It might be tempting to label Anamanaguchi’s fourth studio album “their most mature yet”, as the NYC chiptune heroes begin to step away from the console and pick up a full-band sound that synthesizes their chirpy bitrates into blistering power pop. On the contrary, Anyway revels in the dramatic irony of a band of 30-and-40-somethings diving headfirst into the slacked-out emo of yesteryear, uncouthly becoming the most compelling glimpse into the group thus far. Just like the addictive lo-bit games that molded their sound, it’s not easy to put down.

Anyway is not a complete sonic reinvention, and it’s not a rejection of the sounds that the group rode to success, either. The album’s standout quality ends up manifesting as the melding of analog indie rock and emo fare with the ever-present 8-bit buzz of spritely synths, playing out like a grungy, riff-heavy SNES fantasy. Tracks like “Really Like To” and “Sapphire” translate soaring chiptune melodies into rollicking retro-rippers, while “Magnet” and “Rage (Kitchen Sink)” breathe a digitized sense of life into classic emo tropes.

Anyway’s predecessor, 2019’s [USA], felt like a similarly expansive approach to the Anamanaguchi sound – the chipper tones of their early Nintendo worship gave way for sweeping synths, taking on tones of eyes-to-the-sky inspiration and wistfulness in a concentrated exercise of taking up space. Frontman Peter Berkman said of the two projects, “the overarching theme of [USA] was about a voice forming and learning how to speak – a kind of artificial one. Anyway is the next step, it’s about discovering the band’s voice.” If there’s an elephant in the room, it’s that the album cover for Anyway was shot in front of the same house that dons the cover of American Football’s seminal 1999 debut, a seemingly unassuming duplex tucked away in the sleepy town of Urbana, Illinois, where the group  wrote the album, during a month-long stint as tenants of the house in 2024. The album was later recorded with producer Dave Fridmann (Interpol, MGMT, Spoon) at Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, NY.

For a group that’s been known to specialize in sugary, synthesized soundscapes, one of Anyway’s greatest accomplishments is ultimately how roomy it sounds. Although many of its tracks find bliss in the jagged edges of raucous, dissonant guitar feedback, the band has never sounded more harmonious than they do right now – if their past work sounded like it was born of the ethernet, their new sound is the basement LAN party that brings a group of buzzing, hotwired brains into the same room for something amicably human.

Pre-order Away by Anamanaguchi HERE