Shmilly 519 Posted June 30, 2014 Props to DaizyStripper for releasing a 'special price version' of their latest album that doesn't discount any tracks. However, for me this album falls into the trap of being held up by singles and not new material. It's by no means a particularly weak release, just not their finest work. We were already served the STARGAZER through Derringer singles, and then less than a month ago G.Z.S.K.K - for me, that was a pretty pointless single since it's the lead track on this album anyway and there were no B-sides. But I digress. TRAGUS is a solid release, if predictable. With six of the tracks being the previous singles, and two instrumentals, that leaves us with just six new ones... which unfortunately, are rather forgettable. I'm not condemning the album for being a single compilation (look at, as just one example, abingdon boys school's first album, which was fantastic). But for me, this time Daizy have mostly filled out this one. Let's take a look at the tracks individually. 01 - EMBLEM of JAIL - Instrumental opening, not much to say here. 02 - G.Z.S.K.K - Ridiculous title and also pretty repetitive, luckily the chorus is damn catchy so that helps it a lot. 03 - キューソネコカミ - Standard Daizy fare here, little bit of autotune on the vocals and then a more upbeat chorus. It just doesn't do anything to stand out from their previous work. 04 - STARGAZER - Perhaps my favourite of their endless single release campaign. Feels like it should have been on their previous album AIR. 05 - QUALTIER LATIN - At least they're trying to branch out a bit here. DaizyStripper have been known to experiment with jazz before, but now they're going for a kind of waltz style. Unfortunately it just feels a bit out of place and is regrettably forgettable for it. 06 - 理想 - I imagine this would be pretty fun live. One of their more fast-paced, chaotic style songs, with some prominent electronic elements. Nothing groundbreaking but pretty enjoyable nonetheless. 07 - MOONLIGHT of JAIL - Soothing piano interlude. Unfortunately it's a complete rip-off of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie no.1, but it does give the album a nice breather before the ballad-y section to come. 08 - HELLO, again - A soft and quite beautiful ballad. The PV for this one tells a nice story, from what I remember. 09 - MISSING - Another single, pretty standard Daizy style but that doesn't make it any less pleasing to listen to. 10 - PRIDE - This time they're shaking it up with some almost rap-like fast spoken vocals, which is interesting to say the least. 11 - 真面目complex - Welcome back electronic Daizy. This is quite a fun track all things considered. 12 - 嘘と陽炎 - Here's the jazz I was talking about. I don't think it's the best they've done with this genre but it's still decent. (If you want JazzyStripper check out リリカルナイト). 13 - GIRL HUNT - For a song with such an interesting title, I was expecting something a little... different. To be honest I'm not really sure where this one is going, it has such a mish-mash of elements that I struggled to really get it. 14 - Derringer - Last song, last single. Has a kind of upbeat ballad feel to it that marks it as a very Daizy song. Rounds off the album pretty well. I feel like this could also have been from AIR. One thing I should add as a personal note is that a few months ago I picked up a Taiwan-only release from DaizyStripper called 10 COLORS, which is a 10-track album consisting of the STARGAZER through Derringer singles, their B-sides, and respective PVs. So this has a large impact on how unimpressed I am with TRAGUS. Replace the new tracks with the single B-sides and it's basically the same, and a couple of those would have done better than the new material unfortunately. Overall a decent release but not exceptional. I'm not really one for rating albums, but I'll give it a solid . It's a shame most of that comes from stuff we've heard before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sai 868 Posted June 30, 2014 I'd like to ask you to use our current rating system that we've implemented here: http://monochrome-heaven.com/index.php?/topic/19216-new-monochrome-heaven-official-review-rankings-guide/ I've noticed that less and less people are using it at the moment, but we put it as an obligation because it gives a better overall view of a review than number/10, because for one a 7 might seem "very good" while another would deem a 7 as "average". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shmilly 519 Posted June 30, 2014 I'd like to ask you to use our current rating system that we've implemented here: http://monochrome-heaven.com/index.php?/topic/19216-new-monochrome-heaven-official-review-rankings-guide/ I've noticed that less and less people are using it at the moment, but we put it as an obligation because it gives a better overall view of a review than number/10, because for one a 7 might seem "very good" while another would deem a 7 as "average". Huh, I never noticed we had an official ranking system. No problem. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Augie1995 325 Posted July 1, 2014 The fact that Daizystripper almost exclusively never put their singles on their albums, that makes this album a bit subpar compared to the previous ones. The new songs are just standard Daizystripper material, nothing fancy or outdone. If you just need a Daizystripper craving for new songs, this is your album. If you want some songs that will stand out like on their previous albums, you might want to wait for the next one. Knowing them, even though they just lost Mayu, that should be in a few months Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
