Just some thoughts that have been floating around in my head recently.

It's not that I just listened to the album Yellow for the first time, rather I've been listening to it extensively ever since it came out. Upon the release, I saw that it got some flack from some fans for not sticking to their roots musically, whatever that means. I understood the sentiment as I also compared it to the experience I had listening to the other albums, but nevertheless I've come to the personal conclusion that it is one of my favorite albums.

I'm not really sure about what this rant is about because it is not an album review, nor am I going to discuss every individual song. Instead, I realized something as I reflected on Scandal as a whole. Not speaking for everyone, but you will be most attached to a musical artist/band in the era that you fell in love with them. As a young fan that started following them in the beginning of 2015, I obviously became attached to Hello World, everything about it. The genre flexibility, the band's identity, the catchy pop grooves, the hard rock tracks, everything about it. I think that this attributes to why I love Yellow; you hear grunge, cali pop rock, '80s pop, reggae, contemporary rock, hard rock, while still maintaining a band identity. Plus, they pretty much composed everything themselves. I don't understand how this is any different than them releasing tracks like a Shoujo M, Kill the Virgin, Pinheel Surfer, or even having Dobondobondo tracks as B-Sides in terms of hopping outside of their normal style. They've been doing their own thing, enjoying themselves their entire musical career.

They are obviously not going to sound like the girls from Sakura Goodbye, or Yumemiru Tsubasa (although if you listen hard enough, there are more similarities than you'd initially think). However, they are still themselves in my opinion. But yeah, that's my main thought on it, lol. Anyone else feel the same?

I enjoy their latest releases sooo much more than than the older stuff, I still hold certain songs close and have my favorites but theres just something about them trying out stuff, playing what they really feel opposed to just playing off what someone else wrote. I feel like NOW we can appreciate the older SCANDAL even more, because bands usually go through stages and thats normal, you go through different stuff in your life, so many things can affect how you view life, etc. Old SCANDAL was hungry, raw, energetic. New SCANDAL can be wild, chill, calm and collected, etc. I dont really know where im going with this but I already wrote this much and im going to hit send :>

Yellow was decent, but not the best music I heard. Lyrics are ok, singins is good but the final mix from some songs in meh, like some other songs from them.
 
Most songs from Yellow are inspired from US pop culture. And from what I read about them they really like US music, life style and most things that are affiliated with US so they migh make more songs inspired from this source or they could go back to their old style. For sure that their voices aren't the same but this can't stop them to use the same style of music and lyrics.

The fact that they wrote the lyrics is awesome and they should not let anyone else do it ! Maybe they will mix/master the songs too, who knows ?

You are right here.

but you will be most attached to a musical artist/band in the era that you fell in love with them

First songs I heard from them where: Satisfaction, Shunkan Sentimental, Hello Goodbye, Namida no Regret, Sayonara my friend , nanka buttobase and SCANDAL BABY(their best song?) so I can say that I listen to them a lot more than the new ones.

From Yellow I like Chiisana Honou , Love Me Do , Love  and Stamp a lot but the other feels a bit..meh.

I listened to all of their albums , after that I can say  STARDARD is the worse and HELLO WORLD is the best. Their older songs are somewhere close to HELLO WORLD followed by YELLOW .

I can't wait to hear the new songs that are scheduled for release in Q1 2017, maybe they will go at the old style.

To some degree YELLOW felt like the modern equivalent of Bob Dylan going electric.  Some fans were shocked, disappointed and dismissive of the change in sound.  For myself I enjoyed the album at first listen but not as much as STANDARD or HELLO WORLD (I'm always debating in my head which one of these is their best).  There are a lot of catchy songs just like their older albums, but much of YELLOW is in the mid-tempo range. Where I was disappointed was that the album lacked that one, true hard rock song like ONEGAI NAVIGATION, METRONOM or HOSHINOFURUYORUNI.  SUKI-SUKI was the closest offering, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping. 

After multiple listens this album gets better and better for me.  As already mentioned in this thread, there is a wealth of variety in the styles they play, and they do them well!  Come on, who seriously thought in the uniform days they were ever going to pull off ska or reggae as well as they do on KONYA WA PIZZA PARTY and LOVE?  Or how about a tight, rocking instrumental like ROOM No.7?  It's experimentation like this that makes Scandal such a thrilling band to follow. 

To go back to referencing classic rock, in years to come we will see YELLOW as their RUBBER SOUL or REVOLVER.  Like Scandal, the Beatles started out with an exciting new way to play R&B and pop music.  These two albums were the start of the Beatles most creative period where they seemed to push their talents and pop music's boundaries as much as possible.  Scandal is yet to record their version of SGT. PEPPER or ABBEY ROAD, but I feel they are on their way to doing so. 

One last point on YELLOW: with all the different styles presented within, I truly believe this is Rina's best album.  She really makes their new ideas come together (no Beatles pun intended).

marcoatendido wrote:Upon the release, I saw that it got some flack from some fans for not sticking to their roots musically, whatever that means.

"Member Shunkan Sentimental or #GarageRock?"

Of course, I don't have anything against that sound or the songs produced during that "era". But I do find nostalgia-ridden individuals with those kinds of feelings amusing. It's how I would see the Member Berries from South Park applied to parts of this band's fanbase.

