1stよりも圧倒的に暗い。だからこそNight FlowersというバンドのHonestyな音楽の良さを再認識できるアルバム。
インディロック、ドリームポップなら「夢見心地」とか「浮遊感」とか書かれてしまうわけだが前作『Wild Notion』から約1年後、2019年にリリースされた2nd『Fortune Teller』は正直言って第一印象は「1stより大人しいし暗くないか?」だった。そういうときに人は便利な言葉、「深い」を吐いてしまいそうになる。
でも多分はその表現は不正解で、ここにあるのは「深さ」とは違う。結局、音が大人しく暗くなった時にそれを表現できる語彙がシーンに乏しいのがインディロックのレビュー/レコ屋の弱さでもあると思う。楽曲、演奏、メロディ、サウンド、そしてこの色彩をなくしたジャケット。それらが組み合わさり全体として志向するアルバムとしてのテーマにも繋がっているんだけど、前作にある「ロック」的な音のカタルシスを捨てて「ポップス」として何処に向かうのかということが彼らを目覚めさせ、成長させているのかも。アルバム全体としての物語性を持たせ、聴き心地の良いポップスに乗せて表現されるのは、音楽に反して無邪気な前向きさや愛とかそういったテーマじゃない。人生のステージが進むにつれて向き合うことになる自分自身、周りのすべて、不安、不確かなもの。かつてアメリカンHM/HRなBon Joviが30代で自分の人生やルーツと向き合う中でカントリーミュージックに接近したという必然と同様、広く受け入れられた前作の方向性を踏襲していくのではなかった。それはデビューアルバムで彼らを発見したリスナーの何割かは望む方向性ではなかったかもしれないが結局はNight FlowersというバンドのHonestyな音楽の良さを再認識できるアルバムになった。これで良い。そんな気がします。
tracklist:
1. Night Train 04:38
2. Lotta Love 04:20
3. Merry-Go-Round 02:25
4. Perfect Storm 01:40
5. Fortune Teller 03:22
6. Carry On 03:19
7. I've Loved You (Such A Long Time) 04:00
8. No Coming Down 03:07
It's significantly darker than the first. That's why this album is a great reminder of the honesty of the band Night Flowers' music. If it was indie rock or dream pop, it would be described as "dreamy" or "floating", but honestly, my first impression of their 2019 sophomore effort "Fortune Teller", released about a year after their last album "Wild Notion", was honestly, "Isn't it darker and more mature than the first one? It was. At times like that, one is tempted to use a convenient word: "deep".
But maybe that's not the right word, and that's not the same as "deep" here. In the end, I think the weakness of the indie rock review/record shop is that the scene lacks the vocabulary to express it when the sound is mature and dark. The songs, the performances, the melodies, the sounds, and this colorless cover. All of these things combine to lead to the theme of the album as a whole that they're aiming for, but maybe it's where they're headed as "pop", abandoning the catharsis of the "rock" sound of the previous album to awaken and grow. It's not the themes of innocent positivity or love or anything like that that contradict the music that makes the album as a whole narrative and is expressed over comfortable pop songs. It's about ourselves, everything around us, our insecurities and uncertainties that we have to face as we move through the stages of our lives. As inevitably as the once American HM/HR Bon Jovi approached country music in their 30s as they faced their life and roots, they didn't follow the direction of their widely accepted previous work. It may not have been the direction some of the listeners who discovered them on their debut album wanted to go in, but it ended up being an album that reaffirmed the honesty of the band Night Flowers' music. That's good. That's how I feel about it. Huh? Don't know what I'm talking about? Then buy the record.
