Good Grief, the pop-punks from the Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan, have released another fittingly sweet EP, titled Sweet, capturing the sound of the new wave of Japanese pop-punk they’re a part of. Here I’ll give a rundown of the three tracks on the EP, framing a release that I feel could be quite important in the modern Japanese pop-punk scene. (You can find a Japanese translation of the review down below as well).
The starting point of the EP is a more aggressive track titled “Blue Ink.” The track deals with the common theme of a relationship ending and the grim feelings of something missing from yourself once the good times have ended. The line “Cause I cannot forget, The way you used to paint me sky blue,” is followed towards the end of the song with the sombre delivery of “Now it’s just blue,” which leads into the most iconic moment of the song in the dramatic harmonized yell of “You can’t help me out!” is such a powerful ending to an opening track. If you haven’t already, check out the stellar video for the track here.
“Mayfly,” the second track of the EP, feels like a desperate call out into the night, with a relatable theme on past relationships but taking a more contemplative and yet lost angle than “Blue Ink.” There’s a lot of solid and catchy lines on this track, from “I’m not sure why I think it’s best, to get trapped into the bitter memories,” to the distant yelling of “I guess I’ll never talk this way again, I guess I’ll never call you mine again” that finishes off the track. An excellent mid point for the short EP.
An exciting acoustic track titled “Far” finishes off the EP, hearing Good Grief work acoustically was something I was looking forward to hearing. Seeing whether their normally melancholic yet fast and punky style could be taken down a few notches and work within a calm and twinkly acoustic setting was an interesting proposal, and they definitely did work. Rui, the vocalist from See You Smile, has a perfectly fitting feature on the track, his and Yastin’s vocals work well together over the acoustic guitars layered with interspersed piano.
The band use this EP to hone their sound, creating their most clear and well realized sound so far. Hopefully this EP leads to the band planning a full length release for this year, as I feel it could come out similar to how Mutt showed the full development of All Found Bright Lights‘ style as they found a place of their own to stand out.
Good Grief, along with See You Smile, Castaway, KICKASSRAY, All Found Bright Lights and many more, are bringing in this fusion of more modern pop-punk and punk-rock influences with the 2007-2010 era pop-punk sound in America. Sweet captures this sound excellently, however one point to make on this being a Japanese release is that it gives off a very Summer feel but was released in the midst of Winter. That being said, the tracks still have plenty of appeal in the cold months, and light a fire in the listener at times. Definitely worth your time, and a great place to start to dive into the modern world of Japanese pop-punk.