Euthanasia

they look good!

Yet Amazon.jp applied the ban to all Avex products.
 
So either the ban will be only for Avex Pictures products and amazon just banned everything temporarily either Avex Group will ban everything eventually and CDJapan still hasn't. 
 
I'm hoping it's the first option.

Some of us don't want to use spotify, and some of us want the physical copy of the damn CD

... Does this applies to like.. Their music too? Acid Black Cherry is signed under avex. I would cry a river if that means I won't be able to buy ABC stuff.

First  of all, if they're 15 years old that makes anything they have to say irrelevant in my view.  You're too hormonal and job-less to be thinking straight and understand what you're doing.
 
As for me, I would definitely back up a band via crowdfunding , IF we're given a clear and official outline of the expenses. This way foreign fans can help their favorite musicians stay afloat, disbandment in vk could reach an all time low?!  Since there's such a big overseas crowd, it surprises me that this hasn't been thought of yet. (not really, is crowdfunding even big in JP?)
 
Also love the idea of little extras that come with crowdfunding, now that I think about it, a patreon website for bands wouldn't be a bad idea either. 

A part of me was actually kinda hoping they'd replace reira and Cassis with better songs. Silly me! Great artwork, though.
 
ETA: 菫 and 千鶴 would have been great picks

I like the tracklist, and as I've mentioned before I am looking forward to hear Ito.
Buuut I was hoping for Saraba (or do they count that as a ballad?), Chizuru would've been nice too.

I like the tracklist, and as I've mentioned before I am looking forward to hear Ito.
Buuut I was hoping for Saraba (or do they count that as a ballad?), Chizuru would've been nice too.

Goddamnit just take my money.

Just to be honest.... i'm a fan since the beginnging and i have 0 hopes. 

The album will also be released through Like an Edison on 2017/02/15, so you can grab a copy via a shopping service  

because sometimes technical proficiency isn't the most important reason, and definitely isn't the only reason, why people listen to the music they listen to and fall in love with the bands they fall in love with. this thing we call "taste" is nothing but an amorphous placeholder for an incredibly complex web of factors including instincts and temperament, environmental and psychological factors, linguistic/cultural affiliations, etc. that no amount of theoretical analysis can ever hope to untangle. even in the extremely rare instance that you can find another person who agrees with you on every single point you make about a band both of you mutually enjoy, i'm willing to bet that the basis for your value judgments about the band will still diverge, simply because, if nothing else, you are two different people.
 
if i'm to push this even further: many people seem to think that 'technical proficiency' is a clear-cut term that requires no further explication. that's far from true. while it's the case that fans would be deeply relieved to find their favorite singers hitting the notes they're supposed to hit and their guitarists executing their tremolos and harmonics competently, it's too easy to name instances where artists who do things generally not recognized as 'proficient' actually making a difference. the pianist claudio arrau, when he was still alive, was constantly ridiculed by musicologists and critics for how slowly he plays his beethoven sonatas (check out his "walden" for starters), but he's now posthumously credited with reading beethoven insightfully with an introspection no beethoven specialist had possessed. likewise, in the realm of art, when henri matisse became bound to his wheelchair in the later part of his life and could no longer hold a paintbrush, he began making 'cut-outs' as art (hardly the pinnacle of artistic virtuosity, you would think...), yet on hindsight his technique directly spawned at least three different art movements in the mid-late 20th century. so if there isn't even a ahistorical standard of what qualifies as 'technical proficiency' in the realm of high art where you'd think experts would have come to some sort of agreement after centuries of bickering debate, attempting to hold it up as some governing authority that ought to adjudicate people's tastes in popular music seems to me rather presumptuous.
 
but to quote you again:
 
 
and with this you basically just answered your own question. even though music traverses linguistic boundaries, its cultural influences remain unique. musically that's definitely the case (just look at how prevalent the major 7th chord is in japanese pop, compared to western pop). then there's the issue of language that comes into play. it would take a separate long post for me to defend why some people find lyrics to be important, but suffice to say, a song by definition has words, so unless we are going to pretend that all songs are operatic arias in disguise, it's only to be expected that some prefer how meaning is communicated in one language to another (which again has to do with a whole bunch of linguistic features: syntax, structure of address, sociopragmatics, and so on). you might not find the words in the song to be particularly important to your enjoyment of the music (and ofc there's no reason why you should), but it shouldn't be alarming that there are people who attend to that aspect of the song because it's important to them. there's also the phonetic aspect that some people above have already mentioned.
 

omg so tempted to go and see them in Finland. ;; 

I hope I'll be able to get my hands on this without needing to sell my kidney. It's sooo goood.

i'll only get my cds tmr so i haven't heard their new single... I CANNOT WAIT. and 素晴らしきこの世界へ is apparently fuma's favorite song off this single so i'm especially excited to hear that one
 
i can totally understand why the change in their music direction (if you could call it that) wouldn't be palatable to some fans. to be fair that was a huge concern the band had as well. i remember keiya saying how torn he was when they decided to try something knew cos he wasn't sure if the fans can accept it. ultimately i think the main 'payoff' for their new sound comes through most clearly at lives, and it's difficult to judge songs like panic panic and poison chocolate without having seen them live, esp. with all the audience participation elements. i mean, even before panic panic, listening to Paradise Dance on record was NOTHING like experiencing it live. the energy of the entire livehouse moving in sync + how good keiya is at hyping the crowd up is quite mind blowing. the recent music only lifts that to a higher level.
 
