I have gotten very busy with work over the last year and it has been a huge distraction for extra time to do some of the little things I once enjoyed so much, like checking into this site daily.  It was a morning routine with my coffee before I dug into the work emails.  Maybe if I had some time during the day I'd check in again.

But lately, like the last 6 months or so I have... and I know this will be tough for some to accept... I have fallen out of love with Scandal; a band I couldn't make it through the day without listening to or thinking about.  Not to boast, but to put into perspective, in my lifetime I have amassed a music collection of well-over 1500 cassettes, 8000 CDs and 3000 vinyl records, and all I would listen to for days on end back to back was Scandal.  I essentially ignored most everything else I owned for about a 2 to 3 year period.

It was a late in life obsession for me (I'm 50), and from a rock fan level I hadn't gone through anything like this since I was a teenager with my entire bedroom covered in Van Halen posters.

The relationship started to go sour when the KFTD album came out.  It had some good songs, but I wasn't wowed.  Not going to go into it now; my review is somewhere on this site.  Basically, after HONEY, I was hugely disappointed with their output.  Since then I have tried many times to go back to the record and hope that maybe that will be the time I heard that special something I missed initially that will now get me into it and spark up the excitement once more.  After all, there have been quite a few songs in the past I wasn't crazy about when I first heard them but now I enjoy, like "Pinheel Surfer" and, well, pretty much most of YELLOW.

No matter how much I returned to KFTD, either off the CD or the vinyl, or watching the individual videos, I couldn't get that enthusiasm back.  I still haven't watched my KFTD livestream bluray.  I ordered that as soon as it was announced, and watched it stream live.  I have only listened to the disk once.  I think part of it is they performed to no one and it wasn't so exciting.  And they played a lot of the KFTD songs that missed having a live reaction.  It sounded sterile to me compared to the live experiences I have known from them.

I had hoped this was a bump in the road, and like all good relationships you have those ups and down, but in the long term it is all going up and it's good.  Then all the singles started coming out, and they have been very hit or miss for me.  The days when I would sit through "Stamp" or "Love Me Do" over and over again to enjoy the song had long past.  One or two listens, even if I initially liked it (!), was all I was willing to give.  I kept thinking when they release their next full-length CD these will all be in context and have more impact.  I'm still waiting, and I'm hoping this to be true.

Adding to the music woes, I started getting really bored with a lot of what they were offering on the information side.  It's funny, one of the biggest draws to Scandal Heaven was I could finally find transcribed material of their interviews and TV broadcasts.  This is a wonderful fan site.  But now that they are more popular, or more prolific, I grew tired of all the non-music stuff they offered.  I sat through the first couple Rina video blogs and determined that was a waste of my time.  Her regular blogs don't hold much interest either, and the radio catch-ups were monotonous.  Don't get me wrong, I like them personally and I think they are lovely young ladies.  A part of me thinks of them as nieces (yes, I have nieces their age), and I still root for them like they're my own.  But there isn't much interest for a 50-year-old man on the musings and daily activities of a 20 or young 30-something woman.  Because of that I don't make as much an effort anymore to check in on what they're doing.

This all saddens me that I have lost the love I once had.  After all, I still love those old Van Halen records, and I still listen to them quite regularly (in fact I even played a couple yesterday while I worked).  My favorite all-time band, The Who, I still buy every new remaster they do even though I already own that particular album five times over.  I have about 40 bootlegs of them performing Tommy alone.  It still doesn't get old, and I still feel like a teenager when I listen to them.  I light up whenever a new Who-related video pops up in my You Tube feed.  It seems silly, but I was in that same place with Scandal and now it's gone.

I discovered Scandal when my former marriage was breaking up.  Scandal seemed so happy and positive, they uplifted my spirits every time I listened to them or watched their videos.  The last couple of years I have been in an excellent relationship that has now taken the place of what Scandal meant in my life.  Does this seem weird?  Scandal was the rebound girl.  I wasn't supposed to have a long existence with her (somewhat pun intended here).  This is what it seems like to me.  They were just a gateway from the bad ending of one very long relationship going into the next (hopefully) long, full-filling relationship.

