4 posts tagged “alice nine.”
I've been inactive for a month, and I have no excuse, except that I've been listening to a lot of other kinds of experimental music, as well as a lot of Radiohead as always. And that I'm a lazy person (whose been out of school for almost a month.) But here's my LONG overdue review of this single~!
Tracklist:
MIRROR BALL is like a mix of TSUBASA and Velvet. Except it's more TSUBASA then Velvet. It takes the poppy melodies of their more recent work, and fuses it with the rockiness of some of their older work. It keeps the same refined quality (some would say TOO refined) that their newer music has.
It's quite a pleasant, energetic song, without straying too far down the pop road. However, they've already released a similar song like this for their last single (TSUBASA) and I hope they'll released some more dynamic singles, ballads, and maybe hard rock songs (FANTASY and Kowloon).
Then next track, 奇跡, sounds immediately like a Switchfoot song from the beginning, but turns back into alice nine. for the refrain, then goes back to sounding American. I had to check my iPod the first time I heard it to make sure this was really an alice nine. song. The beginning riff, and the thick, distorted instrumentation all reminded me of Switchfoot. But especially the ending, with the screaming feedback and wah-wah pedal at full blast, before dying out REALLY had a Switchfoot feel.
We then get a re-arrangement (not a remix, it's not different enough) of their song on Alpha, Eraser. It's slightly softer, featuring some piano accents, and a more acoustic arrangement. The only real change to the progression of the song is probably the falsetto vocals near the end (which work out quite well), and the ending itself.
I think my biggest gripe with this single, which is a minor thing, is that there seems to be a lack of real original material. MIRROR BALL resembles TSUBASA, and Eraser -Memoire d'une Fleur- is a re-arrangement. However, I know that if alice nine. changed their sound from 2006-2007, I'm sure they'll be massaging it into something else soon. Overall quite a solid release:
4/5 - Good
VOX JUST DELETED MY ENTIRE REVIEW I JUST WROTE SO......
I had written a review for YUI's Namidairo, because I couldn't stand seeing my site not being updated for 9 days.
I'll have to rewrite the post later, but just to see what's coming up on my review list:
YUI - Namidairo (again)
L'arc~en~Ciel - KISS
KISAKI PROJECT - Eien no Yume
alice nine - MIRROR BALL
....Vox just changed my font color. This has been a nightmare tonight...
I've also been writing pretty much exclusively reviews - so I have to start blogging about some other Jmusic stuff~
Happy Good Friday to those that celebrate it!
4/23 - Edited the font colour~
It seems that things have kinda come to a standstill in the Japanese indie/rock world, because there haven't been any really big releases that have attracted any real attention....unless I've missed something big. (Please tell me if I have.) I'll probably start writing reviews about old music that I think is worth a word from me. But at the moment, I'm going to muse about some things that are in my head that have to do with Japanese musical entertainment.
alice nine.
This doesn't really qualify as a new release, but it's probably the newest thing out. (Expect a review of the single when it arrives.) alice nine. have been going down the pop-rock track quite a bit, and it's quite a departure from their once-quite-indie sound, much more polished and consistent. Some people complain about this, but I don't really have a big problem with it - what's wrong with mainstream?
This sounds no different, although I can't make out much of the song from the 30 seconds we are shown. As for the PV itself, it has that little J-rockers jumping around in water thing going on, much like Blade Chord from Abingdon School Boys. I could say a lot about what I think about alice nine., but I'm going to leave it at that.
X Japan
I look at L'arc~en~ciel, who have enjoyed a good 15 years together, and who are almost 40, and then take a glance at X Japan, and shake my head.
Laruku have become such a mature band musically, and easily crank out amazing records (a la Radiohead.) The songs they are giving us now are very complex, and the members are very, very proficient at their respective instruments. They have gained so much from their experiences, and had started out with so much talent too. Each of the band members are also established well as solo artists (especially HYDE), and have made a name from themselves as supermusicians. Not to mention how they lost their past drummer due to a drug scandal, and were tore down to nothing. But they still bounced back.
X Japan sadly only spent about 9 REAL years together, and after hide's death, each of the members were moping around, being sad, and not really getting much done. I know that Laruku have equally as much talent as X Japan, and imagine if X had been together these past 10 years. They could be absolutely fantastic! Unfortunately, none of the members have really made a big solo career, and their status as supermusicians have faded over the last 10 years of not being together.
Their latest release, I.V., IS good, but had the band reunited quickly after the death of hide, I am sure that at this point, it would be something much better. I.V. seems to just carry on where they left off (even using a prerecorded guitar track by hide), and doesn't really gain, or lose any ground. Playing it safe.
My point is, that if X Japan hope to enter as big players in the music scene again, rather than as "Yoshiki and sad bandmates", they're going to move past hide at some point, and stop looking back, and moving forward. Yes, losing a bandmate forever is much worse than a drug scandal, and yes, I may sound harsh, (and I assure you I miss hide just as much as all of you out there,) but I know that X Japan have the capacity to be better than they are, if they are able to progress and keep on developing
Moving on....
Questions and other stuff that's on my mind...
This may seem a little off topic, but I just got a pair of Shure E2c earphones, and I was wondering how all you audiophiles out there listen to your music. Earphones? If so, what kind? Through your kabillion dollar speakers?
Anyway, as far as reviews go, I'll probably start reviewing the things that I enjoy listening to, even if they are old. And past releases that I feel I should talk about, as well as music that I don't think is getting enough attention.
And, by the way, I appreciate feedback from people who actually read my blog - questions, comments, thoughts, anything.
~Sho-kun out.
So, here is alice nine.'s new release. Finally. And I like it!!!
It seems to be more mature of a composition than many of their older works - among the vein of WHITE PRAYER. The PV seems to be more mature too. Tora has the solo in TSUBASA, another thing that kind of surprised me~!!
Shou's voice is sounding as good as ever, and he hits those falsettos waaaaaay better than in BLUE PLANET. (In which he misses horribly. I hope they rerecorded the track for ALPHA.) If ALPHA is going to sound anything like TSUBASA, it's going to be a killer album.
That brings me to a new subject. On their official webpage (link) they specified that most of their post Zekkeishoku singles will be on ALPHA, including NUMBER SIX, WHITE PRAYER, TSUBASA, BLUE PLANET, JEWELS. (All in English!)
That's already 5 tracks. On Zekkeishoku, there was 2 singles. How many tracks will ALPHA have? I'll have to wait and see......
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