X Japan: Live in New York & Best of Announced

[Zeus 7997]

After many months of silence, X Japan announced they will perform at Madison Square Garden (New York City) on November 10, 2014.

They also announced the release of a greatest hits album, for celebrate the anniversary of their formation. The album, titled "THE WORLD ~X JAPAN Hatsu no Zensekai Best~" will be compsed of re-recorded songs, and will be on sale on June 17, 2014. The tracklist is:

DISC 1

1. Silent Jealousy

2. Rusty Nail

3. SCARS

4. ENDLESS RAIN

5. WEEK END

6. 紅 (Kurenai)

7. Forever Love

8. DAHLIA

9. X（THE LAST LIVE～Saigo no Yoru～ LIVE VERSION）

10. Without you（LIVE VERSION）

DISC 2

1. ART OF LIFE

For stay up to date with the news, check:

http://www.xjapanmusic.com/

http://yoshiki.net/xjapaninfo.php

http://wmg.jp/artist/x/

[lichtlune 915]

So that's the "new" album we've waited years for? Hope not.

[sugibo 403]

i read somewhere the songs are remaster only , not sure..

[Wicked Teletubby 528]

re-recorded ART OF LIFE. I want it.

[JukaForever 758]

I am willing to buy especially if Art of Life has added warmth of musicality like the live versions offer. That just about justifies about half the cost IMO. I just can't stand the studio version after hearing it live. 

 

I don't really agree that is the Best Of list. I would like to add Say Anything, unfinished, phantom of guilt, sadistic desire or something else more. I can't take it seriously with 4 songs from Dahlia and just 5 from the first 3 albums -.-

[inartistic 1151]

^ Yeah, Japanese description says “remastered”, unfortunately. Only “new” stuff is a live recording of one song

 

And I'm sure this isn't the album that fans have waited years for―that one will surely never come

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

I really hope as someone said that this is not album we waited so long for -.-

[paradoxal 2948]

Wow, it would be so cool to see X Japan live.

 

I'm not really enthusiastic about the Best of album though, but still I gotta say, that the track list is awesome. Do want...

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

A) excited but not about the best of. They need to re record those songs really bad. I'm hoping there's a secret surprise release of a brand new album this year but I doubt it.

I thought it was October 11th, not November 10th. It honestly could read either way I guess couldn't it. Do we have confirmation it's November 10th? Either way I'm there.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

It is actually October 11 according to, for example, Barks.jp (and other Japanese news sources): 10月11日

[Naaaaani 1173]

Just fuck you, Yoshiki

[Bear 1817]

They need to re record those songs really bad.

 

Why do they need to rerecord them? Some of those (Kurenai, X, Silent Jealousy and Art of Life) are close to perfect in their original form, and there's no way they would manage to improve them. They would kill them with a modern, sterile and lifeless production, and no enthusiasm and energy. Sounds good, yeah. Jesus, this fanbase, man.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

Considering going: not sure yet.

[clow_eriol 240]

Oh I see.... this image explains all my thoughts

[Visutox 188]

Poor fans, waited so long only for a kind of best-of. 

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

@Jigsaw9 Thank you for the confirmation, I was pretty sure I knew that but knowing makes me 100% happy that I'll be going.

 

@Bear Please remove your music elitism comments from my general vicinity. I love X, obviously their original productions are what got me into them and they're beautiful in their original recordings. However, as a fan of music that has a modern sound to it, I would like to hear them with modern production values. Change nothing about them except the quality of the production. No changes to the music at all. And it doesn't make me a bad fan or embarrassment to the fanbase because I want to hear a newer production.

 

@Peace Heavy mk II I'm going, you should go. Idk if I'm going alone yet or not, but I'd prefer not to. So you should go.

 

@ Everyone else, I don't think the album they've been working on is a Best Album, I think this is just an intro to their comeback and that the album will be coming late this year or maybe early next year.

[Bear 1817]

It has nothing to do with elitism, and I didn't say you're a bad fan or anything like that. That's just your own words. I'm just surprised people want to hear shitty re-recordings of good songs when it's so obvious they'll suck. To me, it doesn make sense at all. If you only want to hear them with a better production, why not hope for a remastered album, instead of a re-recording? That's the only thing I react to. I just think it's weird. And it's not exactly the first time I see fans of Japanese rock/metal wants their favourite bands to re-record their favourite albums/songs, and yeah, I do find that fucked up, especially when they already love the songs.

 

 

 

PS: the production on both Vanishing Vision and Blue Blood are phenomenal. Especially on their debut. They're not plished, but they're both packed with punch, emotion and wildness, just like it should be in this genre. Polished speed metal?Heeeeeeeeeeell no. I prefer Vanishing Vision's production to Blue Blood as well, even though it is a lot thinner and not quite as powerful. Fits the music way better.

 

PS 2: This is just my own opinion. Keep that in mind.

[Wicked Teletubby 528]

remastered, huh.

hell no then.

[JukaForever 758]

It has nothing to do with elitism, and I didn't say you're a bad fan or anything like that. That's just your own words. I'm just surprised people want to hear shitty re-recordings of good songs when it's so obvious they'll suck. To me, it doesn make sense at all. If you only want to hear them with a better production, why not hope for a remastered album, instead of a re-recording? That's the only thing I react to. I just think it's weird. And it's not exactly the first time I see fans of Japanese rock/metal wants their favourite bands to re-record their favourite albums/songs, and yeah, I do find that fucked up, especially when they already love the songs.

