Mr. Children belongs to the circle of Japanese heavyweights of the '90s who have set the blueprint for much of the J-rock of the next decade. Other luminaries of this sort include B'z, Glay, and
Luna Sea;
Mr. Children, however, occupies a warmer and shinier part of the Japanese rock spectrum -- the group is responsible for the lighthearted and sentimental pop/rock that later made
Kobukuro and Monkey Majik big stars and was mined by female performers such as Onitsuka Chihiro, Aki Angela, and the lady-fronted Remioromen (not to mention selling millions of units of the band's own albums). Such precise pigeonholing is warranted in this case, because the sound in question is very well defined and changes little from artist to artist: this is midtempo soft guitar music reminding of
Mike + the Mechanics and
the Eagles, but with hooks not being a top priority -- more attention is paid to melodies, which are romantic and heartfelt. The big advantage of this sound is that it's very pleasing to the ear, sometimes soothing, sometimes uplifting. The drawback is that it's antiseptic: one can only take so much guitar chord strumming and tender vocalizing, even if it's pretty fast and backed by huge (and uninventive) strings -- it eventually fades into the background, which happens around "Another Story" on
Home. The album is far from being uniform -- there are, for instance, touches of jazz on "Piano Man," or little dance-rock hits like "Fake" tucked in the latter half of the CD, and besides,
Mr. Children get the benefit of being one of the first Japanese bands to establish this kind of sound. But still, by 2007 they're virtually undistinguishable from their own followers. ~ Alexey Eremenko