As a music nerd, there are a lot of things I hope Scandal would do to improve my relationship.  As a good lover I have accepted certain truths: Haruna's voice has changed drastically from her smoky-sounding youth; Haruna and Tomomi no longer split vocals and share that wonderful harmony they once had together; that like all pop bands, they are forever going to be enticed to do some modern production or studio trickery to sound modern and relevant; they are going to let Rina write every song, and Tomomi and Haruna will only write one tune each every five years or so; they experiment far too much to the point that they are losing a musical identity.  I can wish over and over again that they will revert on all these, and write more consistently rocking tunes (with no auto-tune or electric drums and synths), but I know it's hopeless.  It feels like they're in that U2-"we're artists now" phase, and that type of rock music bores me.  Go back to those WAR and BOY days, I don't care Bono that you didn't always sing in key, you had a lot of passion.  Now it's pretension.  This is kind of how I'm hearing Scandal now.

This is a long post.  Kudos to you if you actually read it.  I don't know if I'm alone in feeling this.  Sometimes I think it's a byproduct of the whole lockdown situation, but I don't have the same feeling towards other artists I enjoy.  Then again, so so few of those other artists ever hit my heart like Scandal once did.  I feel like I'm breaking up.  Please help.  I'm actually sad about this.

You ever heard the saying Absence Make The Heart Grow Fonder, maybe you could do with a break from all things Scandal. For how long I don't know, maybe a couple of months then come back and pick your fave Scandal song, hopeful your love for them will come back.

It also could be down to this lockdown starting to mess with your head. I was the same, walking same route to and from work, staring at same things and talking to same small group of people, does get to you.
A lot of Scandal songs did help get me through this. I mixed up my playlist every week, I end up starting to like some songs I never thought were good at first.

Sorry I can't think of any other way of help you, but take a break.

Well a lot can happen in 15 years with or without the Covid Virus, I was a huge AKB48 fan as most people know but now I prefer BNK48 ( Bangkok  )
All the original members have gone now and the music is not the same.

But lets get back to SCANDAL, yes of course their music has changed and they have changed but sadly all Bands have to evolve or die.
But I still really like them as people and although I dont like all their songs ones like "Laundry Laundry" remind me why I adore Tomomi.

I think I will always be curious to see what they do next and I hope they carry on for a long time, after all the Rolling Stones are in their 70's and still performing, you are never too old to make music.

You're not the only one Don Dio, I'm in the same situation as you... I feel lost with Scandal.

I'm a little disappointed with the last two singles, Ivory and Eternal are good pop songs but it's not what I expect from Scandal. They want to try something else and I really respect that but I'm not sure I want to follow the band in this direction.

I'm even more disappointed with the communication and the image of the band since the release of KFTD, especially when compared to other Japanese girl groups... I just don't understand what they are trying to do ?
But again I respect the band, they created their own label and are now free to do whatever they want and it's great for them.

I think we are not the only one surprised by the evolution of the band, the views on Youtube seems a little bit lower for the last two singles and for their videos since at least 6 months. Every band needs to evolve to survive but at the same time they should take care not to lose too much of their "old" fans.

Hope my post isn't too negative, I'm just giving my personal opinion. I love Scandal but I'm just a little disturbed by the evolution of the band for several months

@izzy
I don't see your comments as negative.  Just like my own concerns, we're not saying the band is garbage and we're never going to listen to them again.  The experience has changed.

I agree that bands need to evolve.  I like that when good bands do, but I think they have to stay within certain parameters so fans know it's still the same band.  A solo artist can get away with drastic changes between albums.  Neil Young, Elvis Costello and Prince are prime examples of this.  For good or bad each outing was, their fans appreciated the variety.  But when the Grateful Dead decided they were going to experiment with disco on the SHAKEDOWN STREET album, well that was pretty awkward for most fans.  They were out of their lane.  It's not a bad record, btw, but I definitely don't put it on as often as FROM THE MARS HOTEL or AMERICAN BEAUTY.

The Dead doing disco is like my reaction every time I listen to KFTD and the autotune songs come up; and what is so lousy is that "Saishuheki, Kimi" is a well-written song, and it has a great groove.  "Saishuheki, Kimi" may be melodically different from "Space Ranger," but if it were produced similar to "Space Ranger" or one of those earlier tunes, it would feel more organic played back to back in a random shuffle of Scandal songs.  

