REVIEW: ONE OK ROCK 'Mighty Long Fall / Decision'

ONE OK ROCK
Mighty Long Fall  / Decision
(Single)

Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK released strongly anticipated 9th single "Mighty Long Fall/Decision" on the 3o July, 2015. Treating their fans with a music video for "Mighty Long Fall" beforehand, the new release looked really promising. And, despite a few drawbacks, it lived up to the expectations quite nicely.
To follow up their previous work Jinsei x Boku = (人生×僕=) album, which  reached second place on the Oricon* weekly chart, should have been a difficult task. Still, the four-piece did good job and deserves a pat on the back. 

"Mighty Long Fall"

The first track of overall three songs, immediately throws at you the 'ONE OK ROCK-ish' vibe, somewhat reminding Jinsei x Boku =. The distinctive intro is gripping, catching attention easily. The bigger focus on drum patterns and bass line with bits of guitar in the intro is interesting decision, which works out. 

This type of melodic pattern is held until the chorus of the song, when it brakes into a different melody. The song also has nice, slowed down bridge, kicking into the final chorus. 

"Mighty Long Fall" is a catchy rock song, but the lack of Japanese lyrics (compared to the previous works) and the once-in-a-while appearing electronics and auto-tune somehow pulled down the song. 

"Decision"

Your ONE OK ROCK ballad. The melody pattern that changes throughout the song is one of the things I really enjoy. It gives a nice flow to the track, keeping it pleasing for the ear. 

The track sounds light-weighted, tuneful and just enjoyable to listen. 

Again, the Japanese lyrics parts sounds really nice and fits the song perfectly, but the lack of those lyrics is unsatisfying, at least for me.

"Pieces of Me"

One more rock ballad - a small treat from Mighty Long Fall / Decision. A signature pace-changing, easy-sounding melody with catchy tune. Rather similar to "Decision", but still manages to keep its style and pace. 

Lack of Japanese. Big big lack of Japanese. The lyrics would flow beautifully with this ballad, but once again there is just not enough of them. 

The intro of this song (up until when the drums kick in) isn't very appealing to me. It feels a bit unfitting with the rest of the song, somewhat artificial. The effects that pop up here and there feel unnecessary in this song. The simpler the better. 

Overall

Mighty Long Fall / Decision is a great single, yet there are two main things that stood out. 
The usage of 'synthetic sounds' was an interesting choice, but it did not work for me as much as I would like to admit. At times it seems as the effects were overused in some parts, but fortunately, I still liked listening to the songs.

Knowing the previous works from the band, the lack of Japanese lyrics is disappointing. While Jinsei x Boku = (and other older albums) has a nice mix of songs with main focus on Japanese lyrics rather than English, this time it seems that it was completely reversed.

The exotic mixture of dominating Japanese lyrics is the key charm of ONE OK ROCK. It appears that the style of the band is shifting to your typical American band. I did not like the toned down Japanese lyrics with main focus on English. 

Despite the two main drawbacks of this single, I did enjoyed Mighty Long Fall / Decision. The all three sounds of the tracks are tuneful, fun to listen and catchy. The expectations I had for this release were reached, more or less. I'm looking forward to the upcoming works (hopefully with more Japanese lyrics). 

*Oricon - corporate group supplying statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan.



"Mighty Long Fall / Decision" is out now on iTunes

ONE OK ROCK official page (English)