text: overdrive ( shonen knife album ) overdrive is the 19th studio album by pop punk trio shonen knife . it was released on april 14 , 2014 in europe , and on april 16 , 2014 in japan . according to band leader naoko yamano , because their album free time ( 2010 ) was heavily influenced by punk rock , and pop tune ( 2012 ) had explored a more pop - oriented sound , overdrive was a chance for the band to explore a more hard rock sound . the album 's lyrics cover a wide array of topics , from green tea , fortune cookies , and cats . the cd album artwork was created by masahiko ohno ; three different color variations were released , with each corresponding to either japan , north america , or europe . the album received moderately positive reviews from critics , with many applauding the band 's dabbling in more harder rock , whereas others were critical of its musical and lyrical simplicity . production while shonen knife 's usual sound is ramones - inspired pop punk , the band branched out musically and listened to harder rock bands for overdrive , such as such as black sabbath , thin lizzy , bad company , deep purple , judas priest , boston , zz top , and the doobie brothers — for inspiration . described the album 's sound as a combination of " edgy guitar riffs with psychedelic 70s - esque enchanting nostalgia " . naoko yamano reasoned that because free time ( 2010 ) was heavily influenced by punk rock , and pop tune ( 2012 ) explored a more pop - oriented sound , overdrive represented an opportunity for the band to explore harder rock . because of the band 's exploration , the album 's name references the overdrive pedal , which , in yamano 's mind , conjured up images of 1970s rock music . in an interview with , yamano explained that her process for writing and recording has not changed substantially from the band 's early days : " i ’ m lazy and i don ’ t start writing songs until we book recording studio [ sic ] , but once we booked the studio , i can write songs quickly with concentration . then i send my demo to our members and we rehearse . at the recording studio , we start to record from basic tracks then overdub . " on this album , every member of the band also sings a unique song about a food item ; yamano sings " fortune cookie " , the band 's bassist ritsuko lends her vocals to " ramen rock " , and drummer emi morimoto can be heard on " green tea " . the first song was inspired by yamano fondness for eating a fortune cookie after a meal of chinese food in america ; after learning that the cookies were actually invented in japan , yamano decided to pen the song . " ramen rock " was inspired by 's habit of eating ramen after every show . finally , yamano asked morimoto to sing " green tea " because she is from kyoto , which is known for its green tea . other lyrical themes include on the album include tennis in " jet shot " , and cats in " like a cat " . regarding the former , yamano expressed in an interview that she had always wanted to write a song about tennis , but felt that , being a sport , it did not fit well with the style of the band 's music ; however , while watching a tennis match featuring kei nishikori on television , the announced called a move he had made a " great jet shot " . yamano was struck by the term , and used it as inspiration for a song about wanting to be a more aggressive tennis player . " like a cat " joins the long canon of shonen knife songs about cats . yamano explained , " i just like cats . dogs are sometimes too earnest , but cats are so free . " the band released a music video for the song , featuring cat videos submitted by their fans the world over . for the non - japan releases of the album , all songs were recorded with english lyrics . however , for the domestic release of the album , " dance to the rock " , " shopping " , and " like a cat " were recorded with japanese lyrics . critical reception overdrive received moderately positive reviews from critics ; metacritic , a review aggregator website , gave the album an average score of 67 out of 100 from 17 reviews , which indicates " generally favourable reviews " . nme awarded the album 7 out of 10 stars , with reviewer stuart huggett arguing that the album contained " personal and political lyrics far smarter than shonen knife ’ s cartoon image suggests . " zachary houle of pop matters awarded the album six out of ten stars , and mused that shonen knife 's fusing of punk and classic rock on the album " somehow work [ s ] " . houle , however , was critical of the band 's penchant for bordering closely on copying other artists ' music ; he argued that " bad luck song " and " black crow " are strikingly similar to thin lizzy 's " the boys are back in town " and kiss 's " black diamond " , respectively , but felt that " the album gets better as it goes along " . mark deming of allmusic awarded the album three out of five stars , commenting on the band 's musical shift ; he wrote , " by shonen knife 's standards , overdrive does sound like some sort of hard rock album , and the attempts to make like kiss , thin lizzy , or deep purple come off better than one might expect , though yamano 's guitar skills are less impressive than those of the average metal axe slinger . " deming complimented the charm of the album , but criticized yamano 's lyrics as " run - of - the - mill " , ill - fitting the change in musical direction . the site selected " black crow " , " ramen rock " , and " green tea " as album highlights . joe goggins of drowned in sound awarded the album 6 out of 10 stars , and complimented the band for successfully managing to release nineteen studio albums . however , he was slightly critical of the " derivative " nature of the band 's sound , as well as their " one - dimensional guitar playing and unrelentingly trivial lyrics " . track listing