I did step away from their music for a long while and a couple months ago I put their CDs on shuffle while I was driving.  "Space Ranger" came on and I was enjoying the drive.  Then the next song was either "Tsuki" or "Tonight" and it was big come down in mood.  "Sakura Goodbye" came on and I was uplifted once more.  Tomomi's bass riff and the overall dynamics of the song, plus the hook make it the perfect pop song.  For me "AMDKJ" is Scandal modernizing something like "Space Ranger" or "Sakura Goodbye" and doing it right.  If KFTD was more like this tune or "Masterpiece" I would be feeling much different towards the bands progress.

@Tonymiller mentioned The Stones, and that is good example of enduring band that did experiment quite a bit.  I am aware I am in the minority of fans that actually enjoys the UNDERCOVER record from '83.  On the other hand, BLACK AND BLUE from '76 is their version of KFTD.  It's all over the place.  It has reggae, blues, disco, funk, ballads, a typical Stones rocker... it has no cohesion and sounds more like a compilation than a true studio effort.

I do hope Scandal endures together as long as The Stones so there will be a lot of albums to fall back to and enjoy.  I'm hoping this current evolution is just a little blip on the map, and they do what so many of those classic metal bands of the 80s eventually figured out in the mid-2000s and start making records and writing songs like they did in their hey-day.

I know what you mean. But I still don't have that feeling, though. I think they're doing the right thing.
It's the most extraordinary japanese band. All these experiments are only positive. They're don;t want crammed only in one genre. Why to limit some things, just to be in genre? 

I love the old albums too. But their current evolution, experimenting with songs I like even more. Although I'm not at the highest point of enthusiasm for Ivory, either. Anyway, they don't stand at one point still, they're always looking for something new. That's probably why they're so interesting. And now at their age it would be strange to expect that teenage garage rock. They've grown up. And everything is good in its time as I think. What do you want to hear and see from grown up women now? That they put on their high school uniforms again and sing about teenage love? I guess that's just a silly. I don't like all the songs from KFTD but most of them, and it think KFTD better then Honey. And most of the lyrics have more serious and better (like AMDKJ) than many of their teenage songs.

If you're such an indisputable rocker, I don't understand how you spent so much time with SCANDAL, which in fact only rock band has NEVER been. There are plenty of other Japanese rock and metal bands that would probably be more to your liking.

@ Don Dio you're definitely not alone with this
I've complained about these things before, especially the Mami/Rina songwriting and Haruna's pretty much unrecognisable changed voice in the last few years.

To explain what I'm whinging about with the songwriting...for me the songs just don't have memorable, catchy choruses and nice melodies like they used to. Up to Yellow the songs were still awesome IMHO, but after that it's all been average as far as I'm concerned [in other words,the Mami/Rina era] My favourite songs since Yellow have been Tomomi's Laundry Laundry and Living In The City...because they've got nice melodies.

As for Haruna's voice,I have no idea what happened there, a few years ago she suddenly started singing everything in a much higher pitched voice but with none of her old individuality left?? Usually, if anything, the opposite happens, singers get a bit lower pitched as they get older. I saw them live a few times though in 2017 and 18 and at the actual gigs she didn't really sound that different to the old days to be honest...so I almost wonder if a lot of it is just some sort of effect or whatever? [on the studio recordings]

On another subject, I was super surprised today to see that Koe is the current no.1 on the 'Vote Your Best SCANDAL Song' thing?? Koe?? Really?? Weird...but then there are only about 3 of my picks in that top 30 at the moment

The Beatles were my favorite band growing up. Looking back, it's hard to believe "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine" are from the same band that did "Please Please Me" and "I Feel Fine". The first albums were so full of energy and optimism.
I think it has a lot to do with the transition from being in your early 20's to your late 20's. You start to realize that what you  have inside is all there is going to be, that you've pretty much reached your full potential. That's not to say creativity and inspiration come to a complete halt, more like... it's like your height; you're not going to get any taller, but you'll get more graceful and comfortable at the height you're at.
I want Scandal to be as successful as possible, so that one day they can retire in comfort, and not have to worry about money. To that end, I want to support them as much as possible. Without the support, they can't afford to continue, and possibly record the killer single that rockets them to the top top. Meanwhile, what they're doing is adding breadth and depth to their catalogue, which should be considered as a whole.
On a side note, load "Masterpiece" into Audacity and digitally slow the tempo by 8%. Makes it cooler.

