** ^_^ are my favorite tracks of the album!! Overall I'm very satisfy with this album, same old romantic baroque style continue from their previous album "Voyage" (also the video game music-like keyboards/synthesizer...^^;;), with more elaborate and variety in arrangemnet such as techno. There's even one remade song from their 1st album "Memoire DX" (when vocal was still Tetsu)...., Yu~ki and Kamui both wrote song in the album as well. Anyway, here're my brief impression of each song:
1) de merveilles ---opening instrumental, as usual, a haunting spooky piece with horse carriage wheel, door opening clock clicking sound effect... 2) Syunikiss----Written by vampire Yu~ki, a grand Opera-house opening type of song with a lot of organ sound and big orchestra, very typical Malice style (remines me a little bit of "Transylvania" from their last album). The song is very classical-like, even stop at the middle like how some classical music are like. BTW, the subtitle (I dunno how to romanji it) means "2nd time grieving") 3) Bel Air ---Their major debut single, this version is almost the same as the single except more keyboard/sound effect in arrangement (ex: during the quite middle part where there was only music box melody) and chorus. (more "Clock-clicking" sound effect at the intro), bascially, this song still remine my most favorite Malice Mizer song! Again, btw, the subtitle (written in Kanji) means "in the middle of blank moment" 4) ILLUMINATI-- a very video game music-like (ex:Castlevania) fast tempotechno song. Similar to their other song "Color me Blood Red" (c/w of Bel Air). Total Kozi's style type of music! The classical-like keyboard are very cool though! However I didn't like the way you can't hear Kamui's voice cleary (too quite). 5) Brise---at first, the acoustic guitar at the intro scare me--"Kawamura Ryucihi??", thank god it wasn't turn out to be like his stuffs ^^; It's a very joyfuland beautiful song, the song remind me of their indies song "Madrigal" due to the hand clapping and the beat of the song. This song would remind you a joyful pierrot performing funny tricks! And yes, this song is written by our red pierrot Kozi! 6) Aegen---this song is the remade of "Aegen umi ni sasagu" from their first album "Memoire". The electric acoustic guitar throughout the song and the acoustic guitar solo are almost the same as the indies version, but the melody are totally different. The whole song's feeling totally different since Gackt's singing is much more smooth, sad and quiet; compare to the original version in which Tetsu sound very exhausted and depressed, it is a very interesting contrast. The intro and ending has some old film rolling sound effect which made the song very romantic. This is one of the best songs in this album. BTW, the subtitle (^^;; dunno the romanji) means "the past gone with the wind" 7) au revoir--their 2nd major debut singles, it's almost the same as the single version but there are more violin during the violin solo. A very beautiful romantic song, esp. the violion throughout the song! 8) Ju te veux---another techno song with VERY old fashion 80s j-pop melody, kinda old fashion but sure very interesting with the goth-techno arrangement and distort vocal. It's written by Kozi (he likes techno stuffs huh!?). 9) S-Concious--all english lyrics....Gackt's voice is very distorted. Hard goth techno with Gackt's soft whispering. 10) La ciel --- (The Sky?) Very romantic soft track with beautiful piano arrangement (somehow I think this song sound very "L'Arc~en~Ciel"...I didn't get this impression from the song title...it's the drumming and mood, you can fit Hyde's voice there and boom, you get a typical Laruku slow tempo song). The guitar arrangement remind me of LS's "In Silence." This song is very un-MM maybe becoz it's written by Gackt. The beautiful piano are played by Gackt of course! 11) Gekka no yasaka ---(Noctrume under the Moon), their third single! Another "game music" song with tango/ballroom dancing sound, and even more old style melody & arrangement, it's a really cool song! The organs at the intro sound really cool! 12) Bois de merveilles ---Waltz!!! (can almost imagine Gackt dancing with Mana in a grand ballroom in my head) Waltz beat, very beautiful short curtain-closing song for the album. I HAVE to comment on the packaging of this CD...gosh...so beautiful! (for 1st press only). It's a book (larger than regular CD size) with 33 pages of exordinary cool pictures of the members and lyrics. The five members all got wings (^^;), Gackt looks like a dark angel, Mana is the blue moth, Kozi is the fire demon, Yu-Ki is the bat demon and Kami is a butterfly! (scan the pictures later....) The pictures inside are all very interesting. (so people if you plan to buy this album grab it quick before the first press run out!) Overall I think this is a really great album!! Gotta be one of my most frequent disc on my stereo for the next half year.... well....of course I
don't think this album is for everybody (also MM music in general), for those who cares about killer guitars and traditional/typical rock stuffs,
this is not an album for you. However for all MM fans and ppl who wanna try MM music, this album is a great recommendation!! Brilliant
album (a bit short though) !!! |
