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| The Roosters - Insane |
| The
Roosters are a big deal. Starting off as a Dr. Feelgood style R&B
band, the group's first two albums were glorious celebrations of
straight ahead rock 'n' roll, centered on the one two punch of vocalist
Shinya Ohe and guitarist Hiroyuki Hanada with both originals and covers
like Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody." However, things took a turn for the sinister with the band's third album, "Insane." At first glance, the title isn't particularly worrying: after all, "insane" - like "crazy," "wild," and "out of control" - is a word that pops up more often than not in the band's previous lexicon of good time rock 'n' roll. And certainly the music (at first glance, again) is all kinds of rousing, displaying the kind of wild abandon that typifies the punkish energy shared with western contemporaries like The Clash and The Damned. Dig a little bit, however, and a totally different, much less happy reality emerges. The opening track, "Let's Rock (Dan Dan)" sounds upbeat enough, but... "Oh! I don't wanna be a bad brain! Oh! I don't wanna go crazy!" Ok, now look at the some of the song titles: "In Deep Grief, "Case Of Insanity." Far from being a call to party, "Insane" is a cry for help, an upbeat sounding rock album that's really a desperate attempt to run from the shadows. The wheels start to come off with "Flash Back," a goofily energetic instrumental that starts off sounding like a cartoon theme song and quickly becomes the soundtrack of a hysterical mind. Watery sounding piano, over the top, manic drumming, and a twangy, ever so slightly off guitar riff hee-hee and ha-ha their way down a deep well of reverb and sinister noise, eventually stopping cold as everyone hits the wall. So ends side one, and while positive, rock 'n' roll energy wins this round, side two is another matter entirely. It opens with the new wave pop of "Case Of Insanity," cheesy carnival keyboards offsetting the sadness contained therein. What initially sounds like "Walk Of Life" style 80s pop reveals itself as an itinerary of activity inside a mental institution: "When my mind's away in the daytime Watching TV with no sound You know I wanna make my life complete It's harder and harder as life goes on Oh! I don't care 'Cause now I'm just a case of insanity." "In Deep Grief" closes the album, and for the first time, the music matches the anguish. Dark, howling guitars swirl around like the harbinger of a panic attack while Ohe bitterly sings: "Seal me in the box of regulation Voice of an undertaker echoes oddly What a messy situation In deep grief, we all are." Sadly, Ohe wasn't pretending. His mental state would rapidly decline, eventually causing him to leave the band in 1985. "Insane" is a legendary album in the annals of Japanese rock. Like Big Star's "Third," or Syd Barrett's "The Madcap Laughs," it's a harrowing view of a disintegrating mind, conveying the pain but giving nothing in the way of release for the artist. The hard rocking first side is doubly ironic, inspiring the listener to get up and dance as the songs edge their way to a nervous breakdown. It's both a solid rock 'n' roll album and a deep, complex work whose subtleties reveal themselves over time. Powerful stuff. |