Year: 2021
Total Time: 51:59
Label: The Player’s Club / Mascot Label Group
Marty Friedman is a legend in the metal guitar world. Starting from Vixen/Hawaii in the early 80’s, he then made a big impression with Cacophony and later on he was the only star that could match Dave Mustain’s brightness in Megadeth from 1990 and the seminal “Rust In Piece” to 1999’s “Risk” … Meanwhile, he released three solo albums between 1992 and 1996 which featured Megadeth’s Nick Menza on drums following his historic 1988’s debut “Dragon’s Kiss”. The story after Megadeth involves bands such as Tourniquet, Enzo and the Glory Ensemble, and 13 more solo studio and live albums. Since he moved in Tokyo, Japan, he appeared on television many times hosting also his own shows.
In 2021 Marty Friedman releases his Tokyo Jukebox number 3. The number one and two were respectively released in 2009 and 2011 and this hole concept has to do with Japanese pop songs revisited in a more prog metal/Friedman style manner. So, to cut a long story short, it’s a cover album. Friedman is covering Japanese artists but he’s also covering himself as in 2018 he composed a song called “Perfect World” for the Netflix series “B: The Beginning” and we have a completely new and different version of this track in the album entitled “The Perfect World” with Alfakyun on vocals.
We have also an original: The album’s final track “Japan Heritage Official Theme Song”. It’s the song that Marty Friedman composed for the Japanese government for official state functions. Traditional Japanese music, Marty’s guitar, a symphonic orchestra and his wife Hiyori on cello. That’s at least a-typical, ambitious and beautiful respecting the Japanese musical inheritance through the artist’s personal aesthetic prism.
With its 12 tracks and 52-minute runtime, Tokyo Jukebox 3 brings to mind every anime’s intro that was using a hard rock or metal style arrangement. It’s lives happily into the j-pop universe and we hear nothing that we’ve never heard before. BUT the fact that an extraordinary musician such as Marty Friedman undertakes to carry out such an artistic vision, makes all the difference in the world. The melodies flow effortlessly and the arrangements are full of interesting ideas. It’s like a painting of a fruit ball made by a grand master: It’s nothing you’ve never seen before as a theme, but the work of art itself opens a window to the very nature of the object, it reveals a sacred truth.
Rating: 7,5/10
Editor: Yiannis Tziallas
Related Link: MARTY FRIEDMAN – Official Page
