Review by Arthur Doctolero

It is refreshing to hear SCANDAL to go back to their vintage sound with more matured lyrics. However, the entire album is trying hard to be too dark and depressing. The highlights of the album are Haruna Ono's Dolores O'Riordian-esque vocal range on "Short Short" and Tomomi Ogawa's superb job as a songwriter for a tearjerker entitled "Mado Wo Aketara." There are considerably out of place tracks such as their 2016 single "Take Me Out" and the upbeat "Electric Girl". Also, the sexy album cover does not suit well on the ironically darker content of the album.

Girls in school uniform and garage rock music make a good mix. Haruna Ono's soulful vocals blends well with bassist Tomomi Ogawa's childlike vocals. Although, the music has lots of influences by Avril Lavigne and Paramore, SCANDAL pulled off their debut album pretty well. Bad*ss indeed!

It's refreshing for SCANDAL to release Hello World, an album with 80% of the contents written by themselves. Third track entitled Love in Action has traces of progressive rock which is a personal favorite. Onegai Navigation, Hon Wo Yomu, and Kan Beer are typical pop rock songs with clever hooks. Hello World sounds much better on vinyl too! However, Hello World falls a little short form being a classic album, because there are songs such as Runners High and Place of Life which considered a lackluster. Highly Recommended.

The best songs to listen to are Heaven Na Kibun, Love, and Suki-Suki. Overall, Yellow is ambitious, diverse, bold, and adventurous.