L'arc~en~ciel - Butterfly

[Pandabear 414]

So what did everybody think? I thought it was a pretty decent release, but nothing spectacular or bad for that matter. I thought it was just good. Which is the same feeling I have for most of the songs on the album. I feel as though the band played it safe with this release and as a result it's not the awesome come back album it could have been. I might have also been impressed more if they hadn't gone all Vk and released like 5 singles that would later make up most of the album along with their B-sides.

Favorites songs have to shade of season and SHINE.

I give it a 7 out 0f 10.

[The Libertine 2]

I kind of wanted to hate this album, but it's ok actually. Definitely not great by any stretch but I enjoy some of the songs. Still cheap as fuck to go back all the way to Nexus 4 single in an album but I regres..

Despise: Chase- I can't even listen to this song. Poorly written, uninspired, and some of Hyde's worst vocals... ever?

Unnecessary: Nexus 4- Just boring and bland, didn't like it years ago nor now.

decent- bye bye, good luck my way- both filler but enjoy enough!

very good- wild flower, XXX, drink it down, 未来世界 - Didn't like drink it down when it came out but do now, and XXX I love how funky it is.

excellent-Shine, bless, shade of season- Shade of season is great new track, and must say SHINE is one of l'arc's best post 2000 songs. I love the shit out of it.

Overall- 7/10

[Daisuke 20]

10/10 nothing more to say. Beautifull, my favorites Bye Bye, shade of season, wild flower & mirai sekai.

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

I found the album to be totally reductive. I mean... It's been... years since their last album and they put on EVERY single they've released since then and only four new songs on their big comeback album... And of those four songs there wasn't anything mind-blowing or life-changing. I will say that the singles Chase, Nexus 4, and Good Luck My Way were really good and Shade of Season and Bye Bye were good new songs, but they did not strike me like the first time I heard Nexus 4.... Or anything on Kiss.

What I want to hear is some great rock songs... Like Get Up and Angel Trip by VAMPS. That's where Hyde's voice shines the most I'd say.

This album, a 6/10 maybe. Really disappointed overall.

[evilcoconut 109]

I could have done just fine not hearing this album, but my curiosity as an old fan got the better of me. It felt like a tentative attempt at a new sound mixed with a very weak pass at their old sound, and together it was just...reductive and boring. The only singles I'd heard previously were Nexus, Shine and Drink. Of those three, I only liked Drink. So I'm not really aware of what's new and what's not. Chase and X X X started out good, but the choruses were terrible. Bye Bye and Good Luck My Way segued into each other so much that I thought they were the same song. Shade of Season could have been cool, but it went nowhere. Bless, Wild Flower and the last song were nothing but regurgitated versions of older, and much better ballads.

I also hated how over produced it was. Tetsu and Ken's parts sounded completely soulless. Nothing recognizable at all.

Yeah. 5/10 Completely average album.

I'm already enjoying the new R-Shitei more than this lol.

[Prophet 168]

i have a mixed feeling about this album, at one point it is pretty good for me, at one other point i hate it because there are only few new tracks, the old tracks / singles are dominating this album (XXX, Chase, Drink it Down, Shine, Good Luck My Way, Bless, Nexus 4).

Anyway..

- "Sekai no Mirai" (a heart-warming ballad, Hyde does a good vocal job here, his voice is probably not as good as it was, but i could tell that he puts his feeling in singing this song)

- "Wild Flower" (Totally enjoyable and catchy, epic chorus and guitar tab, Superb song!)

- "Bye Bye" (my friend said that this song was a long abandoned project which just put into public in this album, i seriously didnt know about that, but anyway i freaking love the chorus, Pretty good song)

so overally this album is 8/10 for me..

[LIDL 692]

Well, they seems to have losing touch after few years of hiatus.

Which understandable. I kinda see it like that.

Since they were having the same problem when they were coming back from their

first hiatus and spawned the album, SMILE onto the Universe.

Although Butterfly is totally much worse than SMILE.

Kinda sounds like a more watered down of themselves.

Not to mentions too many old songs, say nexus 4,

that we've heard so many times already.

On their best album, singles, wherever.

I wish they could just be more eager to please the fans like they used to,

when they weren't as successful and rich and famous as today.

And Hyde's voice sounded a bit different too, perhaps getting old or too much smoking.

I honestly skipped too many songs from this album, i begin to question myself.

If i really enjoy it at all.

I just hope that the follow up from this album will be much much better.

And please, no more hiatus, i see that it hurts them more than do any good.

I have pretty high expectation, given few years of hiatus to refresh themselves.

And after too many The Best Of Releases their label spat for all fanatic to buy.

I wish the album could be a special one, come back with a bang, which making them noticed once more.

But, eh..., not happening. Seems they are already comfortable with their status now.

But i hope they can dig deeper and find their youth ambitions once more next time.

Don't get me started with Punk'd En Ciel,

i never did enjoy any of their remake songs.

Their musical directions not my cup of tea, despite it's coming from the same band.

Lucky the CD is included as bonus, not sold separately.

OOT:

I found the album to be totally reductive.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I was looking forward to this album...until I read the tracklist, lol. Well the already known/old songs are a mixed bag on a scale from boring to pretty good, I just wanna say I love CHASE and DRINK IT DOWN (Yukihiro needs to write more songs!), the rest is kinda forgettable/interchangeable. As for the new songs, Bye Bye (okay, not really new but whatever) is a tad boring, Mirai sekai is atrocious in itself as well as a closing track, however shade of season (yep, Yukihiro definitely needs to write more songs!) and wild flower on the other hand are gorgeous - really took me by surprise! Which just saddens me more, seeing that they could still deliver some gems but were either lazy to write more or I dunno.

The fact that there's so little new material and the old stuff is kinda mediocre/tired is certainly not in favor of this album. If I think about it, I might even enjoy listening to the TRUE album (my least favorite of theirs) more than this...which is just sad, lol. If I were to give out points it would be a weak 4 or 5/10. A disgrace to their name, even more so because I think their last few albums were pretty good. A shame, really.

[Pretsy 1343]

I suppose there needs to be some positiveness in this topic:

I was merely surprised by Butterfly's content - no matter how many single songs were thrown into the tracklist (7 of them, rite?), they just seem to be in harmony after a few good listens. It's also worth noting that Butterfly was more of a "collision of new and old l'arc in one album" - primary examples would be the dominant "True"-era vibes in BYE BYE or a tinge of Winter Fall in GOOD LUCK MY WAY. As the obsessive supporter of Heart and True, this wasn't a downside or anything, but otherwise - a big plus.

Pros:

- "collision of new and old l'arc in one album"

- BYE BYE is still beautiful, and so are Wild Flower and Yukihiro's Shade of Season

- Frankly enough, single songs are in some sort of harmony

Cons:

- Mirai Sekai is missing something

- There could have been more new songs (but that doesn't matter album-wise, if we're able to ignore the "singleshooter"-fact overall)

As a big L'arc fan, I'll give this 9/10 for now. Great work, boys!

Hope you will get back together sooner or later...*cough*Vamps*cough*solo careers*cough*

[clow_eriol 240]

I consider myself a big fan of this group, and I find that they no longer give as much. With the hiatus was expected to return with something new and fresh, and only came back with a rehash of either collections or 3 albums Quadrinity excessive compilations, that the collection from 2000 to 2010 was enough, while being a collection of Previous years plus C/W, not to mention the latter album, butterfly, is a fucking compilation with 3 new songs!!. I find that its separate projects are now more ambitious as a group. I hope they disband by as high as it before continue with this crappy thing.