Mrs. Green Apple’s 2016 debut album is a snapshot of the Tokyo band when their members were still raging, guitar-centric rockers. They blaze through their tunes with a crucial combination of boundless youthful energy and stop-on-a-dime precision. Most of the members were still in their teens when the band formed in 2013, but they had already released a batch of EPs by the time they made their first full-length record. So, while they still sound like they’re in a life-or-death competition to see who can get to the end of the song first, the ruckus never takes them over the rails. Mrs. Green Apple would go on to become even bigger, but Twelve brought fame early in the band’s journey, landing at No. 10 in the Japanese album charts. And its first single, “Speaking”, took the then-quintet to the Top 40 for the first time, helping to establish their signature mix of contemporary alt-rock, power-pop hooks and an unstoppable punk-pop pace. The rapid, stop-start riffing on tunes like “Aijou To Hokosaki” and “Hello” underscores the relentlessness, and keyboardist Ryoka Fujisawa contributes some of the album’s most manic moments—nearly every time he leaps to the forefront, the intensity amps up. The hurtling momentum pauses only occasionally to hint at some of the stylistic developments that the band would explore on future albums. The funky and undeniably fervent disco vibe of “Kikoridokei” and the Beatles-esque touches of the piano-based ballad “Watashi” provide potent palate cleansers. But for the most part, Mrs. Green Apple were all about rocking at this phase of their career. So, for all of singer Motoki Ohmori’s agile melodic leaps, the frenzied beats of drummer Ayaka Yamanaka and the chomping riffs of guitarist Hiroto Wakai are always on hand to drive the band on to the completion of their hyperkinetic rock ’n’ roll agenda. And Twelve represents their big, brash mission statement.