5. Fake World Wonderland (2014)

When Kinoko returned in 2014 for Fake World Wonderland, they were a changed band, one with completely different sonic goals. For the bulk of these songs they part with the reverby, atonal guitar riffs, and brittle-as-glass whisper vocals that had become synonymous with their name. Instead they hone in on pop rock riffs, softened reverb, and a strong focus on bombastic, catchy choruses, as well as a more sensual full-bodied vocal presence from Chiaki. On some tracks it creates a unique pop-dream pop fusion that’s engaging to listen to, like “You Outside My Window”, and sometimes it just comes across as oddly sarcastic or un-genuine, and kind of boring, like on the intro track, “Tokyo”.

On a few tracks they plunge into classic Kinoko sonics, like on “Therefore There”, which would have fit very snugly on any of their old albums, serving as some sort of proof that this new sonic direction wasn’t made out of lack of creative room in their previous iteration. But for the most part Kinoko were trying to push into new directions here. This is especially prominent on the interlude tracks “Unknown Planet”, “Fake World”, and “24’, two “trip-hop” numbers, and a folk song, which sound like nothing else the band has ever made. They’re all pretty terrible, but the effort was appreciated, and the songs weren’t without a certain fish out of water charm. The album ends with the Pillows-esque “Telepathy/Overdrive”, finishing a rather disappointing experiment with a satisfying after taste, though the album still remains as a period of obvious identity crisis for Kinoko.