Kyosuke Himuro In The Mood CD - Import

Kyosuke Himuro's In the Mood is a record that sounds better in description than upon actual playing. A successful solo effort by the vocalist of Boowy, the band that most J-rockers of the '90s and 2000s grew up listening to; a return to a harder edged sound after time spent wallowing in ballads; and a moderate attempt to upgrade the sound to the standards of 2006. What's not to like? Turns out, there's quite a lot: for starters, the shadow of the '80s still hangs heavy over the record, and not in a pretty, retro way. Himuro really knows his way around a hard rock riff, which he peppers with solos typical of the period, and he's also able to vary the tempo, mixing some breathers and a ballad between the faster tunes. But, for all that, In the Mood sounds restrained, and that's a terminal failure, because the whole point of '80s music was its naïve excess and extravaganza, and those are totally absent from the album, even though Himuro never loses the earnestness throughout all of the sentimental odes and speedy hymns he delivers. The attempts at modernization, meanwhile, are few and far between -- pretty literally, as they are limited to some uninspired Mike Shinoda-like rapping in the opener and a couple of emo numbers at the end of the album, both heavier and grimmer than the rest of the tracks, but appearing too late to make a difference. The biggest issue with In the Mood is, however, that it's simply too bland, swapping hooks for songwriting clichés with the predictable outcome: the album works as background music, providing some energetic, mildly emotive noise, but its mood-changing ability and staying power are negligible. ~ Alexey Eremenko