Why Not

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Half Japanese has returned to peel further layers from their onion. They have an album that's a square further on in their unpredictable musical snakes and ladders board. Why Not? is a magical thing - it's Springsteen's Born To Run recorded in a cupboard, it's an ode to love, it's a Wire song with two dueling guitarists being Zappa on helium, it's Parquet Courts in a tantrum, it's The Crickets contorted into ? and The Mysterians, it's everywhere and nowhere, baby, it's where it's at. On Why Not? nuances are mused, situations explained, questions asked. Outside, zombies and demons roam and everyday aliens emerge from spaceships: it's a technicolor film transcribed by Jad Fair and friends John Sluggett, Gilles-Vincent Rieder, Mick Hobbs and Jason Willett, their faces at the cracked window of their subterranean habitat looking out at the real world. Why Not? contains pieces of fluffy thought-provoking music, a bag of sentiments delivered with a real sense of wonderment at how the normal world revolves; all powered with heart and soul, some crunchy guitars, a cello and reverb set-to-kill infiltrating their storytelling.