2025 in 2025: Day 17

Be Here Now - Oasis

There was a time when I hated Oasis. When this album was released was probably the peak of that time. Then a couple of years later, I decided this album was the reason I was now a big fan of Oasis. The opening two tracks are pretty much perfect album openers. Magic Pie is also great, but goes on about 3 minutes too long. I absolutely adore the harmonies and melodic lead guitar in Stand By Me. The Johnny Depp thing confuses me; teenagers at the time thought it was cool to find out he was playing guitar on Fade In-Out (this was before he turned into... whatever he is now), yet they didn't advertise it or anything. I used to love Don't Go Away, but now I find the horns a bit cheesy. The last few songs are big messes of noise and too long, but oh hell, they're still great. You know, I came back to this album today expecting to be a bit negative towards it (it sounds like it was mixed by me - and I am not a professional mixer), but I'll be damned if I don't still think it is the best Oasis album. My only regret is I don't have a guitar with me to jam along to this whole thing.

Highlights: D'You Know What I Mean?, My Big Mouth, Stand By Me, I Hope I Think I Know

8/10

Be Not Nobody - Vanessa Carlton

As you might expect, this is simply A Thousand Miles. I have no idea why I have this song; it's okay, but I'm not a fan and I probably never listen to it. And I could not name you another Vanessa Carlton song.

6/10

Be Yourself Tonight - Eurythmics

Now this is a band and an album! This album is such a perfect fusion of soul, funk, pop/rock, 80s new wave, and 80s British whiteness (I have no other way of describing it right now). I also love their minimalist approach to some songs, like Conditioned Soul. Normally I'm against the bonus tracks thing, but I actually really enjoy the alternate version of Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves. I really should at least split out the cover songs and make an album of those!

Highlights: Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves, It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back),

8/10

Beast Is The B2ST - Beast

Another one of those random K-Pop songs I ended up with - this is just Bad Girl. Which kind of ties in with Bad Girl II from the other day? Either way, this song is actually slammin' and I need to hear more Beast.

8/10

The Beatles - The Beatles

Oh here we go! The greatest mix of awesomeness and sheer awfulness. The album, of course, starts with three awesome songs and then a song I usually despise, but today it isn't annoying me so much. Maybe because I haven't listened to it in forever? Nope - iTunes says I listened to it 18 months ago. That feels like much too soon. I do actually love The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill, though, and it goes so seamlessly in to While My Guitar Gently Weeps it is brilliant. And that song is the greatest work of Eric Clapton's long and boring career. Then Lennon does his own version of Bohemian Rhapsody - except he manages to cram 3 different songs in less than 3 minutes. I'm So Tired is such a great bluesy rock'n roll song. Blackbird is, in my opinion, a most atypical McCartney song. Except it is actually good. Between Beyoncé and every white dude with an acoustic guitar, I'm pretty sick of hearing it, to be honest. Yeah, I don't want to listen to Beyoncé. Shiiizzz, I ain't afraid of you mofos! "You were in a car crash and you lost your hair" has to be one of the greatest song lyrics of all time, right? The second LP/half kicks of with another rockin' McCartney song. And then more Lennon songs mocking the Maharishi. That trip to India really did inspire him to write awesome stuff. Long, Long, Long is one of those songs that you don't think about, but when you listen to it, it is actually great. Revolution is a fantastic song - no matter the version. And there sure are many versions! I'm glad there is only one version of Honey Pie. Okay, I've written enough. Number 9, number 9 number 9, good night.

Highlights: Dear Prudence, Glass Onion, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Yer Blues, Helter Skelter

7/10

Beatles For Sale - The Beatles

Oh, more of The Beatles? Don't mind if I do... Anyone else get triggered by No Reply and get Vow by Garbage stuck in their head? Overall, I'm actually a fan of this album; it features a fairly fed-up John Lennon starting to write a bit more caustically, McCartney belting out classic rock'n roll numbers like Kansas City, Ringo kicking butt on Honey Don't, and Harrison summing things up with Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby. The Beatles are one of the only bands I will let cover Buddy Holly without being overly critical - plus they do a great job of Words of Love. Look, this isn't the strongest album they released, and they clearly rushed things (which is why they had to record all these rock'n roll songs from their setlist), but I'll be damned if isn't a fun way to spend half an hour.

