On
Intro Bonito
,
Kero Kero Bonito
use the mixtape format to revel in D.I.Y. collages that are more vibrantly expressive than a straightforward album would be.
Jamie Bulled
Gus Lobban
, and
Sarah Midori Perry
created most of
on a Casio keyboard, and it proudly sounds like it. On songs like "Cat vs. Dog," which fashions mewing, barking, and bongos into a catchy summary of the age-old battle between felines and canines, the trio sprinkle their music with playful sounds and samples like the musical equivalent of emoji-laden texts.
also captures
's sound at its most fluid. On the title track,
Perry
nimbly switches between English and Japanese mid-lyric as the group's influences -- hip-hop, shibuya-kei, and other forms of J-pop, and 8-bit -- create sparks as they bump against each other. Children's music and flashy commercials and TV show themes from the 1980s and '90s also provide plenty of fodder for the band to subvert on cheeky fanfares such as "Bonito Intro" and "Kero Kero Bonito," which reveals that "politics," "fashion," and "banana" are all part of the trio's bubbling chemistry. Likewise,
balances
's exuberance with wit and sophistication. The blobby bass and sparkling waves that surround "Pocket Crocodile"'s surreal tale of pets and mortality are some of the mixtape's most complex sounds, while the rich sense of place the trio explored further on
Time 'n' Place
and
Civilisation
is present on the sunny "Park Song" and the
Studio Ghibli
-like mix of mischief and eeriness in "Let's Go to the Forest"'s rattling and elastic tones. Meanwhile,
's lyrics imbue the music with a distinctive personality and viewpoint that stand out from the intentionally anonymous, detached approach of some other hyper-pop acts.
distills complex feelings into deceptively simple lyrics that question norms and accept differences on songs like "Sick Beat," rejecting typically "girly hobbies" in favor of video games, and she muses on her biological destiny as a "child producing machine" over naive synths on "Babies (Are So Strange)." The combination of
's fantastical sounds and genuine emotions is a winning one. "Small Town" touches lightly but poignantly on
's feelings of being an outsider due to her Japanese-English heritage when she sings, "They all think I am so strange/Because I don't look quite the same." Like the best pop music,
is relatable and extraordinary at the same time.
may have tightened their style into hooky perfection on
Bonito Generation
, but there's something especially endearing and exciting about how they jump from one shiny sound or clever idea to another on these songs. As
sings on "My Party," "Even if you don't know us/You're gonna have a good time." ~ Heather Phares