Plastic Tree
Chandelier

Among the many strange titles one can give to an album, one of the most bizarre I know is "Chandelier". It's a French word that literally means "candelabrum", but in the English dictionary it has taken on the meaning of "artistic chandelier", like those from Murano or made of crystal, enormous, with almost more of a monumental than functional purpose. In fact, on the cover of "Chandelier", the seventh album by the Japanese band Plastic Tree, there is a large reddish, caramel-colored glass chandelier.

The album was released in 2006 and since then I've wondered what meaning such a title could have; I've come up with various explanations, and the most convincing I've found are three: either the band considers this album beautiful and sees it as the brightest in their career (as if it should serve as a point of reference for the future), or the album is seen as a collection of distinct tracks, but united to form a single element (like a chandelier, indeed, holds candles), or perhaps the Plastic Tree simply liked the sound of the word (which in Japanese is pronounced more or less like "chian-de-rià"). The third explanation is probably correct, and the second is very suggestive, but as a fan, I can't help but fantasize and consider the first hypothesis as correct.

"Chandelier" is truly a luminous album, brilliant: not in the sense that it exudes happiness, but in the sense that each track possesses such immense quality that it is full of light. The biennium 2005-2006 is a golden moment for Plastic Tree: excellent sales, sold-out concerts, continuous television and radio appearances, critical acclaim, and even the release of an EP in the West. Behind this great success lies the achieved ability to write formally perfect rock tracks: with the five singles Sanbika, Namae No Nai Hana, Ghost, Kuuchuu Buranko, and Namida Drop Plastic Tree reached the perfection of song form achieving a high standard where every composition is always the same and always different. With "Chandelier" the band decides to undertake a scientific experiment and challenge themselves by setting a very specific compositional limit where each track is structured like this: a micro-introduction of a few seconds different from the rest of the song, two stanzas, a bridge, chorus, one stanza, bridge, chorus, variation, chorus, conclusion (strictly without ad libitum fading). On this post-Beatlesque scheme, Plastic Tree builds an incredibly successful stylistic exercise. All thirteen tracks are very strong, and it's striking how Ryutaro Arimura and Tadashi Hasegawa's band managed to combine the fixed scheme they set themselves in ever-different ways: from the hard rock of "Ghost" to the new wave of "Namae No Nai Hana", from the ballad "Last Waltz" to the post-punk of "Hate Red", "Dip It", from the pop of "37°C" to the electronics of "puppet talk". Introspective lyrics, but not sad, and really sweet and beautiful melodies united with exceptional arrangements, as only the camaraderie of those who have known each other for many years can produce. "Chandelier" is not Plastic Tree's most beautiful album, but it clearly shows their talent: every limit creates a challenge, every challenge can be won or lost, and in this case, it is won splendidly.

A final small note on the aforementioned European EP: it is titled "What is "Plastic Tree""? and contains the four singles "Sanbika", "Namae No Nai Hana", "Ghost", and "Kuuchuu Buranko" with their respective four b-sides; one of these, "Paranoia", is probably the perfect pop song, born from a well-thought-out experiment as was "Friday I'm in Love" by The Cure and equally successful.