androp - door - Straight into my heart

As much as I don't like "Kiss Me," that's how much I do like "door." I've never heard anything by androp before (except when I reviewed their "Mirror Dance" PV), and I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Music throughout the album is alternative rock, with fun and upbeat tracks at the beginning of the album fading to soft chill songs at the end. Each song is slightly unique, and the band doesn't shy away from trying different techniques: from the echo effects in "Alpha" to the tempo changes in "Amanojaku" to the lyrics pauses in "Puppet" to the loose sound of "Youth"... I could literally name something different and ear-catching about each song, but none of them comes off as if it's trying to be avant-garde, none of them are pretentious, none of them goes over the top with it's quest to be different from the other songs, and all of them are very easy and fun to listen to. I loved it all (except maybe that weird switch into ballad style in the middle of "Puppet" - what was that about?) and my one complaint is that it's too short. At only 8 tracks it's almost too short to be a real grown-up album. Still, the tracks mesh together well and take you smoothly from one set of feelings to another. If more rock albums could do this, I wouldn't need to tell you which ones to listen to. Definitely give "door" a try.