Artist: Lycaon
Album: Camera Obscura
Score:
With a title like Camera Obscura, lots of interesting takes of what the concept would mean for this album came to mind. Sadly, from the first track it was apparent Lycaon went for the most direct translation. I was more than a little disheartened. The first half of this album did very little to raise my spirits, either. First and foremost, the levels in the mix and production are horrific. It's muddy, discordant, and downright unbearable in parts. Case in point, "Dark Night" has obnoxious levels of echo that clash with the high end string backing tracks. It's so bad I can barely follow any of the other instruments in the song until about half way through. I've heard a better mix come out of a 4 track recorder in a teenager's basement.
And while "Dark Night" is the worst offender, it's got company with most of this album suffering the same fate. "追憶 " has a crunchy guitar riff that should be ripping this album wide open, but instead I had to fight through mass amounts of reverb effects to hear just about anything. "Liar", "君を壊すガラスの衝動 ", "Rouge", "ILLUSION", and "メランコリック" are snooze-fests full of recycled garbage that go nowhere and are so painfully bland it hurt to listen to them, yet I still can't find traits to distinguish any of the songs from each other after the album is over. The lack of originality for most of this album is jarring, and when it does have something interesting happening it's suffocated by cheap production.
"悪女の微笑 " is in a battle for my favorite Camera Obscura song next to "ジプシー". And partially because its recording quality is leagues above the rest of the album. You can hear every instrument clearly and no one thing is eclipsing anything else. It's a decent song and the only one that made me even think about headbanging along to it. "馬鹿ね。" , while not as strong in composition, shares the better production value with the other singles. I could do without the chorus driving the song into the ground by the end. It's a fun chorus to start with, but in this case less would have been more. Then there's songs like "marionette" and "アネモネ" that found a way to survive in the pit of bad recordings. Something about both songs is stripped down and less complicated than the others so they end up better for it and loads more memorable.
I stopped checking for this band some years ago, around their 2009 release Chains of collar, because their nasally vocalist doesn't sit well with me. His voice is like a hybrid of Hakuei's (Penicillin) vocal pitch and the nasal tone of Ryutaro (Plastic Tree) without the edge or control of either. And this album makes me that much more grateful I didn't waste my time keeping up with Lycaon. This is, astoundingly, a step down from what they were even back then. Someone should have cut out all of these asinine SEs and saved the money to have the album mastered by a better studio engineer. I am usually more forgiving of visual indie bands for lo-fi sounding works, but this is not Lycaon's first album. This is 3 albums in; this is a band familiar with how a music studio works for the last seven years. And what makes it so annoying is there are select songs on this album that have better production. So why not all?
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Artist: Lycaon
Album: camera obscura
Score:
How can you get wet over something so dry?
Lycaon and I have had an icy relationship ever since they lost Mio and eve and went through their rebellious, adolescent phase. The atomic meltdown that was their "erotic phase" (god, I fucking hate that term) came to an end with 「嘘と女と『 』」 全国流通盤」, and I cheered quite loudly when they decided to drop the overt 'sex sells' antics cum-plastered all over their stupid marketing gimmicks. Even so, their music lacked some of the charm and finesse that Mio and eve brought to the band. So apart from the forgettable 「マゾヒストレッドサーカス」, I haven't touched anything by this band in years. We've come to an understanding that they're not the same band they once were, and I'm not the same fan I used to be, and maybe it was better if we parted ways.
So for no particular reason at all, I decided to give "camera obscura" a chance to see where the quintet's heads are at. If I were to describe the sound, I would describe it as a mix of old and new Lycaon in the best way possible. There are some hints of the alternative metal style honed on "Royal Order", the EDM bass drops of 「マゾヒストレッドサーカス」, some of that good 80's rock vibe that I know guitarist Satoshi is fond of, and thankfully none of that erotic bullshit. Even when they decide to get raunchy, they do it in a more palatable manner. It really does offer something for new and old fans alike: tracks like "marionette", "悪女の微笑", and "追憶" remain somewhat memorable far after I finished the album. One of the things they did right with this album was reduction of harsh vocals. That's not where Yuuki's strengths are and by shedding those weaknesses he maintains the most consistent performance across the entire album. This is when Lycaon sticks to their guns and produce the quality rock music I know they can. "marionette" in particular deserves extra mention. I really like these cabaret and oriental influences that are slowly working their way into visual kei and I think more bands should try their hands at it.
There are two main reasons I can't accept "camera obscura" as is. One is the abysmal production. The guitars sound absolutely dead, and there's two of them. There's no punch to them. The treble is also way too crisp and it makes the cymbals sound like wooden blocks ("悪女の微笑"), fuzz ("アネモネ"), and other degrees of sounds I would only describe as "not cymbals". Whether the guitars are oppressive or energetic, it's the main instrument and when it's so dead a lot of potential gems here fall flat.
When the aforementioned production isn't siphoning the life out of the music, and after all those pointless interludes were deleted, the reason why I can't accept this album is because a lot of the songs are just average. "ILLUSION" comes out of left field like an Arlequin reject with that bizarre dubstep breakdown that ruins an otherwise listenable song. That would have/could have/should have been punishing riff near the end of "liar" should have hit one note a bit sharper and sounds off. "メランコリック" feels like filler. I really want to like "Dark Night", and I like the Yousei Teikoku influence they were channeling, but the bad production and the really fake sounding piano ruins it. The similarly fake piano in "Rouge" steps all over the band and doesn't fit in at all. Worst of all is the abomination that is "馬鹿ね。". It starts off interesting and quickly deteriorates to the barest of alternative rock melodies, sprinkled with some electronic effects until the embarrassing trance chorus. I cringe in horror every time it comes on. Couple in the five pointless interludes, and quickly a large chunk of the album does not please me. What about the other tracks? Apart from "アネモネ", I don't remember any of them. It's the token ballad on an album, and reminds me of "結晶華". They somehow managed to procure a real piano for this one, but the ballad is drawn out for no reason and feels forced.
Putting all of this together, I can't really say this is a great album because I didn't enjoy much of it. But I can say that it's good enough when comparing it against the average visual release, and it's head and shoulders above their last album so I guess Lycaon and I can be civil. They're actually trying to be a rock band again and I can respect them for that. Their music is lacking a particular finesse and direction that I felt they once had a long, long time ago, but it doesn't suck. I just don't find it all that compelling. I might not even remember I listened to this by the end of the year.
Honestly there's no way in hell that I could ever take this review seriously when you gave all 18 songs a perfect 10/10.... is anyone planning on writing up an objective review for this album?
gantzking20 reacted to doombox in #28: camera obscura by Lycaon