[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUDmKnZVah0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
School Food Punishment make like Commando on “Futuristic Imagination” and ruin the bad guy’s shit. The villain here is the ever-present J-Pop Ballad, oversaturating Japan’s pop charts and taking violin strings hostage as the unfortunate hallmark of the sound. This dreadfully named four-piece throw a steam pipe through the ballad’s chest and saves the violin, freeing it from the pits of cheez and making it the pivotal sound of “Futuristic Imagination.” This song is basically a J-Pop Ballad at the speed of rock, all the emotion of a slower song oozing out of those strings and those vocals while also sounding completely enjoyable. And I love the clicking noise just running underneath part of this track. School Food Punishment reinvigorate the ballad here, and in a just world would end up like John Matrix…a hero worthy of a lot of praise.