Highlights: No Reply, Rock And Roll Music, Honey Don't, Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby

8/10

The Beautiful Experience - Prince

In case you don't know, this is an EP by Prince that is just remixes of The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. I had no idea this was released like 18 months before The Gold Experience finally saw the light of day. What a world we lived in. One of Prince's most perfect pop ballads. The remixes are very different to that. Some a big more sexified, if you will. The Mustang Mix is especially cool, because Prince re-recorded all the vocals NOT in falsetto.

Highlights: Staxowax, Mustang Mix, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World [Single Version]

7/10

Beautiful Girls (Soundtrack) - Various Artists

This is purely The Afghan Whigs' take on Can't Get Enough of Your Love. I really dig the way they build it and he goes for it vocally by the end. Legendary song and a cool cover

6/10

A Beautiful Life - Mumsdollar

Would you believe this is a Christian pop-punk band from New Zealand? And that I have their CD in my collection? Well, believe it. And if not for the Christian lyrical themes, I would give this album a 10/10, because musically it just cranks. So all you pop-punk bands out there; more music like this, please. Just study some Bad Religion so you can write meaningful lyrics to go with it. And copy this bass tone, because BY PRIME it is badass. LOGMAN would give you 20/10 if you can do all that.

Highlights: Into the Night

6/10

The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum - L7

Bahahaha more punk, but about as far removed from that last album as punk gets. Four angry women that aren't trying to tell you to accept Jesus into your heart and make some dirty rock'n roll.

Highlights: Drama, I Need, The Masses are Asses

6/10

Beef or Chicken? - PASSPO☆

I have written more than enough today and I have already written about this album. It's still gawddam amazing and makes life worth living. I may even like it now more than I did then.

Highlights: Literally the whole album

10/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 146

日本青年館のフライト、9月9日2017

"If your beard is *this* long, you can't enter the airplane!"

This was a concert from 2 years ago that I found on the interwebs - probably from around when I first discovered PASSPO☆ (I got Cinema Trip in November 2017, but my first exposure was the すてんだっぷガールズ! music video. I think that came out around August/September 2017. It's a bit of a jump as far as my chronology goes, but it's nice to have something between the 2015 live and ラストフライト.

This concert opens with Puti Passpo.
They are NOT PASSPO☆.
Yeah, I'm not watching this nonsense...

So Yellow-Green has since gone, due to health or something. It's a shame, because she had grown on me a lot - she was a great dancer and solid singer. BUT this does mean we're down to the core 7 that make up the PASSPO☆ I know and love.

The show opens with a big spoken-word intro over the speakers. Orange keeps sleeping and there is other hilarity but my Japanese is not fast enough to catch it all. Then Popcorn Bought? kicks in and every　time the crowd join in with the big "HEY!" I get very jealous I'm not there. PASSPO☆ come out wearing the outfits from すてんだっぷガールズ! and I immediately know this will be a good live because those outfits are pure fire! Bah gawd this was peak PASSPO☆ for me.

Oh cool they're going to open with Honey Dish - just what I wanted after having to watch the music video 9 times in a row... Purple then teaches the crowd the dance for すてんだっぷガールズ! and I realise I should learn that on my next day off.

The fact that I never got one of these PASSPO☆ star-shaped lightsticks is an absolute crime and the world should be ashamed. Orange and White clearly enjoying performing 7's Up. But Purple using her solo moment to be silly with a security guard shows how she's become a dam star in this group. With the other 2 gone - and her getting older - she's certainly taking command on stage.

Band PASSPO☆ time already??
Blue is no longer pretending to be a DJ and has traded her Xylophone for guitar. And they even pull out BABY JUMP〜天国への搭乗便〜 to my surprise - I did not expect Band PASSPO☆ to be doing the heavy shit. They follow up with WANTED!!, which I did expect. Honestly, they're lucky Purple and Aqua are actually competent at drums and bass because the guitarists are not quite at Ground Crew level. They even do Love Diary, which is kinda cool. But I do miss the choreography. And then we wouldn't have to make Red attempt a guitar solo. BUT at least this means Orange plays a real whistle instead!

