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05/06/02 'Viva! La Woman' - Cibo Matto

I have to admit that it's been hard lately to come up with something in my CD collection to recommend. Not that, in my humble opinion, there is a dearth of good CDs there but the trick is coming up with something a little original, maybe offbeat and hopefully surprising. So I check at the bottom of a stack of CDs, for a forgotten album.

I come up with "Viva! La Woman", look at the Amazonian warrior posing on the cover and wonder what on earth made me buy this. I then remember an old article about Japanese pop, that interviewed Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda, the two members of Cibo Matto and raved about a strange sounding album whose song titles were based on foodstuffs.
So we have tracks called "Apple", indulge in "White Pepper Ice Cream" along the way and finish with "Artichoke". First impressions are that this is going to be impenetrable stuff but what surprises is the subtlety, restraint and chilled out tunes that run through this LP. On the fifth track "Birthday Cake" the girls rock out with that kind of screamy, karaoke-style rant that you might mistake for an incoherent take on Western rock music but in fact perfectly demonstrates the stress of family get-togethers.

Listen to a clip of 'White Pepper Ice cream' by Cibo Matto
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Overall this CD exudes waves of calm and soul through near hypnotic rhythms with relaxed beats and superb samples from jazz, rock and even Ennio Morricone, decorating some frankly bizarre (and possibly beyond interpretation) lyrics.
In "Know Your Chicken" for example; "I know my chicken, you got to know your chicken, spare the rod and spoil the chick". Or how about "Sugar Water" and "The velocity of time turns her voice into sugar water". Put it like this, you will have fun trying to work it out.

Now possibly this is a CD that might provoke a love/hate reaction. But I am glad to say that every time I have played this to anyone they have been intrigued at the very least or truly hooked by the time "Le Pain Perdu" rolls round. Sadly the duo's other efforts are simply not in the same league but this one glorious CD is worth owning if you ever want to hear tuneful, leftfield Japanese pop.

Buy "Viva! La Woman" US