Marty Friedman
Tokyo Jukebox 3

It has been a decade since last time Friedman gave us the latest Tokyo Jukebox, version two. Now he has found some new J-Pop songs to bring to life in the third iteration of the Tokyo Jukebox. It certainly doesn’t look terrific, but we all know the skills of the guitarist in question, therefore it is not impossible that the album is terrific.

It doesn’t differ that much from the previous jukebox in terms of the musical style, it is mostly instrumental rockers with high paced playing and distinctive melodies, Friedman certainly makes the songs his own and perhaps that leads to a slight lack of variation despite the variety in the source material. The production is excellent, and Friedman’s skill obvious and a distinctly strong feature of this album. Another strong feature is the track called The Perfect World, it stands out because it has vocals, a great female voice that might make this the most interesting of the twelve tracks on the album, an album that requires a bit over fifty minutes to be played from start to finish.

It is great, I really like the strong melodies, the appealing guitar playing and the great songs of the album. It might be a little bit on the long side, I wouldn’t have minded if two of the songs were removed to make it more compact and less long. In the end though it is the one different track that really stand out, not just because it is different on this album, it is a brilliant track and makes me wonder why Marty only did one of those songs. More tracks like that could have been beneficial for the album, I would have liked to hear more like that.

In end it is an album worth checking out, there is a very high likelihood that you will like it. It is a fine musical highlight of 2021, not the best but certainly one of those that will be worth looking closer at. I think Friedman shows off his skills, but not only that as he has given us a great collection of songs here. So, why not check it out? I don’t think you will be disappointed as Marty once again proves how great he is.

HHHHHHH