White gives a speech where I believe she was discussing how hard they've worked to be able to do Band PASSPO☆ - Purple points out that doesn't apply to her.

Back to just regular PASSPO☆ now and Purple is talking about their previous songs as Band PASSPO☆. I can't quite work out if she's saying she wanted to keep going as Band PASSPO☆ or she was bummed that she didn't do a song as well as she would have liked.

Time for your in-flight meals! Today's options are Beef or Chicken - get it?
So they wheel out two boards (Beef and Chicken) with 4 different songs and the audience gets to choose which they perform. Where's the Vegetarian option?? The audience can vote using the colours on their lightsticks, but Purple thinks using animal noises is more accurate and given her Cow and Chicken impression, I'm going to have to agree. The crowd are split, so the girls also vote and hilarious it is unanimously in favour of the Chicken menu. Aqua reminds the team that two of these songs require Band PASSPO☆ so they spend another 10 minutes organising the menu and labelling each song with Salad, Soup, Main and Dessert. Girls, you just said this was the "Chicken" menu - I ain't never heard of no chicken dessert!

This is a meal, so before we can partake you must wash your hands and say "いただきます”

Anyway, the result is this:

Mr. Wednesday = Salad
キャンディー・ルーム = Soup
Pretty Lie = Main
くちゃLove = Dessert

I'd actually agree.

In the funniest moment of the night, Purple starts talking about Disney but can't remember Mickey Mouse's name. Then tells the crowd they are full of it when they say they knew it.

Playground is still one of my favourite dance routines they've done. And this was possibly one of the best performances of the night! It's just the Aqua, Yellow and Purple show and they killed it. Then Yellow opens 無題 accapella and it is possibly her best vocal performance of the night. Purple nails her solo part and doesn't break into tears. Then oh shit - they're doing フィルム? And then following with バチェロレッテは終わらない? Well, that's one hell of a way to end the main concert!

Encore time! Buy their goods! I would if I could, believe me!!

Time for the madness that is always STEP&GO. This time Orange tries to lie down, so Purple sits on her. They've got luggage attached to scooters and Red goes across the stage. Then pushes Blue on it, who is not so confident and almost runs over Aqua. As soon as the song ends, they ALL fucking destroy Blue for it. Then Purple shows her how it's done by racing across the stage on the scooter and avoiding everyone.

Purple is queen.

Red announces a concert on 22nd September 2018. They're excited! That would become their final concert performance and last official act as PASSPO☆. Then they do one last performance as Band PASSPO☆- 少女飛行 - then rock the house with Music Navigation before calling it a night.

This was a really fun live. One of the reasons I love this 7 the most is that being less members, they all had a chance to show personality. And they have a lot of it! It might even be just that they've gotten older and more experienced, but whatever. I can sit here and badmouth the singing or the Band PASSPO☆ stuff, but really at least they were trying their best to do something different.

Highlights:
Playground, the luggage riding incident, Purple making cow and chicken noises

Lowlights:
No vegetarian meal option

5 / 7 Glowsticks

Beef or Chicken First-Class Edition Bonus DVD

Sitting on the tables could see you fail your hygiene grade

There's not a whole lot to this DVD; just Honey Dish. Which is an awesome song.
In this adventure, PASSPO☆ are now running an American-themed Diner. But I'm not convinced on the quality of service; Yellow burns her food, Yellow-Green can't stack pancakes and Aqua just throws popcorn everywhere. Then at night, they become Band PASSPO☆ and completely mess the place up, drink and have a rowdy time.

I'll pay double the menu price.

And then we get a solo video for each girl!

White
She's just getting ready in her bedroom. Okay. It would seem they won't be lipsyncing unless it is actually a part of the song they sing - this could be funny. I want her white tambourine.

