FOREVER
Enjoy Music Club
genre: hip-hop/ pop/ rap • release date: 2015
who are these mysterious men? from where do they hail? and what shop can i purchase those rad yellow onesies?
hip-hop has opened the way to something special. FOREVER is goofy. FOREVER is an inch past your comfort zone. FOREVER has a lot to say in Enjoy Music Club’s (apparently) first and only album. there’s a mystery around these sun-clad men and this review intends to understand what it all means. i’m not exactly sure why one of their songs is titled “Taylor Swift” and somewhere around this carefree approach is E.M.C.’s singular goal. it merely says that music is meant to be a good time. music can be iconic and a bit dumb at the same time. they do it all with the approach of three grown men in bright yellow onesies chanting “EE EM SCHEE!”. i like that.
okay for real, i really like this group. everything is a bit corny and pretty retro. a lo-fi soundboard meets an urban style beat across the album’s makeup. throw in a little xylophone and some strange sampling choices and strangely E.M.C. begins to make some sense. i actually really dig that they sound like three geeky dudes with nasal-y voices. i really like the cool instrument inclusions like a calypso drums and old-school sampling choices. i like the mystery of them coming in from nowhere, dropping a single cohesive experience, and dipping out. is it the best album of all time? no. but does it explore and deliver on their vision? yes. it’s the kind of album you can listen to on your day off, its the kind of album you can listen to when everything gets to be a bit too much. Enjoy Music Club, through their style alone, somehow reminds us nothing is all that important. i like that.
let’s dig in.
“Night Rendezvous (ナイトランデブー)” is unequivocally their best song. and that’s a purely biased take. i really like the time and place it sets, somewhere at night just outside a train station or a Lawson’s konbini. it takes me right back to a specific setting in Japan, sipping on lemon sours in the summer heat. the song wiggles and breathes into some lighthearted rap by the trio, over the sounds of theremin electronica and a loose unison chorus. the image of three dorks in these yellow onesies playing some dorky music and jumping in to drop some fresh dorky verses outside a Lawson at night, plays in my head. i like that.
“N・A・T・S・U” has a little bit of heat coming through with the boombox like bass. the mental image continues, three men just spitting some local game into an old microphone as usual life proceeds around them. they’re in their own world. their mothers wishing they would do something more productive. or maybe they’re strained out business men working 70 hours a week with a growing family, this is their one time a week to lay down some real business. i like that.
“BIG LOVE” almost feels like a sample of some Earth Wind & Fire song. the boys let loose a little bit more. the metronome picks up some speed, they’ve got some sync happening, they’re making some kind of point, but it doesn’t matter. this song is a celebration. at no point does E.M.C. drop their guard, why should they when it’s for love of the game. love of the game… i like that.
i love that “Taylor Swift” dropped some time when the pop-star herself was releasing “1989” halfway across the earth. the song has some tinny little keyboard playing as the guys swoon and croon their latest evening edition. it’s a little bit hip, a little bit hop, a little rap, a little bit pop. they harmonize in strangely majestic ways as each other member steps in for a turn at the mic. i don’t think the song has anything at all to do with Taylor Swift, but something tells me this album should have had the spotlight over “1989” all those years ago. i like that.
most of all i love “EMC no Rap-dō (EMCのラップ道).” the sample of Cherly Lynn’s “Got to be Real” is universally underutilized and dutifully weaponized here to be endorphin electrifying. a stone-cold calculated move by the boys at Enjoy Music Club. i can literally envision these guys huddled around a cardboard slat, as people come to enjoy some break dance madness and some of their hot and fresh tunes. the grill is HOT. as they rap and chorus, the sound of people yelp, woop and jump in for a little bit of chorus themselves. trumpets blare and Cherly Lynn herself shows up outta nowhere for a bit of alleyway cardboard carpet cutting . i LIKE that.
i don’t particularly have any grave criticisms for E.M.C. it all sounds a bit too samey, there isn’t any wide variety or groundbreaking idea. yet even though the whole experience is a bit too samey, i find them more likeable than not. even as i try to find any deep criticism here, i’d rather just enjoy their good work. FOREVER isn’t a seminal work, it doesn’t break any barriers, it stays well within its own alley. the boys are having their own fun on their own terms. their getup is a bit hokey, their voices kinda goofy, but E.M.C. is still gonna be outside that Lawson every Wednesday evening repping their best game.
maybe the next time we send some gilded vinyl disc on a probe into deep-space, we skip the Beatles and give the aliens something a little more interesting. Enjoy Music Club seems up to the task.
no more notes.
- highlights -
EMC no Rap-dō (EMCのラップ道)
Taylor Swift
N・A・T・S・U
Enjoy Club Song (エンジョイクラブソング)
Night Rendezvous (ナイトランデブー)
BIG LOVE
track list:
ENJOY OPENING
EMC no Rap-dō (EMCのラップ道)
EMC Travel (EMCトラベル)
Taylor Swift
N・A・T・S・U
Good Tomorrow (いいトゥモロー)
Enjoy Club Song (エンジョイクラブソング)
Night Rendezvous (ナイトランデブー)
WORKER'S DELIGHT feat. PR0P0SE
Christmas o Shiyō yo (クリスマスをしようよ)
BIG LOVE
ENJOY MUSIC FOREVER
