So I was listening to this record thinking about how it moves past the usual heavy Ramones influence when the news came about the passing of Tommy Ramone. Just a bummer that has to be acknowledged. But this album starts off with the theme of overcoming bad luck, jinxes and the like. Coincidence? Yes. But what can you do with a Bad Luck Song? The Bad Luck Song might be my good luck song, and so on. Relative bummers continue on this album, with the next track Black Crow and later Robots From Hell. These songs might be a surprise if you haven’t been paying that close attention. That could be some people, right? It’s 2014, perfect time to jump on the SK train. Seriously, why not. You could’ve get hooked on the cute stuff, of which there’s plenty, but they’ve also got some regular good Rock songs. About Rock stuff. Darkness, yeah. And of course, cats, food, shopping and tennis. It’s a very typical Shonen Knife record. I don’t have to praise or defend it too much, because it seems like everyone knows what SK is about and likes them. People must exist that do not like them, but they don’t seem to say anything about it. It almost bothers me. Which is why I’m glad they’ve got some non-cute stuff on this one. This is my favorite one since, I dunno…the last several have had some standout tracks but the rest is forgettable. This one is maybe not a new top tenner, but it’s solid.

Slight disappointment in the fine print (great font, btw) is that the songs sung by Ritsuko and Etsuko (Ramen Rock and Green Tea, respectively) have no shared songwriting credit. Thought the new girls were contributing the lyrics at lyrics at least. They seem a little different then the usual Naoko songs, simpler. She just writes with them in mind apparently. And differently than the last album, Pop Tune. (Which I did not review but talked about how those songs went down live). Things are more stripped down, straight up Rock here, but not simply the typical Ramones worship, but other 70s Rock. No real specific influence comes through anymore; the last few years with a stable line-up seems to have ended a bit of an identity crisis for the band. %

Amazon has the mp3 & CD, of course. Or get it direct from Good Charamel Or get the Purple/Green version on vinyl from Damnably