ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION - Easter

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION's musical absence for the past two years has caused consternation amongst their fans. Luckily they're back with the brand new and seasonally apt single Easter, released on March 18th.

At just under three minutes in length it appears that the band wanted to keep Easter / Fukatsusai brief. It turns out to be a good call, as the track is short yet impactful. Revisiting their older sound, this is the type of powerhouse rock that they haven't dished out since their Rewrite days. Things have been kept quite uncomplicated overall - the guitars, although only reeling off repeated quavers of a couple notes, give the track a punchy set up. In fact a good deal of the song seems to be limited to barely more than two notes: the bassline, the verse and in an extreme case the chorus where the melody consists of two notes. The key to the tune's memorability is this deceptively simple refrain: an unshakeable earworm about the cold underworld which even the most tone deaf could join in with. The band's trademark mid-song pace change is present here as well, interrupting the otherwise constant rock with a mellow intermission and allowing deviation from the two notes for further musical embellishment. The overall result is a superficially fun yet implicitly dark track featuring the AKFG's usual originality and likeability.

Brevity is the flavour of the day, as B-side Parallel World demonstrates with its two-minute running time. It's back to the usual AKFG upbeat pop-rock, which stokes the fires before it disappears just as quickly as it came. Seaside Sleeping is the first song since Uso to Wonderland to feature guitarist Kita Kensuke on vocals. He has a gentler tone to Gotoh's rougher sound, and while he lacks the power of the usual lead singer the mood he creates is more relaxed and jovial.

It may be over sooner than expected but this single marks a welcome return for ASIAN KUNG FU GENERATION. This release shows that they're not rusty after their time away, and hopefully they have plenty more in the bag like this.

Check out the teaser clip for Easter below.