i'm not sure what i feel about the 2 recent PVs still, since ordinarily they would def be too cheesy for me (and like, the reason i actually love them is because of my ridiculously intense bias for the band LOL). but i found that if i listen without watching the pv, the sound actually doesn't deviate too much from some of the stuff they had before? it's still the same sound effects, the same catchy choruses, the same signature purple stone hooks etc. and then there's also the lyrics aspect. it's understandable that their recent output is easy to dismiss as 'non-serious' and 'playful' music but actually fuma kinda detests 'paripi' music (basically superficial, thoughtless party/clubbing music) lol. he's said time and again in interviews and talkshows that his job is to try and neutralize the capriciousness of their sound by writing lyrics that gives substantial depth to the songs. that doesn't mean that his lyrics are preachy or inscrutable - it just means there's more to their music than meets the eye so like, there's something for everyone, assuming you can access everything: recorded music, live experience, lyrics, interviews/blogs/tweets, and so on. anyway fuma just seems to be a super intelligent person from the stuff he writes/says haha. he twitcasts A LOT (almost every night) so pls just drop by and say hi even if you dunno what he's saying
 
oh and a slight digression: their new single seems to be selling quite well! i ordered from 3 different shops for fun this time and both like an edison and jishuban have sold out their first press (so they're waiting on stock). i checked cdjapan and it seems to be the same there. little hearts and zeal link have limited stock left.

I remembering people criticizing kpop fans for the same thing, since some of them claimed to hate western rap when kpop didn't differ that much from it except for the language. 
 
However, there's no simple answer. People are who they are, and they like what they like. Why not just leave it at that? There's simply no point in arguing with people about their music taste.
 
Cheers.

Agreeing with @Biopandaand @fitear1590 - Phonetically, Japanese has always resonated with me for whatever reason. I may sound like a helpless weeb saying this (and I am =P), but it never really sounded "foreign" to my ears. I've always found the language beautiful and smooth, whereas hearing other languages sung was initially jarring for me, and required time for me to really get used to them, if at all.
 
As for the OP -  I definitely think it's interesting to discuss these patterns, but I'm not sure if "hypocrisy" has any bearing in regards to music appreciation (and you probably already understand this with your use of quotations in the title). I say that because you need some kind of static, objective reference to discern if something is hypocritical or not, and music appreciation is far too ambiguous for a judgment like "hypocrisy" to be applied, let alone relevant. 

Or maybe, just maybe, they just happen to prefer how it sounds? Of course I'm only speaking for myself here, but I'm really big on vocals... not only in the quality/talent but the general "sound". If you gave me the same song with an English-speaking native singing in English and a Japanese-speaking native singing in Japanese, I'd almost always choose the latter. I find that Japanese just sounds more pleasing and flows better to me (likely due to the consonant-to-vowel ratio) than the harsher sounds of a Germanic language, for example.
 
Cheers m8

I remembering people criticizing kpop fans for the same thing, since some of them claimed to hate western rap when kpop didn't differ that much from it except for the language. 
 
However, there's no simple answer. People are who they are, and they like what they like. Why not just leave it at that? There's simply no point in arguing with people about their music taste.
 
Cheers.

I remembering people criticizing kpop fans for the same thing, since some of them claimed to hate western rap when kpop didn't differ that much from it except for the language. 
 
However, there's no simple answer. People are who they are, and they like what they like. Why not just leave it at that? There's simply no point in arguing with people about their music taste.
 
Cheers.

Hi everyone. I say "thanks for existing" because it's really neat for me to see so many people together who share my interests. It's totally out of my comfort zone to go about and do this as I am a "suffer in silence" type, but I thought it was about time I try to reach out and get more involved in this music scene, maybe make a friend or two with similar interests. But if not it's okay, I just like reading what you all have to say anyway. I am from a tiny town in the South of the US, so I haven't gotten the chance to see  many bands live or meet people who even like this kind of music. I've been listening for about 10 years, though I stopped a few years ago after Vidoll disbanded (my favorite band back in 2011, though now I see it was just because my teen self was infatuated with Jui, lol.  still am tho)  and I have been listening again since last April when I saw The GazettE live. I've never tried to socialize online with other VK fans until now, I don't really know why. But here I am! I like everything from oldies like Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Malice Mizer, Aliene Ma'riage, Baiser, to bands like DaizyStripper, Matnerou Opera, etc!  ! Ive recently gotten back into the scene and I'm discovering the potential of newer bands like Arlequin, xaa-xaa, Jiluka, HOLLOWGRAM, and beyond. If you have any recommendations I'd love them as well. Well thanks for reading and I'll try to make my voice heard here! Nice to meet you all. 

Hello there! I like your icon c: and since you like Born I must ask – do you like RAZOR as well? Just curious haha. 
 
Welcome to the forum!! 

Cool look! Curious about the music.

..... I liked their music so that's makes me sad, but this band noah has been involved in such drama that I don't know what to think. /: