一聽音樂網

由五位日本大男孩所組成的獨立廠牌樂團ELLEGARDEN，在1998年成軍之后，成功的闖蕩美國流行音樂市場，并在去年的11月8日發行所的第五張專輯‘ELEVEN FIRECRACKERS’，成功的打進了ORICON每周排行的冠軍，而且發行的第一周就以21.6萬張的驚人銷售成績，超越了前作‘ORIT ON THE GRILL’的單曲‘Salamander’7萬張的空前記錄，寫下了成軍以來的最輝煌紀錄。


To put it simply, Ellegarden is a Japanese punk band that sings in "Engrish." Despite the Japanese languages' lack of the letter "L," they handle themselves pretty well. Yes folks, Ellegarden sings mostly in English so you can understand them. Following the trend of J-punk (it's an abbreviation) bands like Asian Kung Fu Generation and Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, Ellegarden makes pop-punk sounds with hard-hitting lyrics.


The record opens with a toss-away song titled "Opening." I could post links to about 50 other bands that have those little randomness 30-second-long songs to open a record with but I won't. I think every song on this record besides it, however, falls into a toe-tapping category, even the Japanese songs like "Winter," "Koukasen" and "Gunpowder Valentine," which are pulled off well enough that a person who doesn't understand Japanese will like it. The record's high point comes with the fast-paced, catchy-as-hell song "Salamander"; many music fans will know what I'm talking about when I say it screams single. The ending song "Marie" is fast and once again catchy, leaving you wanting little more.