In a sense, it feels like ONE OK ROCK have come full circle with their music with the release of DETOX, having explored different sounds and genres before coming back to a strong alternative rock sound.
Earlier albums, such as Zeitakubyo and Kanjo Effect, sound like a solid blend of alternative rock, punk, and emo, with the American influences mentioned in the previous post sounding more pronounced. Zeitakubyo was ONE OK ROCK's debut album and proved successful - it stayed in the Oricon weekly charts for 22 weeks and songs such as Yume Yume and Naihishinsho remain fan favourites even today. On Kanjo Effect, standout tracks include Living Dolls and 20 Years Old.
Yume Yume is one of my favourite songs from the early days of ONE OK ROCK, as I like how energetic and catchy it is.
One of the band's most popular albums is JINSEI KAKETE BOKU WA, also written as JinseixBoku=. The Beginning and Clock Strikes are both incredibly popular songs, with The Beginning being used as the theme song for the live action version of Rurouni Kenshin, and Clock Strikes being used for Like a Dragon: Ishin!. This album has a heavier sound than its predecessors, with a more post-hardcore feel to it, and this almost seems to be reflected in its album art - the dark, monochrome album cover is in contrast to the previous albums' brighter, more colourful covers.
The later albums have a much more pop-based feel to them, with Ambitions and Eye of the Storm being mainly pop albums. Both albums feature slower paced songs with softer vocals than previous albums. 35xxxv was the first album to have almost entirely English lyrics, with only the intro song (3xxxv5) containing Japanese lyrics. It was also the first album that was produced outside of Japan, as it was mainly recorded in the United States of America. Not all fans were happy with the band's new direction, with some comments online referring to them as 'One OK Pop' and complaining about the lack of rock elements that featured so heavily on past albums.
2022's Luxury Disease marked a change in the band's direction once again, with the album leaning back into the band's rock music origins. Despite not being as heavy as some fans were hoping for, the album was well-received and put ONE OK ROCK in good stead to release their latest album, DETOX.
DETOX feels like a welcome return to the band's alternative rock roots, especially with C.U.R.I.O.S.I.T.Y. and Party's Over. C.U.R.I.O.S.I.T.Y., in particular, featured Japanese metal band Paledusk and rapper Chico Carlito, and had mainly Japanese lyrics. DETOX features slower, more emotional songs such as This Can't Be Us and The Pilot </3 alongside energetic and powerful songs like NASTY and Puppets Can't Control You.