Meph1766 wrote:If you're such an indisputable rocker, I don't understand how you spent so much time with SCANDAL, which in fact only rock band has NEVER been. There are plenty of other Japanese rock and metal bands that would probably be more to your liking.

This is quite a weird statement for me.  I never said I was an "indisputable rocker," but I am a music nerd, and with that I listen to and appreciate a lot of forms of music outside of the rock category.  I did mention the volume of music I own-- that's not all rock by a long shot.  I have been playing guitar for close to 40 years and I appreciate a lot of styles of music.  I don't care much for modern pop, rap or techno/EMO-type music because they have too much electronic sounds.  I prefer natural instruments over anything else.  Keyboards and synthesizers are fine, but not when they overwhelm the sound.  Some of Scandal's more modern tunes have been relying too much on these sounds and it just isn't interesting to me.  With that said, I don't particularly care for older songs like "Shoujo M" or "Want You."  

There are other Japanese rock bands I do like, with my other favorites being SpecialThanks, Band Maid and Polka Dot Stingray.  All three in conjunction with Scandal are completely different sounding bands, and I do want to add that I don't care what any of them look like.  Scandal can go back to uniforms or where parkas for all I'm concerned.  I don't care what they look like, I want them to sound original. This is what drew me to them.

After two years of studying I gave up on learning Japanese.  I have no idea what the girls are singing about, and I rarely bother to look at the English translations.  I listened to their voices like an instrument.  I liked how they blended and worked together.  This is why I enjoy Haruna and Tomomi, mostly, singing together.  It was like listening to a good jazz saxophonist and trumpet player play off each other.   Because I don't understand Japanese I listened to the music and the chordal progressions more intensely.  This a reason why electronic sounds, and drum loops, are uninteresting, and thus uninspiring to be excited about the band's new direction (if it is one, I do want to give them the benefit of the doubt.).

@Hogradish
It's funny you brought up The Beatles because I do think of them as one of the few bands that evolved musically and not only kept the quality up, but still remained interesting and relevant.  Everyone has their favorite era of The Bealtes.  Personally, even though I love the later era, and ABBY ROAD is probably the best record they ever put out (yes, I think it's better than Sgt. Pepper), my favorite era is that mid period around HARD DAYS NIGHT.  Those songs are absolutely perfect pop rock tunes.  That all being said, I think of The Beatles and what happened after they broke up.   Their solo records are incredibly spotty.  

Paul, outside of a few Wings records, has some good singles but no solid album that you must have in your collection.  George has about two solid records, and the rest are kind of blah. John does have the best solo catalog, but people forget he made a lot of unlistenable noise excursions records with Yoko.  Those records are absolutely atrocious.  And Ringo, well... let's face it, he has a few good solo songs, but like Paul nothing you can really say you have to have in your collection.

Scandal is not at that solo stage, but The Beatles only recorded together for about 10 years.  At that point the individual Beatles were very hit or miss.  I think Scandal could  take inspiration from the Beatle breakup in that they need to collaborate more as a band to produce their best work.  Rick Rubin has had a lot of producing success with classic bands over the years.  One of the things he does is force the bands to listen to their early albums to remember not only what they sounded like, but get them back to the frame of mind of when they were hungry musicians.  Maybe Scandal should try this?  I don't know.  All I do know is something in their new music no longer excites me the way it once did.  And at the same time, I do go back and listen to the older stuff and there is a bunch of it that is no longer as thrilling as it once was. This is what is overall driving me mad with change in my appreciation for the band.  I still love them, but I no longer hear and feel what I once heard and felt so strongly.  I probably haven't explained this part well enough, and have focused too much on the new stuff.  I do think my reaction to the new stuff has affected me to some degree on how I perceive some of the old.  Does that make sense?

