Asobi Seksu is one of those bands that seems to be permanently on tour. In the past year alone, they’ve played/will play at least three shows in the Chicagoland area, including one in the actual city in which I live. When a band tours that relentlessly, a person like me is bound to come across their name every now and then. Plus, with a name like Asobi Seksu, you can’t help but look them up. Let’s just ignore the fact that it took me around a year after first hearing about them to listen to a record.
I won’t try to front on y’all; I don’t know too much about the shoegaze genre of music. Yeah, I own a copy of Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, but doesn’t everybody? While I do enjoy that record, and find myself playing it every now and then, it didn’t send me on a mad search for similar music. Perhaps this inexperience of mine is responsible for my current state of confusion that came with listening to Citrus. The little research that I did today claims Asobi Seksu is a shoegaze band, with music similar to My Bloody Valentine. While I won’t deny that the comparison to MBV isn’t too much of a stretch, I don’t think shoegaze is what would have first come to mind if I were asked to describe Asobi’s music. The songs aren’t long enough, there isn’t enough feedback/distortion, they aren’t that loud, and they don’t sound all that much like a vacuum cleaner.
If this really is an example of shoegaze, then I should check out more from the genre. This is the type of record with music that just sucks you in, so you don’t even notice that half of the lyrics are in Japanese. Maybe I should see this band live at some point.
Swole Ear 
Was the omission of the fact that the group was playing “The Cave” at Carleton College on the day after your blog.an unintentional omission? That can’t be a happy prospect for a band that has been recording for almost a decade (though the singer looks happy enough in the picture http://asobiseksutime.tumblr.com/. Got to admire the dedication.