Bring It!

7th Album / Stereo

Ki/oon KSCL 1387/8 (Limited Edition)
KSCL 1389 (Regular Edition)

Released June 17, 2009

Produced and arranged by Butch Walker (M-1, 9)
Anders Hellgren & David Myhr (The Merrymakers) (M-2)
Masahiko Shimura (fujifabric) (M-3, 6)
Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (M-4)
Ringo Sheena (M-5, 11)
Kenji Ueda (M-7, 12)
Saito Kazuyoshi (M-8)
Yuta Saito (M-10, 13)

Highest Chart Ranking: #17
Weeks on Chart: 5

Puffy's first album of original material since 2007 is a bit of a mixed bag. Unlike honeycreeper, there seems to be a conscious effort to make a musically diverse album (like Puffy's older albums), but some of the attempts to expand Puffy's sound don't work out so well. Roughly half the record is in the pop-punk style Puffy has seemed to favor over the last few years (including two songs by Avril Lavigne), but for the most part I'm not too fond of these works. Mega-star Ringo Shiina wrote and produced two songs ("Hiyori Hime" and "Shuen no Onna," which both feature backing performed by Shiina's band, Tokyo Jihen), and they're among the highlights of the album. The other major highlights are the two tracks produced by longtime Puffy associate Yuta Saito, who tries to inject the album with some truly classic-sounding Puffy songs ("Wedding Bell" and "Anata to Watashi," which are both reminiscent of Fever*Fever).

This isn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but Puffy's done so much better in the past that this is probably my least favorite of their original albums. About half of it is really really good, and the rest -- though listenable -- probably wouldn't make the cut on some earlier Puffy records.

Track Listing

1. I Don't Wanna (words & music: Butch Walker and Avril Lavigne) (3:27)
2. My Story (words & music: Anders Hellgren & David Myhr)) (3:49)
3. Bye Bye (words & music: Masahiko Shimura) (4:47)
4. My Hero! (words & music: Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.) (3:47)
5. Shuen no Onna (words & music: Ringo Sheena) (3:14)
6. Doki Doki (words & music: Masahiko Shimura) (3:25)
7. Twilight Shooting Star! (words & music: Sawao Yamanaka) (3:18)
8. Hare Onna (words & music: Saito Kazuyoshi) (4:42)
9. All Because of You (words & music: Butch Walker and Avril Lavigne) (2:25)
10. Anata to Watashi (words: Puffy/music: Yuta Saito) (4:44)
11. Hiyori Hime (words & music: Ringo Sheena) (3:05)
12. Bring it on (words: Ami Onuki/music: Takeshi Hosomi) (3:34)
13. Wedding Bell (words & music: Yoshiaki Furuta) (3:32)

Notes:

• The limited edition came with a bonus DVD featuring a show from their 2005 tour of the U.S. west coast.

Other

• Larger Image of Regular Edition Album Cover
• Bring it! [Regular Edition] / PUFFY at CDJapan