Have you ever discovered a group and become totally obsessed with their discography? Well that's me with the Japanese group MAX. One day I was searching for a Eurobeat song I had heard and came across the group. Instantly feel in love and needed their albums for my collection. One of the main ones I wanted to get was their first album MAXIMUM and it was a bit of work, but I finally got one earlier this year!
MAX MAXIMUM CD
MAXIMUM is first album from Japanese group MAX and it was released in December 1996. Wow that is a long time ago and that makes this album nearly 25 years old! Now with it being such an old album, it was a struggle to find one in great condition. There was plenty of listings for the album but I wanted one that included the OBI and wasn't too damaged. Luckily I found this one for a good price and snatched it up! There was two editions of this album; the CD and Promo Analog. The latter is a cool looking vinyl containing six tracks from the album. I've seen photos online and listings price it around 4000JPY. My copy of MAXIMUM came with the following contents:
CD - 13 track album
Jewel Case
Lyrics Booklet
OBI
Avex Promo Flyer
SUPER EURO FLASH ticket
The design of the album is very nineties but timeless. The front cover has the girls in suits with the MAX logo on the top half. The out-of-focus font kept throwing me off when I was searching through listings as it looks kind of scratched through the screen. The back cover has another image of the group wearing a very nineties get-up. Man I remember when this was the height of celebrity fashion. I had shoes like this and they were too big for me but I always wanted to wear them to parties. The track listing and production credits are listed on the back cover.
Inside you will find the CD of course which is in a strange white case. I've seen some Japanese CD's with this particular case colour, not sure if this was a company thing (like Avex). I know here in Australia older CD's often have a black insert part and I have quite a number of CD's with this (mainly soundtracks). I still see CD's in JB HiFi with the black insert part so they are floating around in 2022. Quite a number the auction listings I found for this album had discoloured inserts with it being a yellow colour. Some were quite impressive at how much it had changed colour tone. The design of the CD is amazing and very on brand for MAX. All the information is crammed on there and it's a very 1990's looking disc.
Managed to find a listing with an OBI in great condition. I saw a lot that were discoloured and you couldn't tell well that it is actually a shiny silver colour. I think this is one of the only OBIs I own that has the members on the spine! Usually you just get a small picture of the CD editions or a cut-out from the back photo on the back of the OBI. I've rarely seen actually group photos on the spine part.
Now onto the lyrics booklet and it has taken the top spot as my favourite lyrics booklet! I'm ranking it against other standard lyrics booklets I've reviewed and this one is amazing because you get a wealth of images and each image matches the concept of the group. There are just too many to choose a favourite however my favourite concept would be the outfits on the individual member pages. Such a nostalgic look and I always wondered as a kid how no one broke their legs dancing in those shoes. All the lyrics are included as well as production credits for the album. When I was first checking the booklet out after I received, I was excited to see Dave Rodgers had produced the album. Of course he did being very popular in the Eurobeat scene.
The back page of the lyrics booklet features this group image and an interesting fact is that quite a number of listings I found on Yahoo Auctions had this as the album cover. I was confused at first as I hadn't seen a MAX album with this cover and was confused at how I could miss an entire album from their discography. Eventually I figured out people had just switched around the lyrics booklet and I've seen this happen with other groups. One of my E-girls singles has a switchable cover and I think it's a cool idea that should be embraced more!
Isn't it crazy to believe the person who originally owned this album kept these inserts? The album is from 1996 and it's amazing these never got lost over the years. One is the usual flyer you get containing information on the company and seems like there was maybe some extras you could download online through the avex site. The other addition is a ticket to Velfarre SUPER EURO FLASH and boy do I wish I could've gone to that. It would've been amazing and I wish I could've visited Japan during the 1990's. That era has such awesome music and I do my Eurobeat. When is that going to make a comeback? C'mon Japan, have a Eurobeat revival please!!! If you brought the First Pressing of this album, there was a sticker included which I'm assuming the original owner used as it wasn't included.
Track listing time and it's impossible to pick one favourite song from this album as they are all killer! Looking at the tracks on the album which were released as singles, I would say TORA TORA TORA and GET MY LOVE! are my top picks then non-single track wise it would be LOVE LOVE FIRE, EXTASY and REALITY. Everything else is amazing and highly rated as well! This album is pretty much covers of Eurobeat songs and I've found myself actually looking up the originals! A lot are in English so it is quite cool to hear different lyrics.
This album is definitely worth it if you are a fan of 90's J-Pop or Eurobeat. One day I'll love to get more albums from MAX as their discography is one of the best I've seen from a Japanese group. The group is active today and still putting out bops! I wasn't able to post all the MV's from this album due to the usual copyright but they can easily be searched for on YouTube.
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