Genre(s): Jazz Pop, Art Pop
Release Date: March 15th, 2017
My Rating: 4.5/5

In my long quest to find the next Lamp, I must have listened to every single decently rated or higher Japanese Jazz Pop album released in the last 20 years. My quest still continues, but in the process I discovered some hidden gems, such as 屋根裏獣 (translated as Attic Beast) by 吉澤嘉代子 (Kayoko Yoshizawa).

I'll start by saying Attic Beast is possibly the most innovative album I've listened to, featuring a bewildering variety of instruments. At times, they combine into some kind of dense orchestral jazz, which is high energy but never loud. At other times, it's distilled down into Yoshizawa's calm voice over simple instrumentals. These two contrasting styles are very evident on track 7 地獄タクシー (translated as Hell Taxi), which I highly recommend as being a microcosm of the album as a whole.

At the end of the day, Attic Beast is just a fun and playful album with constant switches of styles and many head bobbing moments. It's not my favorite album of all time, not even close, but it's probably among my most played albums of all time. Pretty much no matter how I'm feeling, it's always a good time to listen.

YT Music: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lr8S458u5JTi8B-17bClnSMme-D6F5RJQ

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5XjkMIxoHwWRZjRSktzTVv

Review Date: November 21, 2024
Last Updated: N/A