Half Japanese - Invincibles

The world and his wife are not beating down Half Japanese' door in 2019. Well let's face it they never really have done and are hardly likely to start doing so now. After all, the band have been plying their trade in a determinedly low-fi manner all the way back to 1979 over 18 albums, numerous singles, cassettes and myriad other releases and tours. They've possibly flown as far under the radar as any 'known' band ever have. Much has changed for them over the years but at the same time nothing has.

So how best to evaluate Invincibles, the bands latest record, released quietly just last month. On its own merits probably.  I like it. I imagine I would like most of the Half Japanese back catalogue even though I haven't heard much of that apart from Best of collections. Because they all sound a bit like this don't they? That's intrinsic to the band's charm and appeal.

Listening to a new Half Japanese record is akin to going back to the home you grew up in to find the kids next door are still living there, haven't aged at all and are still playing with the same toys. This is no criticism. In fact it's a high compliment if anything. They, (and by this of course I mostly mean focal point and leader Jad Fair), make the case put forward in Television's Friction, 'I don't want to grow up. There's too much contradiction..'. This record to a large extent is a complaint about the realities that life tries to impose upon us. Rock and Roll remains one of the few remaining feasible Peter Pan options in life and Fair never once wanted to make his way back from Never Neverland.

This record makes Pan's case very cogently, to me at least and I'm enjoying it more with every play. Half Japanese still hang around in the High School corridor with the Velvets, The Modern Lovers, Daniel Johnson, Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth and Kurt, their ultimate fan. Subject matter; vampires, the walking dead, alien spacecraft, the teenage crush, them and us. The geek ultimately will clearly inherit the earth. The menu remains the same as does the shambling ill-begotten, intentionally inept musical manner they choose to get their message across in. Most of it works. At least for me.

So Invincibles, fifteen songs between two minutes and the cusp of four, fifteen dweeb manifestos. Perfect. Or at least perfection judged by their own wonky criteria, formulated in stone over the decades. I commend them to you.