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Zeus

#96: ザアザア - 不幸な迷路

Featured Review Question feat. XAA-XAA  

21 members have voted

  1. 1. It's been long enough...tell me how you feel.

    • Instant classic! An album that set the bar high and will be what I judge others against in the future.
      3
    • A fun, enjoyable listen and a reminder why I like visual kei but not perfect.
      8
    • Average album that had its moments but one or more things get in the way of enjoying it thoroughly
      3
    • Below average album where I only like a handful of tracks
      2
    • I thought the album was bad / not to my tastes
      5


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Tracklist:

01. 入口
02. 不幸の始まり
03. ぐちゃぐちゃ
04. 排水口
05. 気付いて
06. 人殺し
07. ラストダンス
08. 恋人ごっこ
09. 寄り道
10. 落とし穴
11. 交尾をしてよ
12. ユメオチ
13. 最後の歌
14. 出口

 

:_8/10_: | One of the most promising visual kei albums in recent memory.

 

After nominating their mixed bag of a collection album 中毒症状 (Chuudoku Shuujou) as one of the best of last year only to be greeted with a three consecutive singles campaign I would sooner forget about, the announcement of 不幸な迷路 (Fukou na Meiro) didn't strike me as anything particularly noteworthy to check out. I knew that ザアザア (XAA-XAA) had to bring the heat, but I didn't expect an album of this caliber from them. It falls a bit short of becoming a classic for me, but 不幸な迷路 is the most fun I've had listening to visual kei all year.

 

Ask me to define what visual kei is and what you will get is a lot of stammering and gesticulation, and maybe a comment on the style or popular genre of choice. Ask me for an album which embodies all things visual kei, and I'll point to 不幸な迷路 immediately. ザアザア has combined all the visual kei tropes in a familiar but new way, including some unfamiliar ones. For example, the band spared no expense in ensuring their disjointed album opener and closer SE's have nothing to do with the tracks they sandwich. Also for good measure, the album switches gears halfway through in a misguided attempt at showing diversity, starting with the very girugamesh reminiscent "ラストダンス" (Last Dance). They at least stopped short of including their sub par singles just to pad the running time. Some seasoned visual kei veterans would roll their eyes at these, but I embrace them all with open arms. It lends an undeniably last-decade visual kei feel to 不幸な迷路 without leaning on novelty or the band's laurels, and as a result its very easy for me to get lost in it. I can play the whole album without pausing once.

 

One point of contention I had with 中毒症状 was how lazy many of the bridges sounded. Bridges hold a song together, and often it was just one word or one phrase repeated eight times. I'm happy to report that this sin is only committed once on 不幸な迷路 with "落とし穴", and that a large majority of the tracks have well thought out, even memorable choruses at times. Ironically enough, my favorite track,  "排水口" - an undeniably MUCC-influenced slow burner that could earn a spot on the aforementioned 2004 album 朽木の灯 - has no chorus to it. I like most of the songs even if the vocalist Kazuki works within a very small tonal range, I don't remember actively hating or skipping through any song, and after five or so listens I consider this to be their best release yet. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, and maybe it has a few too many toppings, but it's a damn good sandwich for those with the corresponding taste. Only time will tell if future releases can maintain the same balance of familiarity and inventiveness.

 

I expected nothing at all, but 不幸な迷路 resonated with my stodgy, old soul in a way I haven't felt for some time. It strikes with an intensity and charm that took me back to my nascent years in visual kei almost immediately. I implore them to follow whatever creative workflow resulted in this album and not their consecutive singles release, because this works for them. Most importantly, in a time where there isn't a clear leader in the race to the top of the indie visual kei charts, 不幸な迷路 provides a compelling reason to choose ザアザア.

 

 

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Bands like Xaa-Xaa prove to me that there are still groups out there trying to keep the scene alive by not staying in the lines and just making damn solid music.

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I wrote about my opinion on this release on one of sume7's statuses a few weeks ago but this is a better place for me to expand on it a little bit.

