This album starts with Samuel L. Jackson yelling at you that rock and roll isn't dead and "You are now fuckin' with the samurai guitarist." It's important to establish this quickly because I'm pretty sure it's the reason I like this album.
Without that context, I would've spent this post making fun of Samurai Sessions Vol. 3. It's an album that, after all, starts the way it does and the content that follows consists of unbelievably cornball hooks ("All I need is a runway, runway/ cause I'm taking off"), over-the-top guitar solos, and a guest artist on one song named AK-69. In any other circumstance, I'd find all of these things cringy at worst and dumb as shit at best. Except for the fact that an artist named himself AK-69, which is objectively great.
But the thing is that starting with Samuel L. Jackson gives me permission to enjoy it because it lets me know that the album's in on the joke. In fact, as far as I can tell, this is the only moment on the whole album that flashes this kind of self-awareness, which tells me that MIYAVI knows he's making something ridiculous but he's doing it earnestly. That's one of my favorite types of self-aware art.
The chorus to the song that follows Samuel's intro goes, "Imma do a rain dance/Do a rain dance/Imma do a rain dance/Shake it 'till it rains down." When I heard that out loud, I laughed. Then I asked myself if I was laughing with or at it. Honestly, I still can't tell. But at a certain point, I stopped worrying about it because I was having too much fun, and that feeling never really melted away.
I will say that I can't tell if anything I'm saying is sincere, and I can't tell if I really enjoyed this album or if it simply wore me down. But again, I don't think it matters. In spite of myself and my usual inability to enjoy stuff like this, I loved this stupid album, and bless its stupid stupid heart. MIYAVI's clearly a guy who's aware of the phallic nature of the guitar. What's not to love about that?
Favorite Songs: "U.G.L.Y," "Pink Spider (Remix)" "Me and the Moonlight"
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