hiroki

I don't have much to add to fitear's wonderful review. For me, "you" was marginally more enjoyable than "BUTTERFLY DREAMER", which is unsurprising given that I have virtually zero resistance against good vk ballads XD I agree that DIV has improved tremendously in their composition and choice of synth effects in enhancing their music. As opposed to some of their earlier songs in which electronic elements might have interfered with their music, the 'echo' effects deployed in "you" - especially in the quieter sections - provided good depth to Chisa's voice. The transition from the "break" to the final refrain was also extremely well executed. Some remarks on Cinderalla: it has a groovy, dance-y feel which, like fitear has rightly pointed out, is quite different from DIV's normal style. I think it's fantastic that the band is willing to try something different, although I think that also inevitably exposes some potential weaknesses in Chisa's vocals. This song would be perfect for a set of vocals with more "character" than Chisa's - especially when he hits the "Ve-nus" in the chorus, which I thought was kinda 'flat'. Nevertheless, I think it's interesting that they have used synth elements to augment his vocals and to a large extent successfully helped to cover this lack. These are two exquisite singles that not only demonstrate how much the band has matured, but also draw our attention to the variety that constitutes their rapidly expanding repertoire. Hopefully they release something that can challenge "VANISH" (my favorite DIV song!) soon

I know right! The classroom setting reminds me a lot of Capella and ALiBi as well, lol. Maybe it's gonna be more "fun" sounding And Tohma looks really different here o.0

Shrugs, I'm probably one of those blasphemous people who enjoyed BORN's "HONESTY" and "MOTHER" singles (didn't like "SATISFACTION?" though). Sure they aren't as "heavy" as their earlier stuff, but I liked them (I felt the same way towards giru, when half their fans were attacking them for "losing their way"). It's all a matter of opinion at this point. Anyway I don't wanna digress from the topic. Like I said KIFUMI didn't leave because he disagreed with the direction BORN was going (at least he didn't -appear- to). I seriously hope BORN find another bassist and continue their activities.

Well, he left because he had to attend to his family, not because of the band per se. Anyway it's a shame that he left because in spite of all their problems BORN's still one of the better PSC bands.

Yay!!!!!!!!

To add to the discussion on language: Sometimes I feel so differently towards expressions in 2 different languages that basically mean the same thing. I don't really know how to describe this, but I feel there's a lot more "depth" and "indirectness"/ambiguity in Japanese than in English. Since DIV's "Seasons" happens to be playing now, I'll take 2 lines of lyrics from it as an example: 春霞たち　淡く名残り雪 梅雨寒し　肌を寄せ合いながら Now there's almost no way of having an English equivalent of this without sounding somewhat pretentious or lame. EVEN if it's possible, I suspect there's no way of reconstructing the "seasonal" feel that emerges from just these 2 lines of lyrics. Then again I dunno if all these have to do with the language itself, or it's just something to do with me (because I'm obviously more familiar with English than I am with Japanese). By the way it's also quite fascinating to me that a lot of vk artists (well not ONLY vk i suppose, but also in the larger Japanese music industry) seem to listen to a great deal of Western music. Numerous vk bands have cited famous Western musicians as their inspiration during interviews. Perhaps it's just a human thing that there's always a part of us drawn to more "unfamiliar" territory.

My exact sentiments. The font looks like something I'd use for my homework assignment

LOL the PV cracked me up The vocals are brilliant though... ^^

that's... fast.

There's now an official countdown on their OHP.

So sad ;( I was just listening to them a few days ago...

I must agree that Yomi sounds strangely off here. His vocals are still powerful, but he sounds flat and uncomfortably nasal. I've noticed this the last couple of singles, but it has never been so obvious as in this preview. Hopefully he does something about it, because I would hate to lose such a distinctive voice in vk.

Nice, I like these songs more than some of their earlier releases ^^ He actually reminds me a little of Shin (ViViD) here.

From Satoshi's message to the fans when he departed it sure doesn't sound like he's coming back. Which is sad. Anyway, I honestly dunno which guitarist is more technically proficient - you might be right - but I definitely know that D.I.D's music is nearly unlistenable for me Just a matter of taste I guess...

Maybe Satoshi will come back and they re-band as Para:noir! (in my wildest dreams, I know.)

