| [USA] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 25, 2019 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 52:28 | |||
| Label | Polyvinyl [3] | |||
| Producer | Ary Warnaar, Peter Berkman, Luke Silas, Nathan Ritholz, Porter Robinson | |||
| Anamanaguchi chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from [USA] | ||||
| ||||
[USA] is the third studio album from American chiptune-based pop and rock band Anamanaguchi. It was released on October 25, 2019 through Polyvinyl. It received largely positive critical reception.
After the release of their previous album Endless Fantasy , criticism about perceived cultural appropriation and a "point of reckoning" about the negative aspects of what the band described as literal "endless fantasy" lead Anamanaguchi to move in a less escapist direction. [4] The band initially even considered moving away from the Anamanaguchi name, but decided that it would be more "authentic" to retain their previous identity. [5]
The initial version of the album completed under the [USA] title was slated for release in 2015, but the band felt that it didn't "answer the question that the title poses". Instead, the tracks were released as a soundtrack to a semi-fictional video game, Capsule Silence XXIV , created in collaboration with indie developer Ben Esposito, who later created Donut County. [4]
Thematically, the band conceptualised the album as more thematically "complete" compared to the "sugar all the time" of their previous work, with member Ary Warnaar stating that they incorporated themese of "happiness, loneliness, loss [and] connection". [5] [6]
Compared to Anamanaguchi's previous chiptune music, The Fader described [USA] as incorporating more aspects of pop music and post-rock. Co-frontman Peter Berkman described it as a version of "an Anamanaguchi album... not devoted to video games", with chiptune instrumentation incorporated in limited but "more intentional" ways. [5] [7]
For "Air On Line", the band collaborated with Porter Robinson. [6] "Sunset By Plane" was initially written as a song for Luke Silas's then-partner, and later featured in Capsule Silence XXIV before being revised with vocals by Caroline Lufkin. [7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [8] |
| Pitchfork | 7.5/10 [2] |
| Spectrum Culture | [9] |
Pitchfork praised [USA] as Anamanaguchi's "most emotionally grounded record yet". [2] AllMusic reviewer Paul Simpson described it as a "a more challenging listen" than their previous work, but stated that it was "filled with triumphant, transcendent moments". [8] Holly Hazelwood of Spectrum Culture said that it didn't "reinvent the wheel", but the band "spend a lot of time looking for new ways to use that wheel". [9]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "[ U S A ]" | 3:18 |
| 2. | "Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem)" | 4:50 |
| 3. | "The C R T Woods" | 4:17 |
| 4. | "Speak to You [Memory Messengers]" | 1:41 |
| 5. | "Sunset by Plane" (featuring Caroline Lufkin) | 4:42 |
| 6. | "Air On Line" | 4:59 |
| 7. | "Apophenia Light [Name Eaters]" | 1:46 |
| 8. | "Overwriting Incorporate" | 5:24 |
| 9. | "B S X" (featuring Miku Hatsune) | 2:52 |
| 10. | "On My Own" (featuring HANA) | 3:58 |
| 11. | "Up to You" (featuring meesh) | 2:30 |
| 12. | "Tear" | 3:24 |
| 13. | "We Die" | 6:12 |
| 14. | "[ L O M ]" | 2:38 |
Notes
| Chart (2019) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [11] | 3 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) [12] | 7 |
| US Vinyl Albums (Billboard) [13] | 17 |
| US Top Album Sales (Billboard) [14] | 63 |
Karl Martin Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish record producer and songwriter. He rose to prominence in the late 1990s with songwriting credits on a string of hit singles, such as Britney Spears's "...Baby One More Time" (1998), the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" (1999), Celine Dion's "That's the Way It Is" (1999) and NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" (2000).
Asobi Seksu was an American shoegaze/dream pop band based in New York City. Their music used a textured and effects-heavy vocal and guitar sound. The band primarily consisted of Yuki Chikudate and James Hanna.
Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald, known professionally as Dr. Luke, Tyson Trax, and Made in China, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He began his professional music career as the Saturday Night Live Band band's lead guitarist in 1996. After which, he produced remixes for acts such as Bon Jovi and Gravediggaz, and came into prominence in 2004 for producing Kelly Clarkson's single "Since U Been Gone" with Swedish record producer Max Martin.
