Day 163: Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman

I’m a good way through my Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewatch and it made me think of a name that I haven’t heard in years. For the uninitiated, there’s a dodgy club on the show where there’s occasionally a real-life band performing, and one of the bands was Cibo Matto, so I’m going for Cibo Matto’s 1996 album Viva! La Woman today.

Album cover courtesy of Warner Music Records

Cibo Matto was an American band consisting of Japanese expats Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, formed in New York in 1994. They were both in a noise rock band together before deciding to start a group of their own, which they named after the Italian term for crazy food. The name makes sense listening to their debut album, as almost all of the lyrics on Viva! La Woman are centred around food.

I think I remember listening to a few of their songs many, many years ago and I concluded it’s not for me. Listening to it now, I don’t know why I wasn’t into it. The vibes on the album are excellent. It’s a pretty avant garde-ish trip hop album with a theme that’s not boring for even a single second. Take for example “Theme”, a song that’s horny and tender with an undercurrent of food that’s sang in three different languages, it changes constantly but never leaves you feeling like anything is out of place. I can’t really think of anyone who sounds like them. Maybe Björk.

I didn’t particularly think I’d dislike it if I gave it a chance but I also didn’t think I’d like it this much. It’s not really easy listening, you need to actually focus on it. I think I listened to the whole thing a tiny bit confused but enjoying it. The food theme might sound odd at first, but it does end up being the thread that runs through the project and keeps all of the moving parts together. It sounds like there’s more serious and less serious songs paired together, and while I enjoy some of the jauntier songs like “Birthday Cake” and “Know Your Chicken,” the aforementioned “Theme,” “Sugar Water” or “Artichoke” are still the high points of the record.

I’m finding myself wondering why they aren’t a bigger deal, this is almost a bit of an underrated masterpiece. A very strong 9.5/10 for this one, almost edging on a 10 but not quite.

Also, a few fun things to note about these guys:

1.        The band was later joined by Sean Lennon and Timo Ellis, and that’s how John Lennon’s son briefly appears on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2.        Miho Hatori was the original voice of Noodle in Gorillaz
3. Yuka Honda was a member of the Plastic Ono Band
4.        The music video below was directed by Michel Gondry, who also directed the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind