This track, like the rest of the album, has the immaculate, shiny production typical of most American pop-rock songs and employs a lot of synth to fill out the big, radio-friendly sound. ItвЂ™s the first song, Bombs Away, that shows where ONE OK ROCK are heading. This eerie little track doesnвЂ™t give any hint of what is to follow, though.

The album opens with Ambitions вЂ“ Introduction, a brief, atmospheric, instrumental piece featuring synth, strings and a sample of somebody getting out of a car and walking off for reasons unknown. ONE OK ROCK are looking to break out internationally and theyвЂ™ve crafted an album aimed straight at the American market.

The singalong motif is present throughout, as many of the songs seem composed with live performance and crowd participation in mind, but the real motivation behind the album is their ambition. In interviews, lead singer TAKA has described the themes of the album as hope, ambition and singing together. In recent years, ONE OK ROCKвЂ™s music has been evolving from hard alternative-rock to a more pop-rock or emo style, and Ambitions continues this move away from their raw, angry Linkin Park-inspired sound into territory occupied by the likes of Fall Out Boy and 30 Seconds to Mars. The label is a better fit for ONE OK ROCKвЂ™s brand of music and, as a subsidiary of Warner, can still call on some major marketing muscle to promote Ambitions internationally. In 2016 ONE OK ROCK signed with US record label Fueled by Ramen, home of bands such as All Time Low and Paramore. This dual release strategy was first tried with 2015вЂ™s 35xxxv, which was distributed outside of Japan by Warner Music Group. The album has been released in a separate English language international edition in addition to the Japanese version.

Now, with their eighth studio album Ambitions, they look to conquer international markets, particularly America. Since forming in 2005, ONE OK ROCK have fought their way to the top of JapanвЂ™s overcrowded and fiercely competitive music industry.

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