The solo section is quite possibly Manabe’s finest moment, and his guitar swirls in synchronous orbit with the basslines of Jun Suzuki (who replaced Tatsuya Kashima as a supporting bassist, starting on this album.) This is what rock is all about. Manabe’s guitar shimmers and refracts against Sawao’s punchy vocals, before the instrumental climax in which The Pillows reach their implacable goal of sonic enlightenment. But any disappointment is swept away by the majestic hooks of 'Crazy Sunshine,' which closes the album’s first half with the biggest song yet. 'Our Love And Peace' is one of the few low points of Happy Bivouac, a forgettable mid-tempo song that fails to capture the melancholy of Little Busters’ more somber moments. The song is musically pretty simple, but is a perfectly composed pop-rock single that utilizes each of its parts to maximum effect. It also represents how effectively The Pillows work with straightforward elements. While 'Last Dinosaur' is a soaring power anthem, 'Carnival' is a crunchy, down-to-earth rock song that features outstanding lead guitar work from Manabe, and Yamanaka’s vocals are at their most cynical. Most bands would have difficulty following up on the promise of a track like 'Last Dinosaur,' but The Pillows accomplish it immediately afterward with 'Carnival,' another album highlight that remains one of the band’s most iconic songs. If I had to pick a single Pillows song that I was certain could hook a new listener, this would be it.

A desperate, driving song propelled by some of Shin’Ichiro Sato’s best drumming and powerful guitar hooks from Manabe, its chorus is easily one of the finest moments on the album, matched by a similarly-powerful guitar solo and driving outro. 'Last Dinosaur' is the album’s first high point the fact that anything else on the album can match its stratospheric quality, let alone surpass it, is a testament to the skill with which The Pillows concoct songs of this type. There’s a real sense of fun on this record, of the band genuinely enjoying playing with each other, but it never detracts from the music (as it tends to, unfortunately, on some later releases.) 'Rush' is a more successful take on fuzz-soaked grunge than the similar tracks on Runners High, but both of these tracks are simply warmup for the remarkable songs that follow. Happy Bivouac kicks off with an ebullient title track, showing great guitar interplay between Sawao Yamanaka and Yoshiaki Manabe. It’s unquestionably the high-water mark for The Pillows’ trademark brand of energetic alt-rock, an overall stronger album with more memorable songs and less filler than its predecessor. Lostman or Little Busters, but it hones the group’s anthemic power rock to its razor-sharp zenith. Like Runners High, Happy Bivouac doesn’t have the same emotionally diverse substance of Please Mr. Lostman and subsequently developed the band’s alternative rock sound across Little Busters and Runners High. Happy Bivouac arrived at latter end of a scorching creative streak that began with 1997’s Please Mr. It’s startling to think that The Pillows released two albums in 1999 – Runners High in January, and Happy Bivouac in December – and even more impressive that the latter completely eclipses the first. Review Summary: The Pillows carve out their niche with a red-hot knife.

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