Release Date: October 21, 2009
Track Listing
- Scandal Baby
- Shoujo S
- Doll
- Koi Mayou
- Yumemiru Tsubasa
- Anata ga Mawaru
- Space Ranger
- Ring! Ring! Ring!
- Maboroshi Night
- Kimi to Yoru to Namida
- Hitotsu Dake
- Sakura Goodbye
- Kagerou
Review
Scandal is an all girl pop/rock group from Osaka, Japan and Best Scandal is their first major label release. Their sound is described as “The Most Powerful Japanese Girlie Pop Rock”. While that may sound odd it actually is fitting.
Their songs are not overly girlie like say other artists within the same genre (I’m mainly thinking Avril Lavigne). Scandal has a bit more edge to their music which is a good thing in my book. Some of the songs on this album (Space Ranger, Koi Moyou, Kagerou, Doll, Sakura Goodbye, Shoujo S & Yumemiru Tsubasa) are previously released singles.
From the album tracks I found Anata ga Mawaru and Maboroshi Night to be the most interesting. Anata ga Mawaru is a simple, straightforward track with a catchy as hell hook. I can’t put my finger on it, but the song reminds me a lot of some of the indie rock I briefly listened to before getting into Japanese music.
Maboroshi Night has the most distinct sound on the album. It’s kind of got a swing vibe that adds that extra bit of awesomeness to their already catchy groove.
Normally a group such as this would have a front woman singing the majority of the vocals but Scandal is different. The leads are shared amongst the 4 members which is a pretty cool idea as each is certainly vocally capable. It’s something I found quite interesting since not many bands actually do that. And if some do, they don’t do it on a regular basis like these women do.
Overall I think this was a great major label debut. I can’t really find much fault with it since I felt the entire album flowed perfectly from beginning to end. Perhaps a few newer songs would have been nice in place of the single tracks but that’s not really a big deal.
Highly recommended.
Best Scandal (Jacket A – CD+DVD)
Best Scandal (Jacket B – Normal Edition)
