Mrs. GREEN APPLE - "TWELVE" (2016): Personal Review

TWELVE is the first album by Mrs. GREEN APPLE, a very popular Japanese band nowadays. I discovered this band since I was in my sophomore year of during my undergraduate, around September 2018. Their first song I listened to is 「青と夏」. I discovered them through the "Discover Weekly" playlist in Spotify. I was surprised that there is a song that I was really hooked since the first few seconds I listened to this song. Even though I never listened to any Japanese music before it, I really love it since the first listen. Anyway, when I was in middle school, I have tried to listen to another Japanese rock music such as ONE OK ROCK, L'arc~en~Ciel, etc but at that time I didn't really like them for some reasons. As a background, I listened to many classic rock and progressive rock bands during that time, such as Queen, Rush, and Genesis. Music like ONE OK ROCK, L'arc~en~Ciel, etc just didn't touch me at time (I think it's because their music has less hooks, less melodic, and less 'artistic' compared to the classic rock and progressive rock bands I mentioned earlier). So, Mrs. GREEN APPLE is the first Japanese music that I really like the most. After listening to 「青と夏」, I tried to listen their other songs such as the songs from the「はじめてのMrs. GREEN APPLE」 album, the "TWELVE" album, and their self-titled album. At the first time listened to the albums I mentioned earlier, I immediately love them. At that time, the "ENSEMBLE" album was already released, but I don't really like it at that time (but now I loved it!) for some reasons (I thought it was due to the music in this album was so much different compared to their previous albums I mentioned earlier. In their previous albums, their songs were dominated by guitar-driven rock songs, while in the ENSEMBLE album, Mrs. GREEN APPLE tried to experimenting composing many "theatrical" songs such as "Love Me, Love You", "PARTY", and "They are", to name a few. Besides, they also tried to experimenting playing electronic rock songs.). Among the 「はじめてのMrs. GREEN APPLE」 album, the "TWELVE" album, and their self-titled album, "TWELVE" is my favorite, because at that time I really liked every single song in this album. 

In this album, their songs were dominated by guitar-driven rock songs, but we can also feel the piano sound in their songs, I think it is a unique thing for a hard rock band incorporating acoustic piano in their music. Many of their songs in this album can be categorized as hard rock, such as 「パブリック」, 「愛情と矛先」, 「藍」, and「ミスカサズ」. Besides hard rock songs, there is also several pop rock songs that I would like to describe it as "bright" and "cheerful" such as "Speaking", "SimPle", 「キコリ時計」, and「庶幾の唄 」. Speaking about 「キコリ時計」, this song incorporates a string and a horn ensemble, which makes this song sounds magnificent and lavish. I think this is the only Mrs. GREEN APPLE album without much orchestral arrangement, which is only present in the 「キコリ時計」song (compared to their other albums) & showcasing their ability (actually every song in this album was composed by Motoki Ohmori) to compose a solid melodic rock music. The combination of these compositions makes this album colorful. Besides, there is also a ballad song in this album, 「私」, which now this song was featured in Gogo no Koucha's commercial advertisement video in 2025. 

Below are three of my favorite songs in this album:

1. 「SimPle」
This song was opened by a catchy bassline. i think it is pretty rare for Mrs. GREEN APPLE to highlight a bassline. The vocal part is also very melodic and catchy, and this makes me love this song. Although this is my favorite song, I think this song is pretty underrated such that it is really hard to find a footage of Mrs. GREEN APPLE performing this song in a live video. Maybe this song is rarely to be performed live.
2. 「パブリック」
A catchy hard rock song. One of the heaviest hard rock songs by Mrs. GREEN APPLE. When I was in my sophomore year of my undergraduate, I always played this song before I went to campus. This song also features a keyboard solo, instead of a guitar solo (compared to placing a guitar solo instead, which is a common practice in rock music), reminding me of Deep Purple a bit. Even though Mrs. GREEN APPLE now just changed their musical direction and no longer plays hard rock (except for a few song such as 「延々」, and probably "Loneliness"), this song recently performed in their latest tour "BABEL no TOH" along with their other hard rock songs such as "Ke-Mo Sah-Bee", etc.
3.  「ミスカサズ」
Another hard rock song from this album. Like 「パブリック」, I always played this song before I went to campus. This song somehow has a similar vibe to 「パブリック」, except this song has a more unique guitar riff compared to「パブリック」. This song also lacks an instrumental solo compared to「パブリック」.

I also feel Mrs. GREEN APPLE's songs in this album sounds much more complex compared to other famous Japanese rock band such as ONE OK ROCK, which makes me decided to not listening to other Japanese popular rock bands other than Mrs. GREEN APPLE. If anyone finds me liking popular Japanese music, trust me I only listen to Mrs. GREEN APPLE & never ask me about whether I like other Japanese popular bands than Mrs. GREEN APPLE haha.