Asobi Seksu: Hush

When a band's name means 'casual sex' in their female vocalist’s native tongue of Japanese, it’s not immediately fathomable as to what their music could sound like. Sexy Indie perhaps? Cocky J-Pop? Electro-sex? Wrong, wrong and definitely wrong again: it’s none of the aforementioned, nor does it even skirt near any of them. This dear friends, is the soundtrack of dreams.

This marks Asobi Seksu’s third album and it’s definitely a noticeable departure from their first two efforts. It’s less noisy and underground, it's forgotten all of its previous constraints of attempting to impress and instead lets the music do the talking, and what a difference it makes.

From the introductory track Layers, you can almost taste the maturity. Drifting on nothing but air and the softest of instrumentation, the song twirls and oscillates around beautiful vocals which soar graciously throughout the duration. The production, pitch and calm atmosphere introduce the listener flawlessly into this band's new intentions and abilities. Endearing is not the word.

The subtle urgency and persistent percussion on Familiar Light only serve to enhance the lucidity which this album creates. It’s like flying through clouds at the speed of sound, dipping and diving like a bird in perfect symbiosis with the wind. Music of this calibre isn’t heard often.

This album is by no means to everyone’s taste and will certainly not appeal to people with a heavier ear. It sticks to one road pretty strictly and only forks off slightly during some songs. Case in point is the last minute of Sunshower; it burns slowly throughout almost the entire duration and then lets everything previously built up go, launching an epic whirlwind of magnificent proportions toward the listener. It lasts only briefly but is breathlessly entertaining to listen to again and again and again.

This album should be a nine out of ten, it really deserves to be but (and there is always a but) there’s still something holding it back. It does everything it intends to do flawlessly and is an engaging listen from start to finish. It’s as eloquent as it is relaxed and could calm a raging bull within seconds; it just doesn’t want to do much else. The band have recreated their sound with Hush and to this writer, it’s a definite improvement over their previous attempts but there’s still something the band seem to want to shed. The album wants to break out of its shell and veer off into other territory but the band seem too scared to let it wander too far. They seem happy keeping it relatively different from before but making sure they stay to their new found sound as strictly as possible.

That being said, this is still an album that sits head and shoulders above a lot of music currently being released. It’s fresh, deep, beautiful and as mesmerising as music can get. This dear friends, is the soundtrack of dreams.