The Best of 2006: #16

Asobi Seksu
Citrus

Listening to Citrus reminds me quite a bit of listening to the RAD Soundtrack growing up in the 80’s. A Brooklyn-based band playing shoegazey pop with a bombshell singer who alternates between English and Japanese lyrics may have little in common with a long-forgotten movie about BMX bikers, but vocalist Yuki Chikudate makes the comparison implicit. You might remember a little number on the RAD Soundtrack called “Send Me An Angel.” Real Life’s monster 80’s hit might not have gathered the same critical cachet over the years as some of its contemporaries, but it still has the potency. David Sterry’s voice rang with equal measures of lust, innocence and indifference—and that’s the exact alchemy that Chikudate has, the exact moment in pop history she harks back toward. But where Sterry swore, “If a girl walks in and calls her name in my heart, I’ll turn and walk away,” Chikudate intimates that she’s “awaiting an audience.” That coy attitude (the band’s name means “playful sex” in Japanese) sets Asobi Seksu apart from the mysterious barrage of dream-pop bands who have managed to somehow grow and thrive in the current musical landscape. As guitars and keyboards swirl and churn underneath her, Chikudate retains a sweet, come-hither purr. Yes, they owe an enormous debt to My Bloody Valentine. But, for a band working in a genre where the very name implies a disconnection with one’s audience in favor of a fixation with one’s sneakers, Asobi Seksu play a miraculous game of courting folks. Carefully styling themselves like a J-Pop band, the Brooklyn quartet have built up quite a mystique about them. Citrus only enhances that mystique. It may be the most elusive and ephemeral album of the year.

-Marty Brown, 2006

Yo La Tengo’s I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass is loose and rambling where Citrus is tight and potent, but both would be perfect companions if you wanted to stay inside on a sunny day.

Comments

[andre]

elusive....its not that elusive....they play guitar like kevin shields and sing like satomi matsuzaki. Dont get me wrong this album is good but not better than clipse.