EP REVIEW: Okinawan Love Songs – Ogikubo Station
Celebrating a debut headline tour with new music should be practised more often, and Californian indie punks OGIKUBO STATION have done just that. They come over to the UK on Monday 17th June for their first run of bill topping dates in this country and, to mark the occasion, have released a three track EP entitled Okinawan Loves Songs, released just prior to the tour via Asian Man Records. For the uninitiated, the band is the brainchild of Maura Weaver, best known for her work with MIXTAPES and Mike Park, who founded Asian Man Records himself back in 1996. Their debut album We Can Pretend Like was released late last year and for this current EP, Dan Adriano of ALKALINE TRIO has helped out on bass; the label helped launched their career of the band at the very start.
Clocking in at just over seven minutes in length, this will be one of the shortest releases of the year, even by EP standards. The opening track is Would I Break My Heart Enough for You and features Weaver’s sultry voice over melodious, upbeat pop rock, complimented nicely by Park’s backing vocals. The song has a lovely melancholic vibe to it, made even more noticeable by the poignant narrative contained within the lyrics; the line ‘I’m much too scared to say a thing’ cutting through at regular intervals to strike a chord within those who listen. The follow up is Spend Some Time With Me, the shortest track at exactly 105 seconds long. There’s a fuzzier guitar tone and a couple of hooks contained within the song this time around, but the tone remains constant, the contrast between the light and the dark reflected once more in the music and the lyrics.
The theme of the song seems to revolve around a particularly difficult situation in a relationship and Weaver conveys this much like FLEETWOOD MAC did on Rumours: her voice is soft and pleasant but the delivery is laced with an underlying aggression that doesn’t go unnoticed. To finish, the band have paid homage to alt-rock heavyweights THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS with a cover of Dr Worm, performed in the style of the band’s Dial A Song’ sessions, where fans could call in and hear a song from the answering machine. More playful than the other tracks, the song is filled with a nostalgic warmth of yesteryear and has been produced expertly, the crackling phone line and distant acoustic guitar mimicking the analogue answering machines to a tee and ensuring an engaging and fun end to the EP.
For those who have loved the work of SPANISH LOVE SONGS, PKEW PKEW PKEW and SWMRS, this short trip into the world of emotion-laden storytelling combined with the lighter side of musicianship will be of considerable interest. The saying ‘Good things come in small packages’ is most definitely in place here; this is a lovely little EP that will endear to many and if OGIKUBO STATION don’t have a successful trek across these shores throughout June, it will be a crying shame indeed.
Rating: 7/10
Okinawan Love Songs is set for release June 14th via Asian Man Records.
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