The song that broke me off that mindset was, and no pun intended, "Departure". Personally it was a fantastic release with so much to offer. Without repeating what others have already said, I see SCANDAL as a talented, well-rounded band. They're pop-rock but not generic, cookie-cutter or terribly experimental either. That's something I praise them for.

I know I'm phrasing this poorly but I find YELLOW has been the best so far at identifying the hardcore fans from the traditionalists.

Personally, I consider to YELLOW their greatest studio album at the moment. Simply because they have shown a huge amount of creative freedom and diversity in each songs. You can read my review on YELLOW published on JRock 247. There's no doubt that their previous albums are great and well-structured. However, their songwriting prowess seemed to be either needed more help from collaborators or somewhat being held back in the past. 

SCANDAL has finally grown from cutesy rockers to seasoned artistes. So, let's not expect to release a single a-la Shunkan Sentimental version 2.0. I believe it will never work anymore. Whether we like it or not, their visual image and musicianship will continue to evolve.

Well I enjoyed YELLOW and I am always eager to see what Scandal do next.
I have said it before but I will say it again, all Groups must evolve or they die, which can be difficult as many fans dont want their favourite groups to change.

Concerts can be very difficult for groups as they are eager to try out their new stuff 'live' but then some fans are disappointed as they only want to hear the old stuff.
Most western bands try for a mix of old and new just like Scandal.

As long as they dont go to western like K-Pop I will always be happy to listen to their music.

I really grew to enjoy Yellow as a whole album. I really think it's a great album. You can sense in their music that they've matured greatly as a band. Usually change for me is  good thing and I think it's benefiting Scandal at the moment. Although, my favorite from them is still Best Scandal. It's one of my all time favorite albums along with some Beatle records haha. I can't wait for their next studio album. Especially after listening to Take Me Out.

YELLOW in my opinion has been the most diverse album they have to date. I never had a favorite song in the album which is unlike the others. I also liked HELLO WORLD and Queens Are Trumps but after listening to those albums, you can easily point out 1 to 3 songs which are above the rest. I said before in Hello World that their music is something that you will listen to in every aspect of your daily life and they are still proving it. 

Their music has evolved. They write and compose their songs now which proves their maturity. And just like what tonymiller has said all Groups must evolve or they die. When an artist hits the 5-year mark their music starts degrading because they chose to stick on what he/she/they played during their first year.

I started listening to SCANDAL back in the Temptation Box era, and I must say in my opinion that there is not much seriousness in their music before. But now, it is somewhat like they are showing their true colors in their songs and I love it. That's how it should be done.

You could call Yellow the first step in the evolution of Scandal.  It took them ten years to release their first album fully written by the band and they also had a hand in the overall production.  Remember when they had their pizza party where they talked about the inspiration for the songs on the album?  It was good to see their process and I was glad to see how they had their specific plan and idea for the material.  It showed a band fully in control of where they wanted to go.  They now have the competency and confidence with their instruments to write what they are hearing in their heads.  Haruna has also taken the personal challenge to up her game as the lead singer and I applaud her for that.  I hope they continue to explore new sounds like with Love and Heaven na Kibun.  Mami has also grown in her lead playing;  the different styles in Chiisana Honoo and Heaven na Kibun being two examples.  Tomomi is so solid and Rina continues to get better and impress. Take Me Out just cemented that Scandal still has plenty left in the tank and ways to surprise and enchant us.  I would love to hear a recorded version of Konya wa Pizza Party without the sound effects though.  I think it would be so much better.

I read/heard in one of their interviews that they start the creative process in writing their albums by deciding on a theme. I believe they intended Yellow to be an album that people can easily listen to and easily relate to. If you noticed, almost all of their songs are quite "light" with the electric/bass effects they used for this album and this was deliberate on their part (there was this interview talking about how they engineered the sound for the album and one of the things they did was make the temperature of their recording studio cold - they wore jackets and coats while playing, i think).  

Also, since this is the first album that they wrote ALL of the songs in it, they were experimenting a bit and taking a bit of everything that they heard from the local bands during their world tour (2015). You can hear influences from different parts of the world smattered in that album. For more info on the influences put into their songs in the album check out the following links out
http://fuckyeahscandalband.tumblr.com/post/139892104253/scandal32-releaseyellowall-songs
http://fuckyeahscandalband.tumblr.com/post/140209225123/scandal32-releaseyellowall-songs

On the links above, the members talk about each track in the album  Check it out. It's quite interesting on how they cook up these songs, especially in this album where they wrote everything by themselves.

I think those who didn't like Yellow are those who have a particular preference to the "Scandal sound". This is only natural and is common for anyone who listens to music and who has a specific genre preference. In my opinion, I think its quite unfair to box them in and treat them as only one specific genre of rock. It takes away the enjoyment you can get out of any artist/band's music. (I'm quite guilty with this during my I-only-listen-to-rock-and-nothing-else phase a few years ago so I know what I'm talking about, lol.)   

Personally, I think YELLOW was good but not that great - which is expected given with my preferences to their songs and with how they intended this album to sound (Standard is my favorite album, remove the first three songs and its perfect, lol). But, with how Take Me Out turned out, I'm looking forward to their next new album.