ALBUM REVIEW: Z-PLAN - “YEAH NEW ALBUM YEAH”
https://zplan.bandcamp.com/album/yeah-new-album-yeah
“YEAH NEW ALBUM YEAH”, was the first taste of Z-PLAN that I had experienced.  Mike Hudson released this album back in 2013, a strange year like any other, but this album carried a special place in my heart, and it always will.  With every song having memorable melodic left turns, hooks, transformations and quotable lyrics that’ll make you want to turn to your bud n’ try to croon out a harmony, it’s hard to know where to begin, so let’s jump right in.
“Coping with Adulthood”, sounds, when compared to the title, ironically childish, the overlapping keys with marimba play with your stereo perception, and then that secondary synth comes in, mimicking the central melody.  If this isn’t a variant edition of some long lost Rugrats sound track, I don’t know what is.
This land, this land… “I Worry The Body”, comes across as one of those feedback loop days, where one finds themselves contemplating their physical purpose, maybe caught an awkward glimpse of your hands and it leaves you anxious.  Mike finds a way of focusing on this, creating a dark anthem that catches your foot moving, reminds you that humans can go hungry, mentally and physically. Eat your vegetables, kids.
Oh, so you wanted to dance in your room with a friend and get so sweaty that you have to hop BACK into the shower?
“Loose Limbs”, this is your poison. Introducing itself instrumentally with the fuzzy Wurlitzer, it guides your wandering mind into the next synth section.  The energy keeps steady for a while until the ear meets a matching guitar that joins the mix. The track seems to tease the notion that it could easily be this heavy club banger, with lines coming from the cat in the corner… “Wear something nice, or don’t dress at all”, but then decides to leave you with your neck sticking out, dancing like you’re one of the Peanuts kids.
Driving down the highway, your eyes are squinting from the refracting light off your shirt; shouldn’t have worn white, but it’s nothing because you’re in the car with your friends headed to the top of a mountain to watch the sun lay low, trees for days, it’s finally warm out.  I picture the convertible roof bringing itself back, one of your pals, the babe with the curled chucks, pops in the cassette, “Concussive” blasts through the car’s left speaker (the other one is busted), someone yells, “TURN THAT SH*T UP!” as they pass the government cheese. A guitar loosely slides up and down the fret board, your mind would rather let go hearing the sound, leading into distorted/truncated bridges, “Everywhere that I go, I am still on my own”, reminding you, always, loneliness follows you, even in good company. And holding onto that thought, the song hypnotizes itself with overdubbed guitars; the drums loosen up n’ crash down, END.
Everyone knows this feeling: you wake up 15 minutes before your shift, scrambling to get your mind together. Right before you leave the house you do “the check”, wallet, phone, keys…keys? … KEYS!?!?
“Where Are My Keys?”
Someone wipes tears from your face, apologizes for existing, pours you a drink and begins to cry themselves, laces arms for a painful amount of time, before you step out the door, or get on a plane and never come back; that scene finds itself in Z-Plan’s, “Dopey”.  The uncertainty in romantic quarrel that festers, leaving one to find solace in lyrics like … “Beat up, got senseless/A hole punch in, Laid out, defenseless”.  And in that hollow feeling, half way into the song, a pure sounding, spacious synth line leaves you to smile. A lifetime within; ending with a ride and harmonized hum, both full and worn.
“Never Laugh Harder” serves as a requiem, for lost times of innocence: “I’ll never laugh as hard as I did/When I was a kid.”  One’s ear catches the driving bass line, front and center, with emulated hurdy gurdy synths flanking the sides.  Later on, layers of punching piano chords seem hammered into the fabric; with threads of buzzing harmony that remind me of instrumentation from this video game from the early 2000’s, Monster Rancher, ya’ll know? Probably not. OH YES, you do, you’re growing older, and it’s okay… is it? You tell me…
A fresh lung, I’d sing “Here I Go!” with. The vocal harmonies in this song will make you shake, guaranteed.  Are you ready for it? The nervous mind speaking, “I am not ready for it”, then you’re happily pushed off the dock by someone you love into the ocean deep, filmed on a surprisingly clean 8mm camera.  A time warp, you’ve fallen into your own 60’s romantic fantasy, the snares brush themselves into flowering locomotion.  “Da, da, da, da ,daaaaa”, as if you’re rolling the Katamari ( 塊 ) down into the city, eventually wrapping up the entire earth, all while sharing an ice cream with your lover.
You’re about to rinse off the soap, but then you hear these cloud lining, angelic piano chords come from the ancient, crappy speakers you’ve had since grade school and decide to stay in for a bit longer, picturing some unknown slowly dancing along with you.  But now, suddenly there are green tiled floors, the place turns into a kawaii masterpiece with the entrance of a second piano playfully scoring over top, eyes are glazed over and growing larger, clouds are colored ballet-slipper-pink suddenly, anime, golden burst.  Finally, slowly fading to that whole, somber atmosphere, you step out of the shower feeling completely washed. “Integer”
Have you ever huffed glue, or tried K2, or had your wisdom teeth taken out and been on morphine, then gone to the super market to try and get groceries, stumbled into someone who is also in the meat aisle trying to pick up some “Country Ham”?  Yeah, I haven’t either, but this track makes me feel how I’d imagine that experience to be. Mmm… ham…
“Meadow”, the title prescribes its own medicine.  And in the beginning… strings/tin guitar in the right field/flavored beat with constant hi-hat like the faucet is dripping, the vocals keep you right below the summit, until the hook enters along with bass, “I don’t want to live this way forever/I don’t want to leave you undiscovered”.  The seemingly endless struggle of finding connection, texting, talking back and forth, worried of your own shadow’s past, and how if you don’t act now you may be left to forget what intimacy is. Â
“Not At Home” - Is this one my favorite? I can’t say, but it emulates the feeling of free-fall in the heart, the distance one finds when becoming most vulnerable to another or the self.  It’s a similar feeling I get when I listen to the Beach Boys’, “In My Room”, but the lyrical connotation suggests the opposite, which I find alluring.  By the second half, vocals are replaced by guitar, the monstrous, buzzing bass synthesizer rests, we find ourselves peeling back another layer.  A fitting soundtrack for one of Inio Asano’s twisted mangas: a wandering Pun Pun contemplating into the night, dreading the earthly feed of stimulus and worrying of detachment.  Do you plan to take a walk for no reason? You should try it to this song.
