Album Review: Queens are Trumps (‘Kirifuda wa Queen’)- SCANDAL

I absolutely love these girls and the way they can do both awesome punk rock and upbeat, catchy songs. I absolutely had to share my thoughts on their newest album, ‘Queens are Trumps’.

Yes, these cute girls actually make good music, too!

Queens are Trumps

Title track. Damn I love this song. So classic rock. I think it might be my favourite off the album. It doesn’t really sound too original, but it’s a good song. I actually love how Haruna sounds here; the song really fits her voice. And, yeah, I try to sing along. It’s the curse of all SCANDAL songs, really.

Taiyou Scandalous

Second single off the album. Bright, sunny like the name (‘taiyou’ means sun), and it’s a fun song. It reached #2 on the Oricon charts, and it’s not hard to see why (really. Scroll down for the video, and you’ll get it). It’s really catchy, even though it’s not really my favourite type of song.

Pin Heel Surfer

Third single off the album. Another upbeat song, but more rock than Taiyou Scandalous. I’m not a particular fan of the chorus, but I like how Haruna does the higher notes in two lines of it. I actually completely brushed over it when I first heard it, but I’m now really addicted to it.

Oh, and I just watched the PV. No way. Rina sings the last part?

Rock ‘n’ Roll

If you can’t get it by the name, this is a rock song. It sounds more girly than Queens are Trumps, but I like it. But I am eternally annoyed at how I can’t be certain that the first two lines are sung by Haruna. It really could be Mami, but I just. Can’t. Fucking. Tell.

Bitter Chocolate

Not my favourite track off the album. It really isn’t anything special. There’s a lot of Tomomi in this song, but as she doesn’t have my favourite voice, I’m not really into this song. You can feel some emotion in this song, though, even if it’s not slow.

Kill the Virgin

The Rina song! Alright, I’ll try to not be too biased over here, which’ll be hard, as Rina’s my favourite SCANDAL girl, and I really like her.

Alright, the beginning of the song sounds like it’d be cheery and fluffy, but it isn’t really. It has a sweet tune, but it just sounds rather deep and wondering. Rina’s sweet voice really fits.

Being a relatively new SCANDAL fan, this is the first time I’d heard Rina’s voice (and recognized it!), and I was really excited. I’m not disappointed.

Koe

The Mami song. Whole song is sung by Mami, whose voice I quite like. It sometimes sounds like she’s not singing but just saying the words, but I think it really adds to the quality of the song. It’s not slow or fluffy, but has that rock edge I’d expect of Mami.

Rising Star

The beginning made me expect some high-school-sounding song, but I was quite pleasantly surprised by this song. It is a little what I classify as high-school-rock, but not cheesily or annoyingly so. In fact, it has this… Japanese-y edge to the chorus?

Bright

The emotional, deep song. Not my favourite, as it sounds pretty generic, and as though I’ve heard it many times before. The chorus is strangely catchy, though, and I love shaking to it a little. Still, not the greatest.

Welcome Home

Song is quite bright, one that I might associate with an anime. To be honest, it sounds a bit like I’ve heard it quite a few times before. Doesn’t make it a bad song, but it isn’t really extraordinary, and easy to skip over. I do like how Tomomi sounds here, though.

HARUKAZE

First single off the album, and I really like this song. Is calm, but not slow, and really nice to try and sing along to. I think Haruna’s voice fits this song wonderfully, and I’m really attached to this song and the wonderful melody it has.

Right Here

Another rather high-school-sounding song. Except it’s not as good as Rising Star, as this is pretty generic. All in all, not the best ending to the album, especially one that started off so good.

Favourite song(s): Queens are Trumps, HARUKAZE

Least favourite song(s): Right Here, Bitter Chocolate

Overall rating: ●●●●○

Hope you enjoyed this review, and maybe made you interested in buying the CD or album on iTunes? You won’t regret it, really. The rating might seem a little harsh, but that’s only because the album I listened to before this one was SID’s M&W, which was awesome and which I’ll be reviewing next.

Thanks for reading!