Acidman's 2008 effort, Life, was a nice but ragtag collection of songs that didn't really have much in common with each other. On A Beautiful Greed, the band cleans up its act just enough to turn flaws into advantages, making versatility and cohesiveness coexist on the backbone of the catchy and energetic emo-punk that Acidman have been developing since their debut. The opening songs are powerful, fast, and earnest numbers not too far from Jimmy Eat World or Straightener (to look at the J-rock scene), but with the polished sound of those bands traded in for a rawer approach, heard in the guitar riffs, Oki Nobuo's raspy vocals, and the gang choruses. The feeling of immediate urgency, however, masks the fact that the tunes are well thought-out, quite melodic, and generally a good listen, even despite the lack of big hooks. After a while, however, A Beautiful Greed starts a gradual shift toward more relaxed fare: clean guitars begin to get more space; some songs qualify as semi-ballads, although pretty energetic ones at that; and an instrumental number pops up later on, as do tracks that sound like jazz-emo ("Hoshi No Hitohira" and "Over") -- and so the album in general splits neatly in two halves. The good news, however, is that both parts are of equally good quality and, even more importantly, don't sound like an unfortunate mash-up of two different records: the unobtrusive songwriting ability and Nobuo's vocal approach fit for both angsty bouts of rock and emo-ish crooning, giving the tunes a sense of emotional unity despite the fact that there's really quite a lot going on during A Beautiful Greed.
© Alexey Eremenko /TiVo