SCANDAL’s seventh album came out on 2.3.2016 and to date, the physical CDs I bought are still in transit from Japan. But I couldn’t wait so I bought the album on iTunes Japan the moment it came out midnight JST.

Room No.7 is a car-chase-y guitar-driven instrumental rock tune. Catchy, but after the 1:43 was over, I was looking for that missing solo by MAMIchan. Well, that’s because there was none.

Stamp! Summery tune that came out in July 2015. Nice refreshing tune that I’ve seen live twice, and covered once.

LOVE ME DO has cow bell. Bouncy pop/rock ditty that has a very girly girl video where it looks like the lasses were discovering boys for the very first time. Oh, have I told you that this song has cow bell.

Morning Sun is has guitar riffs in the verse where it feels like MAMIchan was channelling Grohl et al. when she wrote this. I’ve seen this song live once.

Sunday Drive is Motown. Think You Can’t Hurry Love by The Supremes.

今夜はピザパーティー FUU-! A very TIMO-esque song. Because she wrote/sang it. Fast and fun, to the point that it reminded me of Hokago Tea-Time’s 「ごはんはおかず」.

ヘブンな気分 is my favourite song on the record. Forget the Nirvana reference, or whether it is filled with Eastern promise – this song rocks. RINA seems to be the one to write the words to their pretty rockish numbers (think Onegai Navi and Rainy) despite her demure appearance.

SUKI-SUKI is another Winter Song, and I wouldn’t have even guessed. Defo a gig favourite for the punters to jump along to.

LOVE is a song that surprised me. I have never heard the girls play reggae or anything remotely similar to this. They didn’t try to play reggae, but this is reggae to the max, as if they had play this all their professional life. To my un-reggae ears, that is.

Sisters. People are butt-hurting online over the Cher-like auto-tune to this girl power song. The drum is a right bastard to play. Props to RINA. Again.

Happy Birthday has that Northern soul/Motown drum beat propelling the song along. Never mind the topic of the song – listen to MAMI’s constant guitar riffs during the verse. One of the very few songs with a guitar solo on the record.

ちいさなほのお is another favourite and I love this song the moment I heard it on the trailer for the docu-film. As a fan, I’ve travelled far to see them live and although I didn’t travel to see the entire tour last year, seeing a collage of the different cities they have been to with this in the background on the music vid enhances the poignancy this song carries.

I didn’t notice this at first, but Your song -English ver.- has been redone in its entirety for the record, and it’s not just everyone singing the words over the background music recorded for HELLO WORLD. Not one of my favs due to the very Green Day/American idiot feel to this. And HARU should just go ahead and sing the word “bullshit”. Heh.