Mitsubishi Macchiato was the working title for a Vampire Weekend album, an album their fans have been waiting on for a couple of years after the release of critically acclaimed album Modern Vampires of the City that got released in May 2013. Eventually, this fourth album received a different title and a release in 2019.
The working title, given in the spring of 2017, was enough for the fans to get excited about it, but also to discuss what this title was supposed to mean. It seems that this title was never used for any other release of the American indie rock band, but it is still stuck unto the band. Why talking about a working title, if it isn’t even being used as an official title plus? Plus, you are reading this article on a Japan-related website! Well, Japanese indie band Helsinki Lambda Club probably thought it was time to claim the title for their newest digital single.
While you can describe Helsinki Lambda Club as an alternative rock band, the inspiration and roots of this band and especially the band leader Kaoru Hashimoto, makes it an interesting musical mixture from 70s rock to current indie-pop. The band started out in 2013 and have become a well-known name in the Japanese rock scene. It seems that they are also gaining attention from outside Japan, which is understandable with the way how they are making attractive music videos and addictive tunes.
In the music video for the digital single ミツビシ・マキアート (Mitsubishi Macchiato), the first seconds of it suggest that we are dealing with an early Halloween music video but it soon turned into a cheerful song with psychedelic and colourful elements in the video itself. It includes zoom-ins with a fish-eye lens on the band members while they are playing in a location that looks like a gymnastics hall although the decorations make it doubtful.
The lyrics refer to Vampire Weekend, including mentions of a couple of tracks that the band produced, but also Canadian garage rock band Peach Kelli Pop. The song and music video make it seems to be an ode to the cheerful pop/garage-punk music that the world knows best, short, fast and catchy, but also a big nod towards the American band Vampire Weekend.
ミツビシ・マキアート (Mitsubishi Macchiato) is one of the tracks that can be found back on Helsinki Lambda Club’s upcoming album, titled Eleven plus two / Twelve plus one, with 25th of November as the release date. It’s a brilliant title for an album, because they are anagrams of each other. The album was set to release this summer, but got postponed to November due to the influence of COVID-19. The concept of the album is described as the past, present and future of the band.
