The eighth album from the masterful J-Rock group The Pillows, was released in Japan on December 2nd, 1999 by King Records it’s perhaps their most well known album, well, at least in the United States. Considering that all eleven tracks on "Happy Bivouac" were heavily featured in the soundtrack for the Gainax anime mini-series, FLCL. While songs from other releases form The Pillows were featured, the entire album of “Happy Bivouac” was on full display.

Each and every track on "Happy Bivouac" is pure pop gold, from the opening chords of the smile inducing title track to the urgency and pure rock & roll feel of "Advice." In between the album offers the beautiful on/off rocking out of "Carnival" and the beautiful, melodic "Our Love and Peace."

Yet they really are no standouts, the entire thing is incredible.

The Pillows are known for singing their songs in Japanese only until saying the name of the song in English and maybe another line or two in English. Perhaps the best English lyric is the repeated backup vocals line of "Please sing for me" in the track Kim Deal, an obvious tribute to the bassist for The Pixies.

The tracklist for "Happy Bivouac" is as follows.

1. Happy Bivouac

2. Rush

3. Last Dinosaur

4. Carnival

5. Our Love And Peace

6. Crazy Sunshine

7. Back Seat Dog

8. Kim Deal

9. Funny Bunny

10. Beautiful Morning With You

11. Advice

This album, like most albums from The Pillows can only be purchased online from obscure sites, and costs anywhere from twenty five to forty dollars, not including shipping and handling. Most of these tracks can be easily found on any file sharing service though.

Someday, either when The Pillows come to America, or when I go to Japan, I'm going to see these guys live in concert.

Yet I can only dream.

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