Toybox
Stay Alive Remember the first album you ever bought? Remember how cool you were when you told people it was the Aladdin soundtrack? Yeah... What if you could say it was Pearl Jam's
Ten or Green Day's
Dookie, or Offspring's
Smash? That's more like it. Well, Toybox's debut album
Stay Alive is more than a great listen, it's instant cool points. Just for bragging rights you'll wish it was the first album you ever bought, or at least that you had it before everyone else.
From the explosive first track, “Run,” to the final spine-tingling anthem, “Straight To Your Heart,”
Stay Alive has all the dynamic excitement of a budget-breaking car chase scene with plenty of shots of punching the clutch and shifting gears.
After a taste of Yo's wonderfully subtle yet powerful vocal melodies in “Run” we jump right into track two, “Double-Sided.” Naoto brings out the big guns on this one with a killer guitar riff and some serious shredding. It can't get much better than this, right? But then comes “Evolutionary Theory.” Celica lays down a fat beat to get your head bobbing like it did when you first heard “1979” by The Smashing Pumpkins. Here's where Toybox's crisp and skillful musicianship really starts to shine through. And how cool does that Japanese sound! Following is “Set Me Free,” a powerhouse with a catchy chorus that makes you wonder if it was made for radio or if radio was made for it. Then without loosing momentum we go right into long time fan favorites, “Whatever You Need” and “Tegami.” With these two songs we start to see a little of Toybox's Japanese punk rock roots a la old school Going Steady. Next, “Knife” brings back the pop groove and fills your head with another strong melody. Then with perfect timing comes “Cry Away,” a finely crafted ballad with a sharp sound that promises to keep your interest as the album builds to its climax. Track nine, “Kid's Don't Cry,” turns the amps back up to max and delivers a chorus with definite sock-knocking-off potential. And tying things up at track ten is my personal favorite, “Straight To Your Heart.” It's incisiveness just hits you.
Without disappointing, Toybox has brilliantly mixed hard rock and heavy lyrics with sunny phrasings and a strong sense of optimism. Yo spits poetry in both English and Japanese with a poignancy and originality to match masters like Brandon Boyd of Incubus, or the guys from Fall Out Boy.
To quote Adam Sandler from The Wedding Singer, “I think that's the hardest thing, to write a song.” Well, not exactly. Writing an album is harder. An album has to have a theme, a concept, an atmosphere, and a certain inventiveness—all of which crank together like gears just out of sight.
Stay Alive is definitely an
album. And it's one that won't leave your car CD player for a long time.
Nathan Oser
June 14th 2010
