Hi, everyone. Manthony Guchtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Anamanaguchi album, Anyway.

Anamanaguchi is an American rock outfit who have spent their career pioneering chip tune and bitpop, genres that combine traditional rock instrumentation with 8 bit synth tones and video game hardware. And since starting in the mid 2000s, the band has sound tracked some video games, even made their own, but most importantly, they have created a lot of impressive and fantastic singles and albums, too. Their last major one being 2019's USA, which I think has really been my favorite full length LP from them to date.

And that really was their last proper album, too. It's been a while. This year, not only is Anamanaguchi making a comeback, but they're fully leaning into their rock side this year. Kicking off this era back in January, the band saw fit to release this full-on rock cover of Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings", and also their own version of Mario Judah's "Miss the Rage", which also went very much in a rock direction. It was the first time that we really got a chance to hear Anamanaguchi in this specific light. Even I was starting to wonder if we were going to get a full LP of songs that sounded like this, maybe even a covers project.

But then came the announcement of Anyway, a new album of originals, the first single of which came out in May. The band sounded absolutely like some throwback mid '90s alternative rock group, with all of the chip tune and electronic elements of their style very much minimized. And yeah, that pretty much is the direction of this record. Not only is Anamanaguchi going complete rock mode in terms of the sound of this album, but I guess to further adhere to this direction, they recorded this LP in the legendary American Football house.

And while this is not the first Anamanaguchi record or project with singing or vocals on it, this is the first time the band is being completely self-sufficient vocally and really leaning into vocals as a key component of every single one of these songs in the same way that it would be with your average rock band.

So keep in mind, even if what the band is doing is par for the course for rock records in this vein, for the most part, they really have had to try to figure out from the ground up what their own approach to singing and songwriting rock tunes like this is going to look like because this is just not your average record from Anamanaguchi.

As far as the guitar music meta is concerned right now, I would say what the band is delivering here is very on trend. I mean, the '90s are back in a really big way, and clearly the band has an affinity for that period, given the vocal melodies, given the riffs and chord progressions and just general guitar tone palette on these songs. And yeah, a lot of the tracks on this thing go directly in a fuzzy lofi indie rock direction, a slacker rock direction, a power pop direction, with a few interesting outliers here and there as well.

Like the opener, which is like this fast-paced, quickly changing art punk tune that is very akin to some of the music that Mission of Burma have put out over the years. Also, the ghostly, blissful rushes of vocals that pop up throughout the track are a very unlikely sound for this style, so that's a pretty interesting spin.

There's also the very spacey and effect heavy "Valley of Silence", which is giving gigantic The Cure vibes, though I think a much stronger vocal performance would have been necessary to really make this sound and style work.

Still, with that being said, though, there are many more other tracks on this project that are just straight up barn burners, see Anamanaguchi working in some of those 8 bit tones and elements, very subtly and tasteful really. Like "Lieday", for example. I love the way those 8-bit synthesizers follow along with the vocal melodies on this track, and they mix really nicely with those heavy alt rock guitars, too. Again, just a nice additional layer and handily, one of the catchiest songs on the entire record as well.

There's also "Really Like To", which in my opinion is one of the most fiery cuts on the entire album. Here, not only do you once again get some of those 8 bit synth layers locking in with the melody of the rest of the song, but also you have these glossy, fast, intense synth arpeggios that sound like something out of a Mario Kart game, and they somehow work within this very anthemic, gritty rock tune without throwing things off balance too much.

So yeah, you have cuts like that, other songs that take a more direct approach in this tracklist. But I think being more straight and to the point for Anamanaguchi leads to moments that are maybe just a bit too derivative of the very obvious influences on these tracks.

Like "Magnet", for example, is just pretty much a Nirvana/Smashing Pumpkins amalgamation to my ears. Then there's "Darcie", which is just like a straight-up Weezer song if I've ever heard one. The closing track, which I do like, feels like we're heading into Blink-182 territory, like one of their more sentimental anthems, but with more measured singing, and Anamanaguchi isn't quite wearing their emo influences on their sleeve very boldly here, even if they are recording this thing in the American Football house.

There are a handful of other songs in the tracklist here, too, that seem like the band is still working out the kinks a bit. The song "Come For Us" is one of a couple of tracks on this LP where it feels like the vocals get lost in the chaos of everything else going on. Meanwhile, "Sapphire" has so much firing off on all cylinders in the mix that very little of anything here translates. It may be a case of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, because at the same time, it feels like the band is trying to do this lofi, indie power pop thing. But then have that make sense with all these glitzy, soaring throwback electronics. It just feels like oil and water.

Yeah, I mean, as decent as some of these rock songs are at their core, occasionally, I am wondering, how much are some of these random laser synthesizer effects really contributing to this song. A lot of the time, very little.

But simultaneously, for a record that has taken so long to come out and is also a pretty bold break away from what Anamanaguchi is typically known for, it's a pretty solid listen. I would for sure be down for another album in this vein sooner rather than later, one that hopefully works out some of the issues and speed bumps that a few of the songs in this tracklist present and bring a more distinct spin to this very direct and to the point rock sound. Which is why right now I'm feeling pretty much a strong 6 to a light 7 on this thing.

Anthony Fantano, Anamanaguchi, Forever.