Forum - View topicHai Fidelity - L'arc~en~Ciel: Kiss
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LauraOrganaSolo
 Posts: 109 |
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First of all, I apologize for my double-post. I was initially under the impression that my original post was turned down by the moderators for being so highly critical, as several posts appeared long after I submitted mine.
Second of all, I apologize for my DURRRR at missing the link between はい fidelity and high fidelity. I was only looking at the Japanese. That was embarrassingly ignorant of me.
This one, however, was not. I sympathize with not being able to translate entire songs accurately (my Japanese is sub-par, to say the least), but Kiss has been out for three and a half months, to say nothing of its singles ("Seventh Heaven," "My Heart Draws a Dream," "Daybreak's Bell," "Hurry Xmas") having been trickling out since early 2007. I have to agree with Deacon Blues (BTW, possibly the best song in the entire 1970s decade, IMO  ): I think this could have been vastly improved with a little more research (fan communities have had these songs translated since the release date) and, in my SRS L'ARC FAN opinion, with comparisons and more on L'Arc's musical history.
This is their, what, ELEVENTH full-length album, not counting four compilation albums ("Best C/W" should count as #12 since it's made of songs that AREN'T on albums and because it's really awesome but technically it's a compilation so  ) and one remix album -- there's a lot to be said about Kiss in relation to their previous works.
That doesn't mean judge it entirely based on their previous works but still. There's a lot to be said about how "The Black Rose" is like DUNE REDUX, "Link" WAS re-done since the single came out a year or two ago (and is totally the TOKEN GENKI TETSU SONG), Yuki no Ahiato is the token mushy song of epic melodramatic proportions (a la "Pieces," "Anata," "The Silver Shining," "A Silent Letter," etc.), and more. There's quite a few reflections of past L'Arc works on Kiss (although none of them quite as awesome as past L'Arc songs either -- maybe "Shine" had made it on the album  ) -- except for "Seventh Heaven" and "Hurry Xmas" which are totally unique (even compared to "I Wish").
I don't see how that was insulting or de-humanizing.  Although I disagree with Deacon Blues that the review was biased, but it does sound like some assumptions were made. (Seriously there's nothing typical about "Hurry Xmas," NOTHING and implying that it is even remotely similar to L'Arc's typical sound is a disservice to L'Arc as a rock band. ^__^;;; It's not that I don't enjoy "Hurry Xmas" it's just very... cheesy, I guess, heh.)
P.S. I was not aware American iTunes had suddenly started making more foreign music available, other than Gackt. I don't buy songs on iTunes due to their typically sub-par audio quality so I had no idea. I stand corrected. By all means, buy it on iTunes then! :3 |
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mufurc
 Posts: 612 |
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Laruku is one of my favorite bands, and I found nothing wrong with this review... maybe I'm not fan enough? Sure, the reviewer is obviously not very familiar with the band. So what?
Asking a reviewer to take a band's whole history into account when reviewing an album is not a very good idea, IMO. It works when a review is targeted at people who know the band in question, but when the point of the review is introducing an album to a bunch of people who may not even have heard of the band, it'd be useless and confusing to cross-reference every song with the band's earlier works. Most readers wouldn't care anyway. I certainly don't, and I'm a fan. (And it's just a personal opinion, but I don't think any "reflections of past works" are intentional, anyway.) Not to mention that some things LauraOrganaSolo said about the songs (such as The Black Rose being "Dune Redux") are personal opinions which are not necessary shared by everyone (me, for example). Anyway, I think Kiss is a very good, very fun album. It's not the highlight of the band's career, but IMO that was back in 1999, and it's pretty unlikely that they'll ever release an ark+ray again. Since then there were two long silences and the band decided to settle down with one style instead of skipping between musical genres every so often. I think Kiss (and Awake) is a very good example of this new Laruku, showing that they can be versatile even when they don't change their style/genre with each album or each song.
I really don't get this obsession with Shine. I've seen people talking about it (mostly while bemoaning its absence from Kiss) as if it was one of the band's best songs. Why? I've only heard it as the opening of Seirei no moribito, and based on that I think it's as boring and mediocre as a Laruku song can get. Maybe the full version is better, but as far as I'm concerned every single song on Kiss is better than Shine, and I don't miss it at all. |
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Cassandra
 Posts: 1356 Location: Birdsboro, PA |
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Incorrect. The time an article is published is not always the same as the time an article is written. Since you keep bringing up the "Hurry Xmas" thing, I'll elaborate. In my opinion (since a review is nothing more than the writer's opinion), "Hurry Xmas" sounds a lot like "LINK" which sounds like "Feeling Fine." "Hurry Xmas" simply adds the big band sound to it, which is what I said in the review. |
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LauraOrganaSolo
Posts: 109 |
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I know I'm not surrounded by yes-men for friends because we all disagree on a lot of things (including how beautiful "Shine" is -- I am one of few that for some reason finds it to be notable) but "The Black Rose" sounded to me like an awesome throwback to their early 90s sound (especially "Be Destined," "Taste of Love," "Dune," "Inner Core," etc.).
For some reason, I think the exact opposite. :O Whereas from about 1998 to 2000, their songs mostly stayed in the vein of pop-rock with the occasional harder rock song, they skip around with drastically different-sounding songs now with Kiss and Awake (which I totally love, BTW) more than ever before. Look at "Ophelia" (slow jazz a la Hyde's Roentgen), "Hurry Xmas" (classic-sounding big band), "Existence" (oh hay, I sound like something from Faith), "Seventh Heaven" (wut). I don't know, now that I think of it, Awake seems more Hyde-influenced (the sound of "Ophelia," "Existence," and "As One") and to a lesser degree, Kiss is more Ken-influenced ("Pretty Girl" and "Alone in La Vida" remind me more of SOAP and Ken's solo single than L'Arc), although I have felt that Kiss is somehow missing Ken's punch-in-the-face epic songs like everything he wrote on Tierra, Smile, Ark, Ray, Awake... okay what can I say, I think Ken writes really epic songs but Kiss never quite reaches a peak for me. Although "Alone in La Vida" comes close.
My apologies, I stand corrected.
WUT. XD;;; I don't hear it at all. "Link" sounding like "Feeling Fine," maybe (which is funny, because it sounds like a Tetsu song to me but was composed by Ken). It could also be said they are cousins to "Jiyuu e no Shoutai," "Dive to Blue," etc. And yet, in spite of all my Tetsu MINNA GENKI????? composition stereotypes, I should note that I really love his solo works and Suite November is nothing like his typical L'Arc compositions. |
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Cassandra
Posts: 1356 Location: Birdsboro, PA |
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Listen to "Hurry Xmas" and completely disregard the big band sound. Just listen to the L'arc part....especially in the chorus. It sounds a lot like "LINK"....they just added a big band, which worked beautifully. |
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