Pleasant Disaster

Pleasant Disaster is the fourth album by Japanese rock band Girl on Run. This album was the first album that steadlocked Girl on Run in the grunge scene, along with their next album, Ayane, Miyako, and Ichigo. It was released on May 24, 1987.

The album was noted for its extreme difference from the previous Girl on Run albums. Ayane's songwriting was just as personal and sentimental, however, noted features in the instrumentation changed. This included the incorporation of more electronic instruments, like synthesizers and drum machines, and more solos from different instruments. Eight of the 15 tracks on the album have bass solos, which led to the album being pejoratively named "Ichigo's Very Own Album".

The cover art, depicting a woman shooting herself in the head with a pistol, was controversial upon release. Six different parental action groups sued the band for the cover art, citing a call to violence and self-injury. Ayane wrote a nine-page essay about why she thought the album cover was fitting, however, they were ordered to change it. However, their cynical response was also ordered to be changed.

The album, lyrically, was just as depressing and bleak as all their previous works. However, when interviewed, Ayane stated that she "wanted to really fuck people up. Like, imagine a happy song, but only at the end you figure it's about a woman getting raped. Really dark." Therefore, the instrumentation being catchier and upbeat led many fans to believe they sold out. However, upon closer inspection of the lyrics, it's quite the same.

The album was the last album they recorded with Oiran Japan, since their two-album contract was over. They also recorded at a beachside studio in Okinawa, inspiring Ayane to write "Warm Sunny People", which became a promotional single.

Background and recording
After the Stories from Chernobyl tour, Ayane became disillusioned with heavy metal. She wished to write music that was more personal and mellow than the heavy metal scene would allow. After the tour ended in January 1987, Ayane suffered a mental breakdown and went back to her hometown of Nakajima, hiding from the band. During those two months, she wrote and recorded a demo of an album she made. The album was more inspired by traditional Japanese music and drum-machine rock from California (this would become industrial rock in the 1990s.) This album was a rock opera, called Bleed For Me. It detailed Ayane's mixed feelings about success and her wish for a simpler life. Even though Ayane was a millionaire at this point, she still lived in a one-bedroom house in her hometown, stating that she didn't want to feel like she took advantage of her fans. She bought clothes from the thrift store and ate in small, cheap sushi houses.

She never released the album, stating that it was too whimsical and stupid, and abandoned the idea. However, three songs from the album, "Dirt Lust", "Sandwall", and "River Runs Dry" made it onto Pleasant Disaster.

Soon after, her bandmates found her at her house, and persuaded her to record her songs with them. They did, and they went to Okinawa, since Akina Rushizaya, their producer, was able to get cheap studio time at a studio there, because she was friends with the owner.

Ai Hirasawa, their good friend and manager, contributed backing vocals for "Dirt Lust".

Cover art
Pleasant Disaster underwent three separate album covers.

Upon release on May 24, 1987, the original album cover depicted a brunette woman in a white shirt with a red stripe that read "Fuck off", shooting herself in the head with a gun. Blood can be seen rushing out from the other side. The woman's eyes are pixelated. This immediately turned off stores from stocking it, and it was mainly distributed by underground vendors and small-town stores. Within two months, six different parental action groups sued the band, stating that "Girl on Run's offensive imagery undermined Japanese values and depicts Japan as a suicidal country.". They ordered that Girl on Run change the art and repay 600,000 yen to the people they sold it to. Ayane Hichigara wrote a nine-page essay about why she believed the cover was fitting, while Ichigo Osana delivered a speech defending the cover. While the courts disavowed the fine, they did make the band change art. Fans were displeased at the change of artwork, and Yoko Hakurajima, leader of the head parental action group, was met with death threats by fans."“Well, as you know, we hate being censored, but we want your money we want you to enjoy our music. If you wish for the original artwork, painstakingly made by our dear friend Kotone Otonashi, after about 3 days worth of binging on heroin, after 3 days of working hard, please mail us the censored art at the address below, and we'll mail you back with the original, unedited art, and a letter from one of us cause we're lonely cause we want to make new friends. Sincerely, your favorite girls on the run, Ayane, Ichigo, and Miyako.'""- The liner notes of the censored cover art." The album underwent a change on July 20, 1987, and the album art was changed due to the aforementioned lawsuit. It depicted a woman wearing student attire happily watering a tree, meanwhile having a noose around her neck. While not overtly offensive enough to be banned from stores, by December 1987, the same parental action groups sued for the second time. None of the band members showed up out of protest. However, they had to change their art again.

This time, they decided to make another album cover. The third one, and current one (below) is an image of Akina Rushizaya taken while she was high on salvia. She is in a parking lot during the rain. The parking lot in question was a Seiyu grocery store parking lot in Nagoya, Japan, as revealed by Osana in a 1988 interview.