 

XAA-XAA is my favorite active visual kei band but I really did not enjoy this release. In fact, very few of the people I know who are fans of XAA-XAA liked this release so coming here and seeing so many users rave about how great it is was quite shocking to me, but of course I'm not shitting on the opinions of those who like 不幸な迷路. I'm just a bit ???? about how our opinions are literally polar opposites.

 

Anyway, as I mentioned previously, in my opinion some songs on this album had some good parts but fell short such as 排水口, ラストダンス, ユメオチ, and 気付いて.
I really don't like ぐちゃぐちゃ and 恋人ごっこ at all. I don't particularly enjoy 寄り道 and 交尾をしてよ either but I actually thought they were quite fun live at their oneman on Sunday at which they played all the new songs (in the same order as the album). However, despite that they were all in a really good mood and the atmosphere was great, not gonna lie for half the live I was waiting for the encore so they could play their other songs because I was so bored. [The encore was super lit though and their MC about armpit hair was hilarious so I can't say I was disappointed with the live but I digress]
 

I really like Kazuki's voice, not because he has a great vocal range (he does not) but because he's very good at conveying his emotions when he sings. Even songs I don't particularly enjoy from XAA-XAA (such as 桜の街) I still listen to when they come on shuffle since I like listening to his voice, but I can't get myself to listen to this album anymore because his voice sounds so flat and stale on top of compositions that I personally find lacking.

 

Zeus mentioned how in many of the songs on 中毒症状 have a lot of repetition in the lyrics but that's actually one quality that I find charming about Kazuki's lyrics and I think he usually does quite well, minus 死にたい, and from this album 落とし穴 and 寄り道.

 

In contrast with Zeus' opinion, this is hands down my least favorite release from them along with したいだけでしょ?.

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For me, there were certainly good tracks such as ラストダンス (Last Dance) and ぐちゃぐちゃ (Gucha Gucha), which till now I'm still listening to. However, most of the tracks on the album, particularly 落とし穴 (Otochiana), 寄り道 (Yorimichi) and 交尾をしてよ (Koubi o Shiteyo), lacked the replay factor for me and I found myself skipping over these tracks all the time.

 

On my first listen of this album, most, if not all tracks didn't attract my attention at all, particularly the above 3 tracks mentioned. However, some did gradually pique my interest the more I listened, particularly ラストダンス (Last Dance), ぐちゃぐちゃ (Gucha Gucha), 恋人ごっこ (Koibito Gokko) and 人殺し (Hitogoroshi). But sadly, the last 2 tracks have been getting quite boring for me as of late.

 

Having been listening to their songs all this time still, I can't say I'm not disappointed that none of these tracks on the new album managed to be on par with some of their best tracks - for me - such as 死にたい (Shinitai), 青いレインコート (Aoi Raincoat) and どす黒い (Dosuguroi). Kazuki really knows how to convey his emotions well in their songs, which is the reason why I find even slower, but pretty good tracks like 雪時計 (Yukitokei) and 余命 (Yomei) enjoyable up till now. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly living up to his full potential in this album, for many of the tracks were flat and repetitive.

 

I may be biased for I am quite a xaa-xaa lover (lol), but at least their tracks manage to maintain a standard that many generic Visual Kei bands nowadays lack. They seem to be gaining quite a bit of popularity recently too, so I'm definitely expecting the next album to be a lot better than 不幸な迷路 :) 

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I'm surprised that this album is evoking such polarizing reactions! For me, 不幸な迷路 totally brought 2017 in with a bang. I mentioned in my review it reminds me a lot of 2001-2003 indie visual kei, especially with tracks like 落とし穴 (Otochiana), 寄り道 (Yorimichi) and 交尾をしてよ (Koubi o Shiteyo). I could slide any of these next to an early the GazettE track or a turn of the century Aliene Ma'riage track and it wouldn't sound too out of place. Then, in certain places it strays into 2004-2007 era like ラストダンス (Last Dance) and 排水口 (Hasui Guchi), and then makes an awkward leap to 2015 to the present with the rest. Do either of you feel the same way?

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