honeycreeper

6th Album / Stereo

Ki/oon KSCL 1174

Released September 26, 2007

Produced and arranged by Tamio Okuda (M-1)
Butch Walker (M-2, 9)
Kenji Ueda (M-3, 5, 13)
Yoshii Kazuya (M-4)
Sawao Yamanaka (the pillows)
Anders Hellgren and David Myhr (The Merrymakers) (M-7, 12)
Taku Tomizawa (M-8)
Takashi Furuta and Hiroharu Kinoshita (M-10)

Highest Chart Ranking: #27
Weeks on Chart: 6

Puffy's second album of 2007 (counting compliations) is a bit of a deptarture from their "classic" sound. Mentor Tamio Okuda contributes one classic-sounding song, but "Godfather of Puffy" Andy Sturmer is nowhere to be found. Instead, plenty of Japanese indie-rockers provide the punch here, along with contributions from old stalwarts Butch Walker and The Merrymakers. Several of the tracks have a harsher rock sound than Puffy usually deliver ("Kimi to Autobai," "Hayai Kuruma"), but this is not a bad thing (on the contrary -- the songs are excellent). Plus, there's plenty of poppier rock if that's your sort of thing (Butch Walker's two tracks, "Sayonara Summer"), making for a very good (and diverse) album from beginning to end.

Another track that's sure to grab attention is "Youkai PUFFY," with it's three-minute spoken word introduction, harkening back to the days of Odgen's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces (or even the later Psonic Psunspot by the Dukes of Stratosphear a.k.a. XTC). Ami and Yumi also stretch themselves on the Irish-folk-sounding "Island," which is a brilliant album-closing song.

It may not be exactly the old Puffy you know and love, but it's still an excellent addition to your Puffy collection (and your music collection in general).

Track Listing

1. Oriental Diamond (words: Yosui Inoue/music: Tamio Okuda) (4:04)
2. Ain't Gonna Cut It (words & music: Butch Walker & Robert Schwartzman) (2:51)
3. Kimi to Autobai (Motorcycle) (words & music: Yusuke Chiba) (4:14)
4. Kuchibiru Motion (words & music: Yoshii Kazuya) (4:02)
5. Hayai Kuruma (words & music: Masatoshi Mashima) (3:43)
6. Sayonara Summer (words & music: Sawao Yamanaka) (4:16)
7. boom boom beat (words: Puffy/music: Anders Hellgren & David Myhr) (3:19)
8. Youkai PUFFY (words: Kankurou Kudou/music: Taku Tomizawa) (7:06)
9. Closet Full of Love (words & music: Butch Walker & Kara DioGuardi) (2:58)
10. Hasan Jiyauze (words & music: Masatoshi Mashima) (2:48)
11. complaint (words: Puffy/music: Sawao Yamanaka) (2:58)
12. O Edo Nagareboshi IV (words: Pierre Taki/music: Anders Hellgren & David Myhr) (3:48)
13. Island (words & music: Yusuke Chiba) (4:48)

Notes:

• The limited edition first pressing of the album came with a special 28-page booklet not included with the later edition. Also, the covers of the two editions differ -- the picture used for the cover of the regular edition graces the back of the limited edition's tray liner.
• There was also a promotional tie-in with the album, whereby if you bought the CD at certain stores in Japan (mostly Tower Records and HMV stores) you'd get a special free t-shirt with your purchase. This also extended to some online orders, with even some fans in the U.S. getting the shirt by winning a drawing.
• The first few seconds of the opening guitar riff to "Oriental Diamond" is nearly identical to the opening riff to The Beatles' "Revolution" (single version).
• “Hasan Jiyauze” is a cover of a song by The Cro-Magnons, whose version was released only two weeks before Puffy's version.

Other

• Larger Image of Album Cover
• Image of CD
• Image of the front and back of the "honeycreeper" t-shirt
• Image of the sticker that came with the "honeycreeper" t-shirt
• honeycreeper / PUFFY at CDJapan
• honeycreeper at YesAsia
• honeycreeper at Amazon.co.jp