Susumu Hirasawa Review Extravaganza, Part 2: New Wave P-Model

IN A MODEL ROOM

“No, Fujiko! You like Prog Rock and pretentious crap like that! You can’t like Punk and New Wave and stuff!”

Ahh, shut up.

So anyways, Mr. Hirasawa, in all his wisdom, believed that Prog Rock had gotten too commercial, so he picked up 3 band members from the ruins of Mandrake, ditched the pretentious, overly long instrument wankery, set off to form a “technopop” band, whatever that means, and moved from this:

To this:

(Susu’s the one in the top right hand corner. Loving that striped shirt!)

The early P-Model was very successful and influential. At this point, Susumu’s bandmates were still treated somewhat like equals to him. They were named Katsuhiko Akiyama, Yasumi Tanaka, and Sadatoshi Tainaka, by the way.

Anyways, this is a catchy, energetic album. The band Polysics owes a lot to these guys, along with basically any Japanese Electronic group since. This was rated one of the best albums of Japanese Rock music numerous times, and what fame it has is well deserved. Even if most of the songs aren’t completely top-quality, the album as a whole is a great joy to listen to. It’s also nice to hear Susumu being so energetic and punkish in his singing, a trait he would soon lose. Although, it’s real fun to see him sing Art Mania in the same tone of voice he used to use while standing near-completely still, but that’s another thing entirely. Fab album.
9.5/10

ART MANIA


The single that launched a thousand ships. This brought P-Model to the front of the Japanese New Wave movement, and for good reasons. Catchy, energetic, and all around fun. A true classic.
10/10

HEALTH ANGEL
Not much to say about this one. Fast and fun, as usual from early P-Model.
7/10

ROOMRUNNER
This one has… I guess you could say it has a bit less of a tune. More similar to things on the album Potpourri, but with less screaming. Also has Susumu breathing heavily and other people talking weirdly.
5/10

SOPHISTICATED
A slower sound than usual, but manages to still be pretty tense. It must be Susu’s voice that does it. This song is also in English, mostly, but as you would expect, his pronunciation is off. Weird electronic noises come in about two thirds in. Personally, I like the coolness of this bass-lead song, and Susu saying “fried chicken” amuses me.
7/10

FOR KIDS
Now we’re back into slightly normal things. This one sounds quite punkish. This song as a whole is alright, but I suppose his backing singers can get annoying. The tune is nice enough.
6/10

KAMEARI POP
Another cooler-sounding song. For some reason, this reminds me of those slow-dance type songs from things set in the 50’s, like Oh Darling by The Beatles (which is of course from the 60’s, but you understand what I mean), but with more keyboards and such. That “echo, echo” bit at the end makes me smile.
7/10

SUNSHINE CITY
Back to songs on amphetamines. I like the energy of this song, and it’s pretty catchy. Susu’s yodeling ability strikes for the first time, as seen later in tracks from Water In Time and Space~ I’m joking of course, but I enjoy how he sings in this song.
8/10

THE GREAT BRAIN
Weird Prog Rock-ish bass and construction here, with New Wave length. A very weird song indeed, and I love the bit with the chorus of “la la la”s with Susu flatly saying “la” at the end. Sort of a funny song, and I must learn that bassline as soon as I can.
8/10

WHITE CIGARETTES
A favorite of mine. I still get this song randomly stuck in my head, even if I haven’t listened to it for a while. Somehow more serious-sounding than other tracks.
9/10

PINKY TRICK
This song is a bit more sarcastic sounding than some other songs on this album, and it’s got that awesome popping keyboard playing a large part in it. I want one of those things!
6/10

ART BLIND
This is pretty much a synth-only song, and I think it would be good dungeon music for some old video game. It makes a good ending for the album, I think.
7/10


LANDSALE

This album starts off even better than the last one, but by the end it starts to sound a bit plainer, if you understand what I’m trying to say. Overall, it balances out as a great album, but perhaps not as entertaining as the first. It depends on your tastes, of course. I think that, while some songs are better than the stuff on the first (besides Art Mania), the ones that sound like filler stop me from enjoying listening to the whole thing.

8.5/10

OHAYO
The title means “good morning”, and it sounds like Susu is still half asleep. He puts on the monotone Psychedelic Rock voice, you know the one. Think Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles or Crying Is For Writers by July or something, but this song is way calmer than either of those. It has a nice piano and synth string backing, but it seems a bit of a sad song. Susu sounds so tired and tense, it makes me want to get a time machine and a plane and go hug him!
8/10

DAIJOBU
Here’s the sarcastic yell we all know and love! I love this song, it’s sort of obscure even for P-Model, but I think it’s great. It really gets you up and going after that sleepy opener! Every time I play it, I get the urge to sing along. It has a great and catchy tune. HALLO!
9/10

LOVE STORY


One of the first P-Model songs I heard, and I think it’s great. For most of this song, Susu puts on a voice like the one he’d adopt later on, and laughs manically and yells in the chorus. I think that sounds really darn cool, he’s got an awesome laugh. With the sarcastic, monotonous tone of the song, you get the feeling he’s laughing out of desperation more than anything else. It’s a brilliant song. HUA HA HA HA!
9.5/10

DOCTOR SOP
A rather chaotic song. It jumps all over the place, led by Susu’s angry, uncaring talking/singing, and a strange sounding backing group of singers. It’s good, yeah, but so are the other songs on the album.
4.5/10

TOUCH ME
The title is practically begging me to say something about it, but I won’t, mainly because Susumu doesn’t seem to sing on this track. It’s a fun song, though, and certainly worth 3 minutes of your time. One of those songs where I feel like singing along.
7/10

NA-KA-YO-SHI
I like this song a whole lot, and I don’t know why. It’s infectious. LOVE YOU, LOVE YOU! LOVE YOU, LOVE YOU! BOKUTACHI NAKAYO-
Oh wait, it ended abruptly.
8.5/10

MISSILE
A song that gets stuck in my head a bunch. Apparently, this one is popular, otherwise Susu wouldn’t have remixed it for Totsu-Gen-Hen-I, but oh well. I don’t find it anything special. It’s good though of course. It’s also easy to sing, haha.
5/10

LITTLE BOY
Sometimes, I wonder what Susumu’s songs are about. As far as I can tell, most of the song involves a kid bothering his parents and teacher about things, but Susu sounds awfully scared in some bits. Hrmm, some words about dreams… Ahh, I don’t know enough Japanese. Regardless, this song manages to sound upbeat and a bit… scary, I suppose, at the same time. Susu is good at doing that, as you will later see a bit of in the albums Sim City and Vistoron and such…
7/10

I AM ONLY YOUR MODEL
Be thankful (or whatever) for songs like these in which Susu and his bandmates actually sing together, because you will be seeing less and less of them. Yeah, they aren’t the greatest singers in the known universe, but I don’t think the songs would have the same feel if they were very good.
5/10

ONE WAY LOVE
Here, sort of like in The Great Brain from the previous album, there’s the chorus and then Susu’s flat response sort of thing. I’m loving the psychedelic-type guitar and keys break in the middle of the song.
6/10

ALIEN
The keyboard here is especially nice, I think. I don’t really know what to think of this song. There are some strange-sounding bits… Things that show Susumu Hirasawa would soon progress beyond New Wave, or any real genre for that matter.
5/10

GLOBE
It starts off calm enough, with keyboard and drums, and Susu’s tired voice, and doesn’t really go anywhere else, besides some weird whispering and monotone singing in the right speaker, and a weird crackling sound in the left one. It sounds like a tense lullaby, or something. I don’t know.
5/10