| Animaru | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | May 2, 2025 | |||
| Studio | Ashlawn Recording Company, Connecticut | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 37:49 | |||
| Label | Bayonet | |||
| Mei Semones chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Animaru | ||||
| ||||
Animaru is the debut studio album by American indie rock musician Mei Semones. It was released on May 2, 2025, by Bayonet Records. [2] [3]
The album, recorded by Ashlawn Recording Company in Connecticut, was preceded by Semones' 2024 EP, Kabutomushi. [4] Animaru's lead single, "Dumb Feeling", was released on February 4, 2025. [2] The album features ten songs ranging between two and six minutes each, with Semones singing in English and Japanese. [1] The title of the album is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of "animal". [1] It incorporates elements of J-pop, bossa nova, and indie music. [1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Clash |  [5] |
| Paste | 7.6/10 [6] |
| Pitchfork | 7.5/10 [1] |
| Sputnikmusic | 4.1/5 [7] |
Marcy Donelson of AllMusic remarked, "Throughout Animaru, Semones and her band play with dynamics, dramatic pauses, chord voicings, harmonics, and a steady stream of surprises." [3] Sputnikmusic 's Dakota Foss described the album as "gorgeous as can be, and undeniably triumphant as a debut," rating it 4.1 out of five. [7] Christopher Connor of Clash Magazine referred to it as "an exhilarating, eclectic offering that shows a maturity far beyond someone releasing their first album," assigning it a rating of eight out of ten. [5] Paste rated it 7.6 out of ten, stating "Few moments on Animaru are conventional and, in a world full of boring trends and rabid overconsumption, we could all benefit from taking a page out of Mei Semones' playbook." [6] Pitchfork gave the album a rating of 7.5, noting that "Animaru has no duds but also no true stand-outs, shining most when Semones takes on the unexpected—suggesting a more idiosyncratic artist underneath all the virtuosity and polish." [1]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dumb Feeling" | 3:10 |
| 2. | "Dangomushi" | 3:19 |
| 3. | "Tora Moyo" | 2:51 |
| 4. | "I Can Do What I Want" | 3:00 |
| 5. | "Animaru" | 2:41 |
| 6. | "Donguri" | 3:35 |
| 7. | "Norwegian Shag" | 4:02 |
| 8. | "Rat with Wings" | 4:40 |
| 9. | "Zarigani" | 4:33 |
| 10. | "Sasayaku Sakebu" | 5:58 |
| Total length: | 37:49 | |
Credits for Animaru adapted from Bandcamp.