Cibo Matto’s debut disc, Viva Woman!, was apparently a favorite for many listmakers. Besides being one of yours truly’s “Top Ten Non-Hip-Hop Albums of 1996″, it also somehow managed to land on Time Magazine’s “Top Ten All-Time Hip-Hop Albums”(?). More recently, it closed out the “Top 90 of ‘90″ as compiled by Spin, who described Yuka & Miho’s eclectic mix as “hip-hop beats, piquant samples, ESL food poetry, and girl-power signifying”.
While the lyrical preoccupation with eating (Cibo Matto means “food madness”) has been toned down a bit on their follow up dish, Stereotype A is still filled with the same engaging variety of musical tastes. From the samba-like “Flowers” to the heavy metal “Blue Train” to the Tokyo/NYC stomp of “Sci-Fi Wasabi”,Cibo Matto remain unstereotypable.
The two-part “Sunday” starts off with hip-hop attitude, propelled by rhythmic scratching, and slowly melts into a soft-spoken song that sounds like a lonely rainy afternoon. The seriously funky remix of “Spoon” and the free-spirited groove of “Lint of Love” (which brings to mind Dee-lite’s “Groove is in the Heart”) are both great examples of how the girls and their fellow band members can jam. Credit for successfully, and seemingly effortlessly, pulling off the dizzy array of styles goes not only to supa-producer Yuka Honda but to all the musicians (the band really consists of Miho, Yuka, Sean Lennon and Timo Ellis) who clearly form a tight-knit unit. The numerous, varied guest musicians blend in well while adding extra flavor.
Vocally, Miho has improved noticeably. On Viva Woman, she showed she had the chops for serious grrl power growling and the sugar to blow j-pop bubbles. On Stereotype A’s numerous ballads, though, she displays not only her voice’s range but its *feeling*. This is especially important since the meaning behind many of Miho’s songs can be very hard to get at, especially without the emotional clues. Honestly, with the first album, I frequently found myself wondering how often the food references were meant as sexual innuendo — ‘Is this just a cute Japanese girl writing silly stuff about white pepper ice cream or do I just have a dirty mind?’ Probably just the latter because Stereotype A certainly has its share of nonsensical lyrics (”Surely not Moby, Obi-Wan Kenobi told me in the lobby…”)
While nothing here really equals the more sublime moments (like the three part “Theme”) on their debut, repeated listenings will definitely reveal Cibo Matto’s second platter to be just as satisfying.
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