Rebirth is full of experimentation.
DIABOLOS is his rock album.
Love Letter is his sappy ballad album.
MOON is his “The sin of being alive” album. Or his “I’m so smarter than you” album.
I have no idea what Crescent is supposed to do. But I’ll tell you once I buy it.
And for some reason MARS is described as Gackt’s “BEST” album. For a nice solid dose of what Gackt’s all about, you head for MARS. Because this was his first, I can see him spending ages trying to get it all to fit in nicely, just to prove that he can make it as a solo artist. MARS is a classic, and there’s really not much else that can be added to that.
1). Ares Personally, I think it’s amazing that he made the first track on his first solo album. He sings in a very high voice in a language known as “Gacktese” among fans. It’s kind of eerie and yet hilariously unnerving.
2). Asrun Dream The way Ares changes into this song is neat; it gives this song, a very fast-paced rock song even more intensity and an exhilerating feel than when I first heard it alone. From first hearing him in Ares as being unusually high-pitched, then his voice is synthesised in the first instances of this song… THEN you finally hear him singing the way he usually does. Ohh, the anticipation. I’m not even going to start on how much I adore his voice.
3). emu ~for my dear~ This song has a sad, swirly beginning, and then bass. He sings quite low through the verses, and then lets loose in the chorus. Monumentally sad, especially with all the rumours that this might be a song written about Kami from Malice Mizer who died a few months after Gackt left.
4). U+K Another song rumoured to be about Kami. Adorably sweet and happy, and then you read the lyrics which are almost a little morbid. He uses GacktJOB here, but also a few other instruments, or ‘instruments’ but I can’t tell, haha. That’s also not him laughing, or doing the “Nyah nyah”s, but it still gives the song a hopelessly sweet hyper feel.
5). Vanilla (MARS Ver.) The lyrics are notorious amongst Gackt fans, as being incredibly racy … especially for Gackt’s songs. There’s brass instruments, and a few synthesised sounds, as well as guitars. When I first heard it, I thought it was pretty dorky, but all in all a pretty catchy song. He also sings English, but you don’t really know it until you read the lyrics. Even when you do that, you have no idea what he’s talking about. “A crew sees crying knees”? “I have seen a tail”? Just adds to the charm.
6). Freesia ~op1~ A short song, where the music almost sounds like it belongs on a New Age soundtrack. Not really. It’s delicate and echoes, with a few little random tinkly noises from a piano, and Gackt sings…
7). Freesia ~op2~ This song is why I like pianos so much, even though you don’t hear it until you’re about halfway through the song. Before then even. It’s has a stronger feel than Freesia ~op1~, especially thanks to the violin and the piano is louder and not so eerie. There’s also no Gackt singing!
8). Illness Illusion It reminds me of a spooky France, I don’t know why. There could be accordians here. He starts off singing in an almost nasally, childish voice and then slowly changes to singing in the normal way that he does by the chorus. YES. Reminscient of his Malice Mizer days, this sort of swings around and is kind of creepy – and then he decides to add in some creepy laughing, talking kids in the background.
9). Mirror An upbeat pop rock song, matched with a violin which really makes the song. And Gackt. You have the feeling as soon as the track starts that he’s not intending anything that he’s about to sing to be very serious, with the “Nyah nyah?”
10). dears Gackt’s song for his fans, his ‘dears’. There’s a few violins and those strange drums that sound like you’ve just throw a massive rock into a pond. I hope you know what I mean. GLUAMMPH. The best part about this song is just Gackt singing himself, and how this song goes to show how much emotion Gackt does indeed put into his music. I remember having this strong feeling I already knew what he was singing about, looking at the lyric translation and finding out that I was right. Not word for word, of course, but the theme…
11). OASIS Weird techy intro. The thing about Gackt is that he makes songs that in theory are pop, but aren’t somehow. OASIS is like that.
12). Kono Daremo Inai Heya de It’s peaceful; a pretty acoustic guitar which reminds me of snow, and then the orchestral blip at the end is a nice finish to a solid album loaded with classics. Aww.
And I know Gackt’s a freak, but as a fan, I find it hard to expect anyone to take me seriously when the CD cover features him pulling himself through the earth for some reason, plus some random chains (wtf…? And he still manages to pull off that expression of his. The aptly named, GACKT FACE.
The whole thing just looks kind of hilarious. Yet, you’re also struck with how you know he’s way smarter than you, and has thrown a lot of symbolism into that cover, but good luck trying to look at it properly because everytime you see it you start giggling.
1). NOAH Gackt typically starts off an album with some bizarre lyric-less track. And here we go. Sort of middle-eastern, with drums that have that sound like you’ve just thrown a really huge rock into a lake.
