1.	A beautiful greed(introduction)
2.	±0
3.	CARVE WITH THE SENSE
4.	Who are you?
5.	Under the rain
6.	ファンタジア
7.	星のひとひら
8.	HUM
9.	ucess(inst.)
10.	Bright & Right
11.	I stand free
12.	OVER

I was pretty excited when the new Acidman CD came on. I tore open the brown packaging, stared hungrily at the shiny gloss that covered the CD, and destroyed that too. I then placed CD into my player and ripped the hell out of it. When it was safe in my player... I put on my earphones, and like a thirsty man desperate for ambrosia, listened.

You can say I was quite stoked when A Beautiful Greed came along. I'm a big fan of ACIDMAN. Been buying their CDs for 3 years now. Enjoying them... mostly. Of course, then Life came along. And that was... rubbish. Enjoyed a grand total of 2 songs on that album. Hated it. Had nothing really redeeming about it. Which was why I desired A Beautiful Greed. I NEEDED some new sonic landscape to wash away all the bad, bad mojo that flooded my ears last year. I needed some validation of my fandom. Hell, I wanted to fall in love with ACIDMAN again.

I have to say, they did try. They attempted a mix of old and new. Provided a concoction of heavy rock and mellow jazz. Opening track begins with rhythmic keys backed by a lone cello. This quickly escalates in urgency and suddenly, the drums come in fast and furious. In 2 minutes, I am drowning in gorgeous imagery... which leads to ±0, that rocked my socks off with pounding drums and janging guitars. Like Foo Fighters with heavier vocals. Next track continued the trend with their single "Carve with the sense", which was flawed in repetition and simplistic choruses, but was technically brilliant. I craved more.



But that was it.

The next track was a filler. Forgivable. Then another single "Under the rain", which really doesn't know what it wants to be. I get smooth vocals, emo backings... then a jarring change in beats, some screams and crashing guitars... then rinse repeat. "Hum" was a disaster, one that consisted of falsettos and unsure sounds in a bid to be epic. IN ENGRISH. Their instrumental piece was a simple mish mash of bass and guitar beats. Nothing like the inventiveness of Sai, nor the mindblowing epicness of Sol. No, just... sounds. Alas, if you're searching for something new in this album... it's pretty lacking here. It's kinda like listening to an album of filler songs.

However, there are gems. And funnily enough, they aren't the heavy ones. Jazz numbers like "Bright and Right" are beautifully mellow, and does showcase how good they can be when they aren't trying to sound important.

And I think that's the problem. Their first 2 albums had the right mix of riotous fun, punk-styled technically awesome riffs and soothing ballads. Equal was pretty much their magnum opus. And World and Green Chord drifted towards the mellow, but paved a new wave of prog rock that blew my mind. Then, ACIDMAN tried making every song they played important. They placed too much thought in what the song would mean. And that just doesn't work. Equal almost ended up badly, but because the album meshed so well, the effect was brilliant. Life, well, not so brilliant. And A Beautiful Greed, not exactly forgettable, but I'll stick with my backlist thanks.

Newcomers might enjoy it though. Who knows. I might just be jaded.

3/5 stars. What I want to see is a CD of all their jazzy B-Sides.