J-Pop - Judy and Mary

Judy and Mary are an arty guitar pop band that made relentlessly, bewilderingly upbeat music and were really popular in Japan in the 90s. They're from Hakodate in Hokkaido (where I'm going next weekend incedentally) they're terrific and they're destined to date horribly:

Wow! Just... Holy primary colours Batman!

I've picked up a most of their albums in the last month because, while their last 2CD Best Of... will set you back a packet, almost all of their original albums are available in used shops for a couple of pounds or less. I got their earlier single CD Best Of... first though, and to start with I wasn't too keen. That's because their first compilation distills their career down to their biggest singles and the lack of variation in these full-tilt, jangly, mega-catchy, somewhat tinny pop hits is exhausting. Great songs don't get a chance to shine because, to be harsh but honest - everything sounds the same.

On the individual albums, where there are slow songs, more experimental songs, and more noisy and atonal songs the straight pop singles sound great. But the Best Of... FRESH isn't a good starting place. The animals humping on the CD did make me laugh though.

See? That's on FRESH but I didn't even notice it until I got the actual album it's off. And more videos should be made on escalators.

That's awesome, and how you should do segues too - with explosions.

The bassist has the kind of impressive trademark hairstyle that I would imagine he came to hate. The singer, Yuki, now has a solo career which I'd like to check out (she played in Sapporo last winter, but at the time I didn't know who she was, I just picked up the flyer because it said "YUKI NIGHT" and, well, my girlfriend is called Yuki). The guitarist also has a solo career, and I've picked up one of his solo albums which sounds exactly like a Judy and Mary album without Yuki singing.

But then, I like JAM so that's ok with me.