2). LU:NA I don’t know what to think of it because I’ve first heard it ages ago, and loved it. He manages to throw in a little bit of Spanish-ness without sounding overly cheesy. No one can really do that, but then again, it IS Gackt. It also manages to sound a little… out of control somehow.
3). wa-su-re-na-i-ka-ra A happier song! I’m not really a fan of this song anyway, because there are these random car noises that throw me off, and whenever I listen to I brace myself for them. At any rate, Gackt still has a lovely, warm voice, but still… car noises in songs is distractingly bad.
4). Soleil Many many years ago I said that if I ever started a cafe, I’d have this song playing in the background all the time. It has swanky brass instruments. Don’t know which one(s) because I’m an idiot.
5) Speed Master It’s weird. I don’t know what he’s saying, but this is one of his out of control songs, and things sort of whip around going “WHOOOSH”. I’m not a fan of this, because it’s sort of bizarre…. and weird colours to come mind because of the title of the song. Like bloody vomit. Aw.
6). Fragrance People seem to get more out of this song than I do. They talk about HAUNTING IMAGERY and stuff. I just hear a fake synthesised beat, but then I always seem to hear those things more than other people. I don’t know how to really talk about it. His voice – and the music – sort of sway, with varying strengths. I kind of wish I understood what he was saying.
7). death wish I’m beginning to realise how Gackt doesn’t just rely on GacktJOB. Another one of his ‘out of control-ish’ songs, but if you’re not familiar with him… you’re not going to know what I mean. It’s not full-blown rock music where he runs around screaming. Not like that at all… it’s more … unsettled, hinting at something not shown.
8). doomsday LOVE LOVE LOVE this song. It keeps swinging from loud to these quiet verses, so it’s like he feels so awful about having to go on and do his angst. It feels more and more tragic every time I hear it, and not helped by the lyric translation which killed me, and made me love this song even more. Again, the music sometimes swirls around in that sort of … turbulant way. It’s a technique he uses, I’ve noticed now, but it’s never the same. So mournful. And how it cuts short at the end-!
9). missing So then you’re sitting around feeling really bad for Gackt from the last song, and Missing plays… and you’re like “that little tinkly noise was the first thing he played on some instrument in Madagascar”. It’s a freer song, but you KNOW that Gackt’s still pretty regretful about something. You can feel it – or maybe you only get that ability after you turn into a scary fangirl. I don’t know. That, and you know that he doesn’t write happy songs without something sort of wistful to it.
10). rain This is different to the rest of the album. I suppose it’s probably something like a sister song to Fragrance in this album now that I think about it – he does things like that. He just sings with all the strength he has, and uses more real instruments though. Beautiful violin, etc. Just sort of sweeps you along with it.
11). ANOTHER WORLD This is as happy as Gackt gets. Love this. I saw him playing it LIVE on a TV in Singapore. Fell off my bed in sheer happiness. He’s such a dork. ANYWAY. YAY. Happy rock song. I’m just gonna bounce along to it now. NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAAAAH. YOU DON’T NEED ANOZZER WORSSDD!!! Oh wait.
12). memories I can’t remember a song where he’s used an upbeat accoustic guitar like this. It bounces, and Gackt’s voice is still smooth and heartfelt as ever, keeping it from being too sugary. Just the right transition of being light to incredibly sappy; strings make the song epic. Maaaan this guy’s amazing. ♥ ♥ ♥
KAT-TUN’s first album! And what, they’ve only been around seven years, why not release something?
The first song manages to capture a lot of what this album’s about: starting off there’s perhaps the worst English I’ve ever heard, which sounds all warped and wrong.
Okay. I lie. It starts off with an orchestral blip that makes you think you’re going to listen to something epic, and then the horrific English kicks in. (Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys… we are the KATTUN. It’s… showtime.) By the end of the song all I was only thinking, “What the hell was that?”, and it didn’t exactly change for the whole album.
Every so often there’s rapping and spontaneous I’M GANGSTA noises, which is really jarring. And when there’s no mysterious guitar solo, the music is stuck in the nineties. They don’t sing in such a way that you’re ‘swept away’ with them. Rhodesia in particular’s supposed to be a epic rock song (!), but it misses out on a little something-something that stops it from being utterly strange to listen to. Like a wussier (incredibly so) version of Linkin Park.
I can only giggle through Blue Tuesday and the uhh, English. “Yo baby. I love you. So please. Please be by my side.” Always a phrase that would woo me over, if I do say so myself! This is one of those sappy romantic songs, but it’s not doing anything for me.
It only really redeems itself with that nineties feel – it makes it hilarious to listen to. Less of a crime. Even when you feel like they’d like you to, Best of KAT-TUN isn’t an album you can take seriously. It’s really an album for laughing at because it’s bizarre and weird, and “Oh-God-is-all-JPop-like-this?” And for the sake of my sanity, I would like to hope not. XD