Aqua
She's also just in her bedroom - I'm guessing that is going to be the running theme of these. She gets bored and remembers she doesn't actually sing anything in this song, so just grabs her bass and rocks out. Putting on the little girl act while posing on her bed just makes this weirdly uncomfortable.

Yellow-Green
She looks completely uninterested in this - until her one solo part comes up. Oh, and she really enjoys pretending to not play this on guitar; Honey Dish is more than just a continuous B-chord, Yellow-Green!

Purple
Her hair is now a weird shade of Orange/Pink. But she can twirl her drumsticks and rocks her diner outfit the best.

Yellow
In the least surprising moment of the evening, the girl with the most lipsyncing to do is also the least bored.

Red
She went straight for the shoes and clothes - she knows what's up. She's got nothing else going on for the next 3 minutes.

Orange
She stole White's tambourine. Is she not worth them buying an orange one??

Blue
I like that Blue wears full pink shorts instead of the white checkered skirt - she's so tall and lanky that it totally works better on her. She also folds her t-shirts well. But her storage of underwear needs improvement.

And now I'm almost sick of this song. Thanks!

Highlights:
The actual music video

Lowlights:
Watching 8 different girls do the exact same stuff to the same song for half an hour.

3 / 7 Glowsticks

Beef or Chicken?

With the airline business down, our heroes branched out into opening their own diner

So with the recent graduation of Pink, we now only have 8 girls to get the party going. How will they cope? Will they still continue to be as awesome as ever?

Our opening instrumental this time is Immigration Control it is a great energy lift. but not as much as Honey Dish. This song makes me want to skip around the house and dance on your grave. You are dead because you couldn't handle the awesome of PASSPO☆ and there was no way I was going to stop listening to them when they sound this good. See you in hell! I'll bring the PASSPO☆ CD's...

Where was I? Oh yeah, we've opened with two rockin' fun songs and いたずらRock'n'Roll has that same energy and now I'm just in full party mode. So here is Not in Theory to give me more of the heavy metal vibes from JEJEJEJET!! So we now get one of those 'seems like a slow song in vibe but is actually a pop punk anthem so get your fist in the air and rock out' kind of songs with 向日葵. It is the absolute fucking business.

So now we need to slow it down with a nice power ballad in Shiny Road. I wasn't sold on this song at first, but it's really grown on me over the past few months. And then especially after watching the concert last night. And I'm pretty sure Pink's vocals are still on here! Then we get ヘブンズバーガー which is so cutesy and silly it should be terrible, but instead it is the absolute funnest track.

はっちゃけ隊 are back! With ハイテンションエモーション（はっちゃけ隊#3）. And a bit less nonsense. But it's still the same rock dance hybrid fun times. FAKE takes us back on the heavy shit. Yellow really does like to get her 'rock chick' on. The "Hey wig out!" line is really cool. Actually, the entire chorus is really cool. There's a fair bit of Yellow-Green in here as well. Now we go from heavy to ballad and the first Band PASSPO☆ song, Perfect Sky. Again, I didn't like this all that much at first. Now I think it's a really nice song.

So from there we get another pop-punk anthem win You - which makes sense, since the last pop-punk anthem was called 「I」. This yet another kick-ass song to raise your fist and get down and wonder how you managed to live without it. Not you, I guess, because apparently you died earlier. And then we close things out with Fairy Tale, which is the perfect closer for this album. Has those power ballad vibes, still rocks but has the feels for sure. I'm going to do an acoustic cover of that, mark my words!

I read a while back where someone tried to say this was better than Cinema Trip (or more precisely, Cinema Trip wasn't quite as good a Beef or Chicken?) because Beef or Chicken? is a near perfect album. I wanted to disagree because Cinema Trip has a special place for me and I couldn't understand how anything could be better than that. But BAH GAWD this album is near perfect. Not even an average song in sight. Just 12 songs of pure joy.

PASSPO☆ just continue to get better and better.

Highlights:
Honey Dish, 向日葵, ヘブンズバーガー, You, Fairy Tale

Lowlights:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

7 / 7 Glowsticks