Ok, try this. Make some "mix tapes" on Spotify. Go through the Scandal catalogue and pick out songs with a certain theme. For example, I have "Scandal Goes Punk" and it has stuff like Oh! No!, Fuzzy, Rainy, and S.L.Magic. Then there's "Scandal in a Quiet Mood" and "Scandal for Stadiums". That last one is songs that I think would work in a setting where the echo in the venue would kill songs with too much detail. The Who figured that out, and went from Happy Jack to Summertime Blues to Baba O'Reilly, each one less busy and with longer power chords. For my mix, I included Burn, Bright, One Piece, Future, and Eternal.
My current favorite is "Scandal - The Lost Ginza Mix". I pretended a really cool bartender in a really cool bar with a view of the city lights has put in a tape that plays discreetly in the background. The playlist leans hard on the urban jazz sound that seems popular now, but also includes quirky songs to the pique the interest of the obviously sophisticated patrons, ha ha. It included the obvious like Neon Town Escape and Living in the City, but also Shoujo M, the Towa Tei remix of Eternal, Tokyo, that When the Widow was Opened song, and Take Me Out.
What I noticed on making these is I pretty much had to span the entire catalogue to find songs to match a certain mood. It took them out of their album/time period context, and cast them in a different light.
Meanwhile, I think you and band (and me too) could use some inspiration. Travel is good, but it's been difficult lately. 'Yellow" really benefited from the world tour. You can hear so many influences. Anyway, if Scandal gets to go out this fall, I think they'll come back refreshed and inspired. I also think Tomomi is their secret weapon. She's got a "Something" in her somewhere, and with the right motivation, it'll come.
So....here, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr88Dcxvw54
For inspiration.

@Don Dio
Most likely you just lost the effect of novelty. When you find a new group, the mood is always rising. But gets boring over time. 
But I don’t understand one more point. You say you were a big fan of the band, but you didn't even read their lyrics. Considering that on this forum they are all translated. Wasn't it interesting for you?

@Meph1766
Early on I read a lot of the lyrics.  For every "Kan Biru" or "Koe," which are two of my favorite lyrics, there were too many that were a bit dopey or pedestrian.  I wasn't particularly surprised-- a lot of rock lyrics, no matter the artist, are not all that original or spectacular.  That's okay.  It's the overall package that we enjoy within the song itself.  Besides, many of Scandal's lyrics were written when they were still teenagers, so they tend to have a bit of a child-like quality to them which is hard to relate to at my age.

I stopped looking up lyrics when too many of the lyrics didn't seem to fit the mood I was hearing in the songs.  Much of Scandal's tunes sound happy; but the lyrics for those songs tended to be a little sad.  It didn't add to my enjoyment, and I was perfectly happy enjoying the music as it was.  I heard the vocals like instruments.  Then to add to this, a lot of the later Rina-penned songs all seemed to cover the same topics.  That didn't make me want to read the new translations as much either because I felt like I heard it already in a different version.  To me it's like reading Springsteen lyrics.  The guy writes the same song over and over again: this one is about a car; this one is about a guy who works in the factory and they've closed the factory down and he doesn't know what to do; this one is about a guy who works in a factory but wants something better, so he gets in his car and drives; and this one is about that guy's girl.  And here's another one about a car...

I think you are right in that the novelty of this being a new band (for me) has worn off, and they're kind of like every other band I periodically listen to now.  Prior to discovering Scandal I was on a strong bender of Dragonforce and Halestorm.  I couldn't take either of them out of my CD changer in my car.  Then I heard "Shojou S" and "Sunken Sentimental" for the first time, and then eight years later I'm finally coming down from that high.  That is pretty cool that it lasted that long.  But it hasn't completely crashed.  I still plan to get the next album whenever it comes out, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again live when they can finally come back to California.

@hogradish
Yes, Tomomi is a not-so-secret weapon they are not fully utilizing.  She needs to write more, and/or figure out how to write music with the others in a collaborative effort. Haruna on other hand is the secret weapon.  At some point she is going to have a creative explosion and start penning more tunes like "Graduation."

With Scandal now being their Own Label, with a small but loyal staff. I wonder if they missing a devil advocate who goes against what everyone else say. I think Ivory is one of my Fave song of this year, but Eternal was Okay but could had being better. With a devil advocate this person could cast his/her view on it and take out that Mix version of the song( A good number of us on this site had a WTF moment when we heard that version) for it does not work.

