ONE OK ROCK, a japanese rock band that has during the past year successfully conquered Europe and the US has again surprised everyone with their new album, 35xxxv. As usual a lot of fans bought the album, listened to it and then vomited their thoughts out on social networks such as tumblr., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and yes, wordpress.
I do not wish to judge that action at all, as I myself am a fan, a OneOkRocker as we call ourselves and have luckily purchased an album. However I am shocked to see mostly negative reviews that contain even less feedback than this post has until now. A lot are horribly written, focus on all the bad changes of the band and loose focus entirely.
The band’s music has become “Americanized” they say, “they are just chasing popularity with their ‘charts-y’ and pop songs”, “what is Taka thinking, he’s losing it”,”What’s with the sound effects, I can’t even hear his voice, where’s the bass?”
My goodness, really, this is so wrong. I mean, so wrong.
First of all, yes, 35 is different from the other albums – just like every album before has been, ONE OK ROCK ‘s music changes for every album!
And yes, the usage of English has increased. But perhaps that is the case because Taka’s English has improved? Or because as Taka says it you can imagine more and different meanings to a word when it’s not your native tongue? (as a writer myself I can confirm that btw) Or maybe, just maybe Taka wants to enable more people to listen to ONE OK ROCK? Not for fame but because he truly thinks he can save people? (which I can also confirm)
Secondly, I have to agree to the high almost uncomfortable amount of sound effects, they don’t need this stuff. And I don’t like it too much myself. But ONE OK ROCK are artists, musicians, John Feldman and his equipment probably looked like a playground with new things in it, new things to try, new things to learn… it’s their music, ONE OK ROCK can do with it what they want, it won’t be any less ONE OK ROCK! It is not John Feldman who has made the last album, he helped and inspired. It is not Taka alone either. The whole band agreed, ONE OK ROCK made 35 and they haven’t lost any of their originality.
In 2012 Taka said something interesting: “We actually thought about this a lot. Whether we should play in a bigger venue (Yokohama Arena) the sound is better in the small venues. But we wanted our music to reach people, as many people as possible, so we decided to do it in the end” Taka isn’t running for fame, he’s trying to find himself, actually he explains himslef very well in the new album. If you gave the album a chance you would notice that the lyrics are fantastic. They are as always full of meaning and emotion but they are getting political, too! The messages are of course slightly hidden, we’re still talking about art and Japan after all, but they are there.
ONE OK ROCK is now 10 years old. The members started out 17 and are now 27. Who does not change during that time? They are finding and creating themselves, not merchandise but music. With each album ONE OK ROCK recreate themselves. If Taka would still write songs like Karasu and Nobody’s home, how sad would that be? ONE OK ROCK changed me and with every album they show me a different aspect of myself, making me move forward, making me think, and live. That is what ONE OK ROCK is for me and that hasn’t changed. Not at all. Not one bit.
If you don’t know ONE OK ROCK, please check them out! They do have the power to save people.
I apologise for this post, it’s not really well – written… I just had to get this off my mind, so here we go!
35 – Tracklist
1. 3xxxv5
2. Take me to the top
3. Cry out
4. Suddenly
5. Mighty long fall
6. Heartache
7. Memories
8. Decision
9. Paperplanes
10. Good Goodbye
11. One by one
12. Stuck in the middle
13. Fight the night
deslyoness 
I think it’s not wrong to say OOR has changed because they indeed have changed. I’m sorry, but I don’t think Taka’s after some grand mission to save the world through his music. Let’s face it: it’s been his dream since starting out. He just really wants the band to succeed globally. And we respect that. But we can’t blame people for not liking the “Americanized” version because yes, a lot of the good old JRock essence were decreased, like the guitar sounds and were replaced with decorative effects popular in American music. Well, this is OOR’s choice. Fans will come and go and that’s okay. Only means that the fans who chose to leave are loyal to One OK Rock’s former music and not to the band as celebrities. There’s nothing wrong with that. 🙂
Hey there, thanks for your comment!
I don’t remember saying that OOR hasn’t changed or that they’re on a grand mission to save the world, rather that their music did save me and a few others and that however much they change, they are still OOR.
I’m okay with people not liking their music/ new albums. However I think it’s wrong to say it’s not OOR and Taka is destroying the band… I read posts like that and this was my answer.
I have started listening to them only recently (and this is because of 35xxxv) but that did not stop me from listening to their older songs. I agree with rmatia when he said that OOR’s music is starting to sound more American but I guess, like what most people say, changing is growing. And since they’re targeting a global audience now, I think it’s inevitable not to use English as a medium to communicate their music. And besides, they’re still not forgetting about their roots since Japanese lyrics are still evident in some of their songs. 🙂
I agree 🙂 I do love their older songs, I was just really upset people started to say Taka is ruining the band and it’s not oor anymore 🙂