1: Do you buy multiple versions of releases, or buy at all? (Judgement-Free-Zone) Depends on which band. For some bands I buy selected releases; for my favorite bands I'll try to "collect" the different editions of the same release. Sometimes I'm foolish enough to get multiple copies of every edition of the release. So yeah, someone please stop me XD 2: Do you collect cheki or other non-music related items from bands? I generally don't care for cheki. But photosets are always nice - they allow me to see how the aesthetics of a band evolve over time. Band t-shirts are fun to have too - although to be honest, the design for those is usually terrible 3: Follow them on Ameblo, Twitter? I don't have Ameblo. I have Twitter and have followed some people on it, but I hardly keep track of what they're saying (if I do that I'd have no time for anything else). 4: Would you follow them on the street? If you mean stalk them, then no. But I'll try to get an autograph or have a photo taken with them 5: Dig through their trash? (Judgment-Free-Zone) No. 6: Does Visual Kei or other forms of your musical taste influence your style or personal life? Yes, my interest in street fashion was partially inspired by visual kei. Although it could have been other way round. 7: Desire to move or visit Japan influenced by music? Music was what got me interested in Japan when I was much younger: it made me really want to learn the language. Although, having lived in Japan for some time previously, I've come to disabused myself of an overly "romanticized" view of the country. 8: Do you read dirt-sheets of bands, like rumours, gossip, etc...? I've stumbled on some of those before, and in all honesty (at least for a period of time) they did make me "enjoy" visual kei less. At the end of the day, most of these rumors are false anyway, and since there's virtually no way to distinguish between what's true and false, why waste my time/energy on them where I can better use the time for something more productive and enjoyable? 9: Ever fantasize about being friends with band members? (JFZ) Actually, yes, lol. It's only natural I guess. Some of these people seem like really fun/kewl people to hang out with. But I won't say I'm obsessive about it. 10: Do you want to be in a Visual Kei band (or any other kind of band)? Yes... but given that I can't sing and the instruments I play (piano, classical guitar, flute) aren't "band instruments," there's no chance of this happening ;_;

I really enjoyed reading everyone's opinions! Keep them coming I'm quite surprised that quite a few people have said that it's actually a good thing that you don't understand lyrics, and that helps you connect with the music more ^^ I've never really given much thought to this, but I think it's an interesting point. Like Mi'ihen, I don't listen to English songs much, and the reason is I find English too "functional" a language, and the lyrics become really dry and cheesy. Maybe it's indeed the case that having some "distance" between the listener and language is a good thing!

You can listen to a 43-second preview of the new single here: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1392726365 Hopefully they upload one with better quality on youtube soon

For me xTRiPx doesn't sound generic at all. Few vk bands combine elements from hip-hop, rap, synth, etc. in the the way xTRiPx does (even if they do, chances are they don't succeed very well). There's always the importance of (i) having good ideas that are hopefully novel as well as interesting to fans; (ii) executing these ideas well. xTRiPx does well on both fronts. And I guess that's why you might feel that people "freak out" over xTRiPx - because they do unique music and their fans look forward to it. Anyway it's not like the more "generic" bands don't have fans - it's just that, well, there are so many of those bands and it's gotta be pretty tiring to freak out over a release every few days. So I guess the excitement seems more diluted and toned down. (To be clear, I'm not trying to be condescending here, since I do enjoy some of these "generic" bands as well.)

WINDING ROAD is a very good song. Definitely not their best, but it still eclipses (in a good way) most of what they've been doing since 「夢」～ムゲンノカナタ～. For me, THE ViViD COLOR is still the album to beat. Every single song on that was simply amazing (and 69-II mind blowing). I don't know whether this album will come close to that (I don't think it will), but from what I'm hearing I suspect it's going to be a much better album than INFINITY was. That's good enough for now! Just my 2c P.S.: I also miss their "visual" look ;_;

Wow... so amazing <3 And yay K is blond again (pardon my randomness)

Someone once said that every translation is a different work altogether. That's why it's incredibly difficult to translate poetry for instance: the differences across languages make it impossible to preserve both content and form. But your point is well-taken. I agree that sometimes "bad" translations can be a consequence of the translator misunderstanding the original lyrics, and it's not as detectable to the unsuspecting fan as some might think. Haha, Plastic Tree lyrics are the kind of things you either love or hate I can totally understand the point about classical Japanese. Heck, I have some training in reading 9th century Japanese texts and I still struggle with some of these lyrics =/ Although to be honest, I kind of miss Kagrra, and unfortunately Kiryu's music doesn't really work for me (irrespective of how "similar" their lyrics may be). I believe classical Japanese can work amazingly well with the right kind of songwriting/instrumentation - EVE's 朧月 being an example of that.

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! <3