"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend" is a cowboy-styled country/western song written in 1948 by American songwriter Stan Jones.
Polyvinyl Record Co. is an American independent record label headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The label also has satellite offices in New York, Austin, and the Bay Area. Polyvinyl has put out over 400 releases to date.
Caroline Lufkin, better known mononymously as Caroline, is a Japanese-American musician and the younger sister of the Japanese pop singer Olivia Lufkin. Caroline's music been released by Temporary Residence Ltd. Caroline is also a full-time member of Mice Parade.
The Dodos are an American indie rock band, consisting of guitarist and singer Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber. Originating from the San Francisco Bay Area, the duo has released eight studio albums over a fifteen-year span since their formation in 2005.
Post-Nothing is the debut studio album by Canadian rock duo Japandroids.
Anamanaguchi is an American chiptune-based pop and rock band from New York City. The band has four members: lead songwriters and guitarists Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar, bassist James DeVito, and drummer Luke Silas.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune with various hardcore punk and/or heavy metal subgenres, most often metalcore and post-hardcore. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, Karate High School and Sky Eats Airplane pioneering the genre.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Chengdu and published by Ubisoft, based on the Scott Pilgrim series of Oni Press graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley and tying in with the release of the film of the same name. The game was originally released digitally for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network in August 2010 before being delisted in December 2014. An updated re-release for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One and Google Stadia titled Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition, was released on January 14, 2021.
Endless Fantasy is the second studio album by American chiptune-based pop and rock band Anamanaguchi released on May 14, 2013, in the US through the band's own dream.hax record label and on September 30, 2013, in the UK by Alcopop! Records.
MacKenzie Lea Porter is a Canadian country singer, songwriter, and actress. She has released two albums and achieved four Canada Country number ones with "About You", "These Days", "Seeing Other People", and "Pickup". She is featured on Dustin Lynch's number one Country Airplay hit "Thinking 'Bout You". As an actor she is best known for her leading role as a future-sent medic in the television series Travelers.
Ben Aqua is an American multimedia artist, musician, and photographer based in Austin, Texas.
Melina Mae Cortez Duterte, better known by her stage name Jay Som, is an American, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and mixing engineer. Her debut record Everybody Works was released on Double Denim Records & Polyvinyl Records in March 2017, which was preceded by Turn Into, a collection of songs that first gained her attention as a singer-songwriter. The follow-up to Everybody Works and Jay Som's second home studio album, Anak Ko, was released on August 23, 2019 via Polyvinyl, Lucky Number, and Inertia.
TOTEP is the third extended play by British band Kero Kero Bonito, self-released on 20 February 2018. The EP marks a departure from the "sunny" electropop of previous releases in favor of a "grungier, guitar-heavy style, full of crunching distortion and glitched out noise." The EP was preceded by the single "Only Acting", which was later featured on the band's second studio album, Time 'n' Place (2018).
Time 'n' Place is the second studio album by British indie pop band Kero Kero Bonito, released on 1 October 2018 through Polyvinyl Record Co in North America and self-released worldwide. It is their first album released under Polyvinyl. Produced by the band's multi-instrumentalist Gus Lobban, it includes the previously released singles "Only Acting", "Time Today", and "Make Believe". Musically, the album marks a stylistic departure from the band's previous electronic musical efforts, showcasing a mix of indie rock, noise, shoegaze, dream pop, experimental pop, and synth-pop musical styles.
Capsule Silence XXIV is a 2016 experimental video game by independent developer Ben Esposito and the chiptune band Anamanaguchi which incorporates an album. In the game, players explore a world modelled after the band, collecting cassette tapes which the player can listen to and download. Before its release, Esposito and Anamanaguchi staged a fictional dispute between the band and their publisher depicting a conflict over the game, which was described as a large-scale multi-million dollar title.
I should have known Anamanaguchi was anything but one-dimensional. With electropop bangers like "Pop It" and "Miku" under their belt, they are so much more than gamer music. Their talent is beyond the confines of 8-bit pop, and so is [USA].
