GO!GO!7188 is a Japanese rock band. Free association with Japan: cubic watermelons, Harajuku Girls, Shall We Dansu?, striped kneesocks, hamachi, Sailor Moon. Popular Japanese culture is highly stylized; everything is loud and cartoonish and bright and seems to involve multiple exclamation points, just like the female-fronted band GO!GO!7188. Founded by old high school classmates Yumi Nakashima and Akiko Noma (nicknamed Yuu and Akko respectively) in 1998 and rounded out by drummer Turkey. Yes, Turkey. This is their eighth LP if you don’t count live albums, cover albums, and a greatest hits compilation. Their Wikipedia page cryptically states that only the band members know the true meaning of their band name. Despite sounding incredibly youthful, GO!GO!7188 are old pros in 2010, and the musicianship is a clear indicator, not to mention the energy with which they attack their songs.

“Eoeoe” is a pretty great start: hyper-energetic three part rock music, cleanly harmonized vocals, and a chorus in which Yuu and Akko basically sing “Ay oh ay oh ayyy” over and over again. “Refrain Refrain” sounds eerily similar to Tragic Kingdom-era No Doubt, with bouncy bass and an uptempo 1-2 snare drum beat. “Saigo No Bansam,” a surf rock number complete with that spring reverb heard on “Wipeout,” sounds like goofy cartoon spy movie music. The tempo slows down a bit on “Ballad” and it sounds as if the band wanted to write something lovelorn and heartbroken and picked every cliché in the ballad book to construct it. One of the album’s coolest songs is “Ee ja Nai ka,” a hard driving, drumrolling, super-heavy punk track that makes for epic driving music.

What GO!GO!7188 does well is fiddle around with every genre known to man that happens to involve an electric guitar, bass, and drum kit. This isn’t necessarily a problem, because it produces some fun stuff; “Kutsu Shita no Ana” has a nice hardcore punk flavor, “Sugar & Spice” bounces from pop rock to murky post-metal, and “Mayakashii no Sekai” is something you’d hear on a ‘90s teen movie soundtrack complete with bubblegum chorus and a grunge-ish guitar breakdown on the bridge. The genre and tempo switches can be easily appreciated, because with every song longer than four minutes, variety is necessary.

The one aspect of GO!GO!7188 that tends to distract is the issue of vocals. Yuu and Akko are skilled harmonizers and relentlessly perky, and even though everything is in Japanese, the general tone of the songs is easy to grasp. But the vocals get a little irritating after a while. Chalk it up to cultural differences, but a full album of high-pitched Japanese singing doesn’t go down as easy as the pop singers we’re (sort of) already used to. Perhaps this is the difference that ultimately separates GO!GO!7188 from other rock bands: despite the skilled playing and adept genre hopping, it’s hard not to hear Go!!GO!GO!Go!! as novelty music simply because of the foreign language. Listen to an hour of Japanese singing and just try not to wonder what exactly the lyrics are. Would it make a difference? Maybe.

Ultimately, the ‘foreign’ quality of GO!GO!7188’s music is a plus, mostly because it’s so fun. This is party-starting music. Just listen to the exuberance on the chorus of “Kyou no Uta” and it really doesn’t matter whether they’re singing about boys or politics or cheeseburgers, just that it’d be pretty fun to dance to. A few tracks are a bit redundant, like “Mimitabu Ni-go,” another surfy uptempo number, and the ridiculously retro swing dance-y “365 Renkyuu Boogie,” but all in all it’s a taut hour of Japanese rock. If you play it for your friends, they’ll either think you’re nuts or they’ll appreciate the novelty and ask to hear more, so it’s worth a shot to spread GO!GO!7188 around.

Track List:
1. Eoeoe
2. Refrain Refrain
3. Mayakashii no Sekai
4. Saigo no Bansan
5. Doku Ringo
6. Ballad
7. Rakuen no Ohanashi
8. Kutsu Shita no Ana ~ Ashi no Ke Chanto Sotta no ni
9. Mimitabu Ni-go
10. Sugar & Spice
11. Ee ja Nai ka
12. Kyou no Uta
13. Nothing2
14. 365 Renkyuu Boogie