Kero Kero Bonito: Time 'n' Place - Review

This is a review for my month long Album-a-Day adventure in Jan. 2022. if you want to read the other reviews, check out the original post.

Next up on the docket is Kero Kero Bonito’s Time ‘n’ Place: a really nice, short album that tones down the bright and cheery electronic elements you heard in earlier KKB records and trades it in for guitars and the occasional bit of noise. I had only listened to a bit of KKB before this, and I was expecting more dancy electropop that I heard from them previously, but this album took a different direction that I really liked. The inclusion of glitched out vocals, bursts of noise, and the recurring themes of dreams and looking back at your life really instilled this dream-like quality over the whole record.

Dream-like doesn’t mean all rainbows in this case, though - especially when songs like “Make Believe” touch on how dreams can turn into very real anxiety when you wake up from them. The song “Only Acting” was a big favorite for me on the record - it’s got a super catchy groove before devolving into a glitched out mess at the end, after realizing that a stage persona is bleeding into real life more than intended. It’s an unexpected ending, but I really like it, and after listening a few times, it’s probably one of my favorites on the record.

A glaring omission in this album is any sort of Japanese lyrics - a big part of previous KKB songs was the seemingly random switch between English and Japanese, but this album is entirely in English. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but was definitely something I noticed right away.

As I mentioned previously, the songs are less obviously electro and dancy. There’s more acoustic drums, more guitar (even some heavier guitars on a few of the songs) and while it’s a pretty big sonic shift for the band, I think they pull it off really well. It’s pretty unique, and still has plenty of synth and electronic elements to it, so overall I enjoyed the new style.

Overall I don’t have a ton to say here - this record wasn’t earth-shattering to me, but I really enjoyed it and find myself wanting to include KKB in my regular music rotation, so that’s as glowing of a recommendation as I can give it. Some topics were pretty serious, but overall it felt like a fun introspection on some pretty ordinary moments in life, which is a songwriting style I really love.

Score: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: Only Acting, Flyway, Dear Future Self

One Recommendation: Time Today