Welcome back to ROTW, hope your holidays were cool. This week, the Randomizer serves up Asobi Seksu's 2006 gem, Citrus. This is the copy I'll be playing today. I love this album so much, it checks all the boxes for me. I remember hearing the lead single, Strawberries, and just instantly fell for it. I think the album came out a month later, around the start of June. I swear I listened to the album every day for the rest of the year (and probably into a good chunk of 2007). What a blast of an album. Pop hooks for days (New Years, Thursday). A little bit of MBV shoegaze goodness (Pink Cloud Tracing Paper). Speaking of MBV, one track (Red Sea) ends with a 2-minute noise barrage that's the aural equivalent to the Cliffs of Insanity. If Cthulhu were to appear before you, it's what you might hear in the 5 seconds before you lose your mind and explode. Incredible. There's a little bit of Jpop in there (Goodbye, Mizu Asobi). I saw this band so many times, they were excellent on stage.
And now that I'm thinking of it, I'm hoping they do something for the 20th anniversary of this album. Deluxe reissue. Maybe even a little tour or something? Daydreaming, the band has been dormant for at least a decade, and I know Yuki is in mom-mode. Not sure what James is doing. If anything does happen, I'm sure would be super cool. In conclusion, I cannot recommend this album enough, it's perfect as far as I'm concerned. Find yourself a copy and, as Bob Dylan said, play it fucking loud!