 

 

 

PS: the production on both Vanishing Vision and Blue Blood are phenomenal. Especially on their debut. They're not plished, but they're both packed with punch, emotion and wildness, just like it should be in this genre. Polished speed metal?Heeeeeeeeeeell no. I prefer Vanishing Vision's production to Blue Blood as well, even though it is a lot thinner and not quite as powerful. Fits the music way better.

 

PS 2: This is just my own opinion. Keep that in mind.

 

How can you be sure re-recordings are going to be shitty though?

 

Kurenai is a recording, it's just as good as the original but with a smoother production. The other rerecording is "unfinished" although properly finished* in Blue Blood.

 

I disagree that Vanishing Vision was recorded well. It has quite the strong treble presence and Toshi's voice was much more screechy and hollow-sounding than it is in Blue Blood. Access to better equipment will always sound better than using equipment of lesser quality. Beside, there is very little you can do with source material to remaster, you might as well just rerecord. 

[michi510 9]

TBH, i really have lost all hope for any new material from them.  i've pretty much come to realize that it may never happen.  x was great.  yoshiki is just milking off their long gone glorious days.

[Bear 1817]

I am sure because I have NEVER heard a re-recording done by a band 10+ years after the song was first released, that is even close to touching the original ones. Never. And what are the chances that X Japan would be so damn unique and manage to do the thing that so many thousands of other bands have failed to do? Close to 0. I doubt they'd make it even remotely interesting with a re-recording, desite it being a perfect song on both the two first albums. I can mention a billion bands who've made great songs awful by re-recording them later in their career.

 

Yes it is, but none of the songs on Vanishing Vision and Blue Blood are re-recordings done 10+ years after they first saw the light of day. They were re-recorded while they band were still young, "raw" and "crazy". People change and a bands' mentality and way to approach music changes when they become olrder, more skilled and so all that.

 

Access to better equipment will always sound better than using equipment of lesser quality? No. Just no. Different type of music requires a different type of production. Making a production more polished doesn't equal better to be honest. Being a tighter band doesn't necessary do the songs any good either. Not at all.

 

And yes, you can do a lot with a simple remaster. Sigh's "Gallows Gallery" is a decent example of that. The difference between the original and the first remaster is HUGE. The different between the third remaster and the two first versions is also HUGE. Cradle of Filth is releasing a remastered version of their classic demo Total Fucking Darkness in these days, and by the little I have heard the change is _MASSIVE_. Does it sound super polished and perfect? Of course not, it's a remaster of a lo-fi demo, but there's no reason at all why they should be polished either. In both cases I prefer the original, though, but it doesn't change the fact that the remasters sounds very different from the original ones.

 

However, I am one of those that thinks one shouldn't fuck around with classics. They're classics for a reason. Leave 'em be and re-record some of your shitty songs instead. Or just make something new.

 

 

But to each their own of course. People enjoy what they enjoy. Doesn't make much sense discussing this as we will never agree on these subjects anyway. Our views on music are as different as night and day.

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

Only reason I said "doesn't make me a bad fan" is because you had said something to the effect of "Jesus. This fanbase already" or something similar. Which I translated to "why would any fan of anything want to hear rerecorded songs but specifically x fans and if you think you need to hear rerecorded versions you're a bad fan", but I digress.

Anyway, you're totally right in that it's just a difference of opinion, but you also seem to be making it appear that your opinion is gospel and that's why I used the word "elitism" when maybe you didn't feel you were being elitist but it appears that way when you're the kind if person that says things in the vein of "modern music and production value is dull and lifeless"

I mean sure Justin Bieber and Austin Mahone are dull and lifeless, but if you take songs that were good and make them slightly cleaner and maybe louder through production, it doesn't make a great song any less good. And then guess what if you hate the new one just listen to the old one and there's your problem solved.

I, personally, would just really enjoy hearing Say Anything with a 21st century feel that's all.

[clow_eriol 240]

The re-recording of Luna Sea was a great vision of that album, why a re-recording of some X japan tracks won't be good?

[nick 10212]

With YOSHIKI being a perfectionist, X JAPAN's new studio album may never happen although the band has reunited since 2007. It's been ages already, but they still have 3 new songs released digitally so far.

 

Imagine a band that has been active since 1982 to present with 4 studio albums in total (excluding Art of Life released in 1993 which was a 30-min length song.), it's almost not possible that the band's popularity would last till these days if it's not YOSHIKI who composes music as if it would last eternally.

 

Hopefully, the greatest hits album to be released in June could cure my obsession with a long-time awaited new studio album, though. x)

[Champ213 1858]

I don't see the problem with re-recordings either. You cannot "kill" a song. A new recording doesn't make the original song vanish into thin air. Even if the new recording is worse than the original (which is ultimately a matter of taste), you always have the original song to listen to. So I don't understand why some people here go batshit over the possibilty that the songs may be re-recorded. It's not that they're required by law to only listen to the re-recording and never to the original again.

 

I would prefer re-recording too, as there is a chance that something new or interesting will come out of it. If not - well, though luck, but nothing ventured nothing gained. So I'll just continue to listen to the original versions, what's the big deal?