The year between the recording of their first record, 1983's
Burning Farm
, and their second, 1984's
Yama-no Attchan
, allowed
Shonen Knife
to improve their musicianship a touch. Not enough to mess up their innocent charm, but enough to make this record an improvement over their already quite good debut. The songs are just a bit stronger too.
"Cycling Is Fun"
bounces along on a near-
Motown
beat the likes of which they couldn't have done a year earlier,
"Chinese Song"
betrays the influence of
dub
punk
like
the Slits
and
the Raincoats
,
"Flying Jelly Attack"
sports a killer
bubblegum
chorus and some tight riffing, and
"Dali's Sunflower"
betrays some
heavy metal
influence thanks to heavy power chords and guest guitarist
Yasushi Utsunomiya
's guitar mangling. The lyrical topics are just as wacky, though, covering insect collecting, leaves, cycling and cannibal plants. All in all, a stronger record than
; more joyous, more memorable and more fun. Together they play like the blueprint for much of the American
indie pop
of the '80s and '90s. [As on
a few of the songs here --
"Cycling Is Fun,"
"Insect Collector"
-- were re-recorded for 1993's
Let's Knife
]. ~ Tim Sendra