photo by Joshua Pickering; photo courtesy of Eddie Japan

Album Review of Eddie Japan: Pop Fiction

Eddie Japan is one of Boston’s top local rock bands. Stylistically, they’re a big stage-filling, theatrical rock act. At the same time, Eddie Japan is also simply a rock band, a very talented one with its own big style. The best comparison might be to Queen or Meat Loaf but more mid-tempo, closer to the middle than to the hard rock end of the rock spectrum. Eddie Japan is a band with a big personality, one you might dress a little nicer to go see in concert, even if half of the room is still dressed down.

The first five songs are a re-release of the band’s 2019 EP The Amorous Adventures of Edward Japan. But that’s not an EP I had heard before, so the songs are all new to me, and they’re impressive! Those first five songs from Pop Fiction could easily be the soundtrack album from a big Hollywood musical or a cast recording from a Broadway musical. A quirky musical, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Or, better yet, Little Shop of Horrors might be a better fit. The rest of the album is stylistically similar, and many of the songs seem thematically related, but they don’t fit quite as neatly and tightly as the first five. It’s just a slight disconnect that doesn’t affect the enjoyment of this beginning-to-end kickass rock album, not even a little, but once I discovered the EP, it made more sense.

So let’s talk about the music. Big songs, a theatrical delivery style for the most part, killer hooks that’ll have you singing the songs for weeks. Pop Fiction is an impressive release. It’s no wonder the band and album received some nominations during the 2023 awards season. At the 2023 New England Music Awards, for example, the band was nominated for Act of the Year. In addition, “Time Machine,” a song Eddie Japan recorded with The Cars’ Greg Hawkes on keyboard, was nominated for Song of the Year and Video of the Year, winning the Video of the Year category with this clever music video. Meanwhile, David Santos received a Vocalist of the Year nomination from the Boston Music Awards.

Eddie Japan is a big, dramatic rock band with an equally big line-up. Or, at least, many – seven! – band members: Eric Brosius (guitars), Emily Drohan (vocals), Chuck Ferreira (drums/percussion), Bart LoPiccolo (guitars) Charles Membrino (bass), Aaron Rosenthal (keyboards), and David Santos (vocals).

cover design by Todd Alcott; image courtesy of Eddie Japan

Greg Hawkes appears on a pair of the disc’s songs – “I Can’t Wait” and the award-nominated “Time Machine” – and has performed with Eddie Japan on occasion, including for performances of The Cars’ music. You can hear Hawkes’ progressive pop-friendly rock keyboardwork in those songs, but there’s a similar broad-appeal, quirky rock vibe on many of the other tracks, as well. I suppose that’s why the partnership works so well. Could Eddie Japan simply be The Cars but with a more prominent rhythm section and a pair of very different outstandingly talented vocalists? That may be stretching it a little, but they’d certainly have been an ideal pairing at a big arena concert.

The album itself begins with “Edward Descending,” kicking off with a relatively high-tempoed beat. This song leaves a strong first impression and brings to mind a movie musical dance number. Particularly at the end of the song, the vocals bring to mind – for me, at least – one of Meat Loaf’s more theatrical numbers. It’s also the sort of fun, concert-opening song that’ll get a concert hall onto its feet, dancing to the rock music if there’s room to dance. Probably even if there isn’t room.

“Summer Hair,” next, is a smooth, floating, soaring number that starts off innocuous enough but grows on you – as you discover the nuanced arrangement over the course of multiple listens – to become one of your favorites. The singalong lyric here would be: “Take my hand, the summer’s almost gone. I’d rather fall with you than stand on my own.”

It’s followed by an easy quick favorite, “If I Should Fall.” It’s musically and lyrically dynamic with an irresistible rhythm. And what’s creating that rhythmic, bouncy squeak? Is that a keyboard sound? Heck, it almost sounds like the theremin, which I’m only even familiar with because Sheldon had one on The Big Bang Theory. No, not exactly. Regardless, if I wanted to get myself pumped up for a night out or a big event or a competition or even if I was just looking for a song to crank up to fill the dancefloor, this would be my choice. And, let’s say, I wanted to dance around my house, with the shades drawn so none of my friends or neighbors could see me jumping around like a lunatic? Yes, this would be the song. (Not that I’ve ever done that, of course.)

Next, “The Dandy of Suburbia” is a slower-paced number, melancholic, and lyrically clever. Then “Undertow” with its singalong phrase “do you want, do you want, do you want, do you want me now” follows, serving as a solid lead-in to the first post-Amorous EP track, “I Can’t Wait,” with its pulsing rhythm, palpable tension, and periodic musical eruptions, climaxing twice with the lyrics “Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh! I get away!” in the middle of the song, before calming down a bit, but returning again near the end.

photo by Jenny Bergman; photo courtesy of Eddie Japan

Next up, “Lost Weekend” is a fun, Eddie Japan-ified mid-tempo rocker, one of my faves on this disc, that’d be one of the more charismatic songs on most rock bands’ albums but is almost tame compared to some of the more theatrical songs in this collection.

“Walk Away” brings a bit more energy and power, though its style is still straightforward rock ‘n roll, with plenty of raucous guitar and drums but also some of those nifty pop-infused quirky keyboard rock sounds you might expect from a Beantown band with a clear Cars connection.

“Time Machine,” which is accompanied by this award-winning video, is a peppy classic pop-rock number. You can hear Greg Hawkes’ contribution here, though the hand-claps and the steady guitar riffs also contribute to the song’s very ’80s pop-rock hit flavor, resulting in another broad-appeal favorite from this album.

Penultimate track “The Pull of the Moon” is slow, airy, and eerily dramatic (also, lyrically dramatic: “I will not dance with your cold lunacy…”), with occasional builds to power, though still just a soft power. Very atmospheric and cool.

“Rented Rooms” concludes the disc with a song that ties things together very… well, as Eddie Japan might say, cinematically. The song has a big sound, a bouncy rhythm, and intriguing lyrics, such as “And now she stands before me as naked as a flower, and I’m searching for my higher self in a room rented by the hour.” Indeed, just like the preceding EP, this song itself is an amorous adventure. And, musically, a fun final song to an album that’s a party-on-a-disc from beginning to end.

Pop Fiction is an engagingly fun listen. It’s well-written, elaborately instrumented, potentially interesting to audiophiles and casual listeners alike. With its crossover appeal, it’s one of those albums that will have an honored place in music collections of fans spanning a broad range of pop and rock subgenres because, while it does have that broad appeal, Pop Fiction is unlikely to be like anything else in your collection. If you’ve not yet heard the album, give it a listen.

Looking Ahead

The “Shows” page on the band’s website lists a Saturday, May 11th gig in Plymouth, MA and a Saturday, September 28th show in Malden, MA. Eddie Japan also performs the music of The Cars with Greg Hawkes. You can find several upcoming dates listed on the “w/ Greg Hawkes” page of the website, with the next show on Friday, May 3rd in Old Saybrook, CT (as confirmed by this Instagram post). Additional dates listed include Friday, June 28th in Sellersville, PA, Saturday, June 29th in Annapolis, MD, Saturday, July 13th in Natick, MA, Saturday, July 20th in Toronto, and a Saturday, August 10th show listed simply as “TBA.” The band also announces upcoming gigs on Facebook and Instagram, so those are alternative sources for show information. These are definitely must-see shows if you’re local to one of those cities or if Eddie Japan adds a gig near you.