Also having their own Label and Feedback Tokyo clothing plus anything else that going on in their life, that now lacking the time to write up new songs that going shoot them back to No1 in Japanese charts.

wow. this hit me kinda hard. because i agree with everything you said about the evolution of this band, other than not liking it. im not gonna lie... i have foreseen myself in the future just drifting away from this band as new and different songs come out. but i will continue to love the songs that brought me in. there's a band in the philippines called "eraserheads". their debut album sounds like it was recorded with a potato. and it was glorious. the next album kept up that hunger to make amazing music and was home to a song that won best song in asia or something like that. after that album... meh. didnt really care for any of their new music. but i still play those songs off the first two albums pretty much every time i pick up a guitar. kinda warms me up i guess and reminds me where i came from while i try to learn something new. so in that aspect, i never fell out of love with eraserheads. i just dont care for any of the newer stuff that came out after 1996. if the same happens with scandal, im sure it will not feel like a bad end to a long relationship, but rather a time in my life i can look back on with happy memories. and if eraserheads ever did a hell freezes over concert ill be there even if half the songs are ones i dont care for. 

now, i have only been a fan for about a year. and going through a bunch of their discography, there are songs that i absolutely love, and songs that i think are garbage (i gotta be honest here). that comes with the territory. you cant force anyone to like your songs (im also a musician and have written several songs for a band i was in). but for now, im still in love with these girls... for the songs that i adore. i, too, listen to the music and vocals as a musician, and only take the time to look up lyrics for the songs that strike me the hardest as i want to really get down deep into the mind of the song writer when they came up with the music and melody. so i can totally relate to what you are trying to get across. biggest difference is that you have been a fan for a longer time than myself. maybe you feel that you have more invested in being a fan. and i get that too. but if i can offer some advice... 

-the members of the band are getting older and their views of the world are changing and that is showing in their music. give it a chance and if you dont like it, just be ready for what is next (like how im waiting for another "masterpiece" to just pop out and get me screaming again). it might never come. so be it because....

-the old music isnt going anywhere. theyre not going back and changing any of it. its still the same and always will be. so when i go back and listen to those tracks again, its always like the first time. just like how 27yrs later, every time i hear that first strum of eraserheads' "pare ko" the entire world stops and im 17 again... an american born filipino in my mother's motherland falling in love with the guitar. 

-redirect your focus on another band. not necessarily to the point of superfandom like we all are for scandal. but if you do, cool, nobody will judge lol. personally, i am just as maniacal about band maid (see what i did there?). so when it comes to new things coming out and just blowing me away even more than the last... yeah, they're doing it for me. polkadot stingray is another one that is just blowing me away, but to be honest im starting to see that their songs sound the same. theyre all good, but still its like "wow that sounds great! love shizuku's voice. and ejima san is a beast. but it kinda sounds like the last song!" lol. i still look forward to what is new coming from them. 

i really hope you can see that i am with you, and not against you on this as i never defended or tried to make excuses for scandal (other than mentioning that theyre getting older). every single point you have made about why you may be falling out of love with them, i have noticed. hasn't bothered me yet, personally, but we all have our individual tastes. ill at least be the first to say that if you do end up falling out of love for the current band, its ok. as long as it doesnt hinder you from still listening and loving what the band used to be. this has happened to me, and it was a dark path. i hope this has never happened to you. the band that killed it for me was my own. it left such a sour taste in my mouth that i could not even pick up an instrument, listen to the radio, sing in the shower, nothing. for four years. scandal just so happens to be one of the bands that got me out of that. eraserheads made me want to pick up a guitar. scandal helped me pick it back up. i hope you hold on to your connection too.

I'm not gonna lie if SCANDAL isn't big in my life at the mo' as well. In my case, it's more of a mix of the lack of new material (two digital singles since the last record) and mainly the inability to see them live no thanks to you-know-what. My last SCANDAL shows were two nights back to back in Osaka in 2018. 

It is a bit difficult to maintain enthusiasm when circumstances don't allow me to be in the thick of their activities anymore and it's not really their fault (including the inability to see them on their home ground using the old methods any more).

I have noted my current interests have been shaped by the current pandemic - anime/manga and the rekindling of my figure collecting hobby. Not at the hikikomori level yet, don't you worry. Anyways, like you and many others that posted above, I still like SCANDAL. I still listen to them albeit less frequently. And not selling my SCANDAL guitars...

