ハジマリノウタ (Hajimari no Uta), the fourth major label release by J-pop darlings いきものがかり (ikimono-gakari) is, for all intents and purposes, the exact same album as their previous release last year. Which, incidentally, was pretty much the same as the one that came before it, which was more or less the same as… oh, you get the idea. So why bother with it at all?

The Shiina Ringo album that Shiina Ringo herself said wouldn’t happen… has happened.

Fans of the Japanese rock band GO!GO!7188 (myself included) are a lucky bunch. This prolific power trio has been releasing material every year since their debut in 2000 – in total, that’s an impressive fifteen singles, seven original studio albums, three live albums, a handful of DVDs, two cover albums and a Best-Of. And that’s not even counting the side-projects (yes, they’ve even had time for a few of those). アンテナ (ANTENNA) is their latest studio offering, but after nine years of constant recording, touring, and generally rocking out, is the quantity of material finally starting to outweigh the quality?