listen to "Memorable" because I start thinking how petty and envious I was/am towards the US audiences that not only got 2 years of tours but also a song DEDICATED to them. So it now holds the unwanted position of being the ONLY Band-Maid song I skip.