Vocal/Guitar: Hirabayashi Kazuya
Bass: Kudo Tetsuya
Guitar/Vocal: Kurosawa George
Drums: Katayama Yutaka

Fine Lines is the latest band formed by Kazuya Hirabayashi and Tetsuya Kudo, both of Husking Bee fame. Kazuya Hirabayashi is probably known more for the singing voice of Koyuki in Beck for anime fans. It’s actually been around for a while even before Husking Bee disbanded according to the profile on the Toy’s Factory label site, but the first album only came out on March 2007 so that should probably justify why it took me so long to hear about Fine Lines. Either way, it’s really great to hear Kazuya Hirabayashi’s unparalleled voice back in the music scene. I actually had a friend listen to the album I just got as well, and he has expressed that hearing that voice again after a long time made him want to watch and read Beck again.

As for my thoughts on this band with that one album I heard, I’ll start with the slightly bad news. The music is in the same straight forward emotional rock style as Husking Bee, yet the music is below a couple of notches making it average. Although their first album substratosphere was good, it just didn’t seem to have a lot ideas backing it up. I still prefer tracks such as Brightest or Dawn and Gone from his Husking Bee days. Exception goes to the new song Blaze, which was the only song I really liked from the album. Well, that’s where Kazuya Hirabayashi comes in to save the band with his vocals. The good news on the other hand is that he’s leading singer for Fine Lines so we’ll be hearing him a lot. Good for people who thought it was a pity he was just a secondary vocalist who didn’t get to sing much while in Husking Bee.

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Blaze

斜陽の方