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Avg: 3.5 (16 ratings)
- Date Released: January 1, 1984
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Label: Oglio Entertainment
The jangly beginnings of a trio of sweet-obsessed pop punks.
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We Say...
Though Shonen Knife are often typified as a trio of Japanese Ramones fans, their second album (not counting their 1982 cassette-only debut) shows that before they learned three-chord guitar riffs, their sound was more Athens, Georgia than Lower East Side, New York. Jangly, reverbed and barely-there guitars bow to unusually prominent bass lines and the women, not quite confident in their English skills, sing mainly in Japanese and the universal language of whoa, whoa's and yeah, yeah's.
Yama-no Attchan has its share of one-take stompers but they're paired with sunny tracks quirked up with sound effects: chirping synths on "Insect Collector," bicycle bells on "Cycling Is Fun," a taste of pentatonic scale and gong on "Chinese Song." The first two would later appear on 1993's Let's Knife alongside "Flying Jelly Attack," a bouncy garage-rock tribute to candy that contributes to the ladies' eventual reputation as sweet-obsessed pop punks.
Just three years into their ongoing career, the band leaves plenty of room for improvement ("Bye Bye" soldiers on despite a maddeningly uneven beat), but already know how to crank out infectious tunes — and always in under three minutes. -
They Say...
The year between the recording of their first record, 1983's Burning Farm, and their second, 1984's Yama-no Attchan, allowed Shonen Knife to improve their musicianship a touch. Not enough to mess up their innocent charm, but enough to make this record an improvement over their already quite good debut. The songs are just a bit stronger too. "Cycling Is Fun" bounces along on a near-Motown beat the likes of which they couldn't have done a year earlier, "Chinese Song" betrays the influence of dub punk like the Slits and the Raincoats, "Flying Jelly Attack" sports a killer bubblegum chorus and some tight riffing, and "Dali's Sunflower" betrays some heavy metal influence thanks to heavy power chords and guest guitarist Yasushi Utsunomiya's guitar mangling. The lyrical topics are just as wacky, though, covering insect collecting, leaves, cycling and cannibal plants. All in all, a stronger record than Burning Farm; more joyous, more memorable and more fun. Together they play like the blueprint for much of the American indie pop of the '80s and '90s. [As on Burning Farm a few of the songs here -- "Cycling Is Fun," "Insect Collector" and "Flying Jelly Attack" -- were re-recorded for 1993's Let's Knife].
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| 01. |  |
An Angel Has Come
|
2:33 |
|
| 02. | |
Cycling Is Fun
|
2:37 |
|
| 03. | |
Elmar Elevator
|
1:25 |
|
| 04. | |
Banana Leaf
|
2:40 |
|
| 05. | |
Chinese Song
|
2:02 |
|
| 06. | |
Flying Jelly Attack
|
2:24 |
|
| 07. | |
Cannibal Papaya
|
2:38 |
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| 08. | |
Dali's Sunflower
|
1:59 |
|
| 09. | |
Insect Collector
|
2:46 |
|
| 10. | |
Bye Bye
|
2:07 |
|
| 11. | |
Flying Jelly Attack
|
2:42 |
|
| 12. | |
Insect Collector
|
2:34 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 28:27 Total Length
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