Pizzicatomania!

AMG Review of Pizzicatomania!

Ted Mills
All Music Guide

A compilation of 12" tracks and rare releases from the first incarnation of the Pizzicato Five. This is light and fluffy techno-pop that would probably be of little interest to most if the group hadn't gone on to greater things. Two of the best songs here, "The Audrey Hepburn Complex" and "Action Painting," are almost too much for singer Mamiko Sasaki, who gets lost in the driving arrangements. Yasuharu Konishi and Keitaro Takanami would revisit most of these songs on later albums, showing that there was always something good buried within them. The last track, "What's New, Pizzicato?," is a collage of the preceding collection of songs.