#polychrome

Here I am with a new review, and first part of October’s themed week in “Let’s Listen to”! Today’s subject is the latest work by the visual band Gotcharocka, the fourth album Polychrome, came out on 14th October 2020. This album, expected for the Summer but delayed because of the pandemic, is the first full release in three years and summarizes all the best “colors” of the band, musically speaking, showing off their best cards. And now… let’s review!

-Hyper Next World: the album starts with its lead-track, kicking off a pretty energetic sound and a quite decise rhythm; Jui’s voice is bright, moving pretty well between all the notes and keeping up the energy of the song; a brilliant opening track, helped by a distinctive guitar work. —> 9/10

-Asian Night: this song features folk notes, leading up to a relevant melody, driven by drums; the vocals are pretty seducing and a bit effected, keeping up in a pretty structured theme, especially in the catchy refrain; a “softer” track, but in line with the band’s style. —> 8.5/10

-Human Board Game: an electronic guitar starts the song, leading up to a steady and quite fast rhythm; the vocals are cheerful, accompained by a paced guitar, which draws the melody with an unique touch of energy. —> 8.5/10

-Creators: this song sees a stronger electronic component, with beats kicking off the whole thing, along with a funk-ish guitar, bringing the sound of the album in an upbeat direction; Jui’s voice is more electronic, but not so hard to follow, building up a clearer and nice track. —> 8/10

-Baccarat: taken from the second mini-album with the same name, this song is opened by Jui’s retrò vocals, featuring clear and melodious tones, but also energetic and paced touches, provided by the guitar; a pretty good track, empowered by the awesome guitar solo. —> 9/10

-Shiroi Dia (White Dia): seducing bass lines open this song, lighter than expected, but anyway featuring Jun’s energetic guitar; the vocals are soft, accompained by fresh guitar notes, keeping up the whole thing in a catchy approach; a good and enjoyable track. —> 8.5/10

-Monochrome: electronic notes open the song, along with cheerful vocals, leading up to a paced and pretty electronic theme; a quite structured song, which sees a good use of English by Jui and a distinctive bass work. —> 8.5/10

-Prayer: clearer notes kick off the song in a bright and paced rock theme; Jui’s vocals aim to a cheerful and vibrant interpretation, keeping up an upbeat and nice rock track, along with a good guitar work, making it even more flowing. —> 8.5/10

-Guerilla: taken from the fourth album with the same name, this song sees a relevant use of electronic, mixed up with a good rhythm and Jun’s distinctive guitar work; the vocals are balanced and pretty various, according to the many shades seen in the melody; an interesting song, with a top-notch guitar, as expected. —> 8.5/10

-Tenbin (Balance): this song is opened by a fast and energetic guitar, leading up to a steady rhythm; Jun’s voice is clear, accompained by electronic effects, bringing up a quite nice vocal interpretation, the best highlight of this good song. —> 8.5/10

-Out of Service: slower guitar notes introduce the song, with Jun’s intense and clear vocals leading up to an energetic song, conceived for being performed at a live stage; the vocals are versatile, helped by a catchy atmosphere and a compelling guitar, in a song which summarizes at best Gotcharocka’s musical world. —> 9/10

-Chirality: the lead-track of the ninth single is introduced by bright and paced notes, building up a quite flowing melody; Jun’s voice is soft and balanced, in a light song, without any big feat, but anyway characterized by the vocal interpretation and a quite good structure. —> 8.5/10

-Suddenly: this song starts with slow and vibrant notes open a song which appears quite different by the previous ones, especially in the structure; Jun’s soft vocals in a fleble rhythm open the theme, which builds up more and more thanks to an astonishing vocal interpretation, a compelling guitar and a not negligible folk vibe; a really good ballad. —> 9/10

-I ♡ JJTGR (Bonus track): the album ends with a song opened in a pretty peculiar way; before the proper song starts, there’s a sort of radio presentation of the band and the song, then it starts, featuring a catchy melody, which reprises such in a way the style offered in the album, offering a pretty simple but nice track. —> 8/10

Final Vote —> 8.5/10

Gotcharocka is a band which surely got a wide audience thanks to their line-up, made of musicians coming right from notable visual kei bands of the 00′s. During their career, the band became quite successful thanks to an addicting and refined rock sound, up to 2014, when their historical bassist Shingo left the band. Despite this key change in their formation, Gotcharocka never stopped delivering good works and Polychrome, first full work in three years, is a good summarization of their best styles. For sure there’s a major presence of electro-rock melodies, with some rhythms refined than the others, without forgetting the only ballad, probably the best song of the whole tracklist, and that’s a demonstration of how the band doesn’t want to get more complicated than usual, with the unique purpose of entertaining and making happy their audience at a maximum level. With this fourth album the band confirmed their own status in the scene, delivering a nice and addicting product, with melodies hard to forget. An album for who likes Gotcharocka’s catchy music and needs to get into it as soon as possible.

That’s all folks! See you with the second part of October’s themed week in “Throwback Thursday”!

Thanks for the reading!

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