Now, Gilbert's a 6 string maniac and can shred with the best of them, but what elevates him above the rest of the pack is that he comes across as an out and out cool guy to hang out with. 'What the hell does that have to do with the most of us, who aren't going to have that opportunity very often, or like...never', you ask? A sound query. The thing is, believe it or not, music is frequently a conduit for fun, and there's a theory that when the person creating it is having a gala time, there's a good chance that it ends up rubbing off on the person who's listening to it. Judging by the number of times I broke out into a goofy grin while this album was playing, I'd say that recording studio must have been a sort of carnival.

This basically picks up from where 2006's rock-solid Get Out of my Yard left off, and Paul has once again opted for the wise route of avoiding vocals (his own, to be specific), which weren't really the strongest points of his repertoire, and just sticks with the songwriting and playing-his-ass-off business. The tunes in this album are infectiously catchy, varied, quirky and damn well paced, throwing in chunks and pieces of blues, pop, classical and rock and coming out looking like something from a Miyazaki film. Like the castle in Howl's Moving Castle, you know? All different parts stuck together here and there, but it works! Yeah, that was the analogy I was going for. So...

Needless to say, his mastery of the instrument helps out as well. He's got this almost lazy virtuoso style that snaps fluidly between indulgent noodling and surgical precision runs, seeming to say, “Prove myself? Didn't you listen to Superheroes ? That's not proof enough?!” The kind of thing that makes people all over want to pick up a guitar with a heroic pose - if only for a few moments, before accepting their inadequacy and setting it down again with a sigh of resignation.

I suspect that, had Girubetu-san not been an axeslinger, he could have been hosting some TV show in Japan (called 'See the Crazy Gaijin!') or dancing in a tutu for Marty Friedman music videos. Thankfully, that's not how it turned out and he's making some of the best music of his life right now. Great to know that he's having such a blast while he's at it.



Year of release: 2008
Label: Shrapnel