Hush

They've never really overhauled their sound, but Asobi Seksu have still managed, with the release of Hush, to subvert my expectations three consecutive times. In 2003, a name that loosely translates to "casual sex" and a J-Pop-inspired album cover certainly didn't add up in my mind to "passable c. 1996 Lush pastiche." Three years hence, after I'd forgotten about them, they go and drop Citrus, either a feat of reinvention or maturation, depending on who you ask, but a minor miracle either way. I still find myself listening to the gauzy, slo-mo bubble-gum of "Thursday" once or twice a week: a John Hughes film-ending, "Kim & Jessie"-style jam, it retains the power to make a simple walk down the street intensely melodramatic (and is by itself better than anything Lush ever did). Now, another three years have passed, Citrus made me look forward to Hush, and here I am again, a bit perplexed. And not just because I can't figure out what those mysterious woodland creatures are surrounding Yuki Chikudate on the cover.