@kudo_maharizu

I have to agree, these are strange times to be in and the Tokyo Olympics start today but with nobody watching and some of them already sick with the virus.

I have been replaying old Final Fantasy games as I feel safe there.

But if and when SCANDAL can come to London again I will be there.

Been away the last couple of weeks on vacation, and just catching up on the latest postings.  Thanks to all that shared their thoughts on this.  I find everyone's perspective very interesting.

While reading the posts above it occurred to me that Scandal may be the only band that I ever been remotely close to being fanatical about.  There are absolutely bands from many genres and eras over the years that have excited me to no end, but Scandal's music hit a spot that was just right.  I am not a collector of music memorabilia outside of the actual music, but with Scandal I did make an effort to acquire many magazines in which they were featured, and all their concert videos on DVD or BluRay.  And for two years I took a real Japanese class (as opposed to online self-learning) so I could learn the language well-enough to understand their MCs and interviews that were not translated (of which there are many videos, radio links and articles out there to explore).

Thought about joining in this conversation but there's too much there to do justice, really. Let me just say that I've been around a long time, almost from the beginning of rock, was exposed to American pop music of older generations, and love music and bands from every decade, "classical" too. But like don dio, I was never really a "fan" of any before SCANDAL. Rock 'n' roll is "the music of my life" as the nostalgia DJs say. But there's a couple of things that bothered me for a long time, (1) how few female bands there were and (2) how little we in the US hear about bands outside the Anglosphere. Look at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it's like our baseball "World Series"... really?
Getting right to the point, while exploring the wider world of pop/rock a friend pointed me to Japan. When I got to SCANDAL, everything clicked into place. I didn't need lyrics to get their message. Then I found lyrics translations. They inspired me to try to learn Japanese. Didn't think I was ready but having added a few languages before I knew it would take me a long time to get a grasp. SCANDAL inspires me to persevere with that Japanese "can-do-gambatte" attitude and with a stream of blogs and interviews that make it almost personally accessible for someone like me who has never been abroad and probably never will. Plus their interactions with and comments about other musicians has acquainted me with so many, as different as Perfume and 9mm Parabellum Bullet.
I began to follow SCANDAL nine years ago. I remember an interview from their school-uniform days where they were asked about their future and HARU said they would certainly evolve and their music and the things they focused on would be different as they grew older. Another time they were asked what genre they were playing to which they replied "sort of garage rock but we want to be our own genre" (something that other J bands also say BTW). 
Over these few years they have tried out a lot of ideas. Every time a new album came out, or a new MV, there were always people who asked, God what has happened to SCANDAL, some people who said they would stop being fans. That worried me for a long while but gradually I realized this is something that happens with any artist that lasts and goes through major changes. We saw it happen over and over with Dylan and even the Beatles. 
But unlike them, SCANDAL has never got big enough to ride those waves to greater fame (or financial security). They are still living fairly normal lives despite having enough "mass popularity" to face the classic performers' gap between the stage and the audience (see the lyrics of Tonight). I don't hear their them turning pretentious (like U2?) in any way. Hey, maybe if they became a stadium act that would have happened. How I wish they would reach that stage someday! 
At the same time I wonder if individually, they still look forward to getting married, having kids, etc as they have expressed in the past. If they want to continue as a band and also raise families, whatever they end up doing, it's bound to be seen as a model for how others, particularly women in Japan, can plan the course of their lives.
Now if I were a musician, or if music were the center of my life, maybe I would feel differently. It's natural for us moderns to get to a place where too much—even of the best in life—becomes a burden —a "surfeit" (to use an old-fashioned word). But I'm not even an amateur musician (although friends and family have been both amateurs and "in the business"); for me music is vital but not central. So I've never come even close to this with SCANDAL.
I continue to be enriched and amazed by (almost) every new thing they do. I keep checking out other bands but no one else has ever matched them. Through all the years, I never knew what it was like to be a "fan" until I found SCANDAL. These people, the members and their team, are important to me. Their music is like a dream come true of course, but somehow I feel committed to them as people—and to their community of fans, including SH, as well. Though there may be others someday, I'm sure I'll be a SCANDAL fan until my "small flame" goes out. 
I hope to see them live for the first time in November, New York City!