Albums you revisited and what made them click for you

[Milayou 36]

What are some albums you neglected at first and ended up falling in love with much later after giving them another chance? This happens to me with VK more than with any other genre so i'm interested to see how many people share this experience.

 

The latest one for me is La Féerie's "La Berceuse" which only grew on me after I realized how much it sounds like old Raphael (especially the vocal lines which sound like they were written to be sung by Yuki). The first two tracks in particular feel like a more mature take on what they were doing on Lilac before they started really cleaning up their sound. I guess the key idea here is that I stopped trying to approach it like the generic kotekote album I thought it was (and Raphael never really fell in line with that style of VK to me).

[Ultra Silvam 217]

For me it's Monochrome by Umbrella.  When I first listened to it I didn't really like Yui's vocals and couldn't hear past the production value, so I never gave it a real chance.  I didn't listen to it again until a couple years later after they released Kinematograph, and I was kicking myself over how much I missed out on. 

 

And this isn't really an album, but almost everything Alice Nine did in 2004/2005.  I was never much of an Alice Nine fan so I never bothered to really listen to their early stuff, but I loved it once I actually did.  The vocals aren't particularly good and the instruments could use work, they were an immature band for sure, but there's a big sense of genuine emotion/desire that I get from those songs that I simply just don't feel in their later works. 

[hopefully_benign 56]

Blue Blood.

Weird production.
I got over it.

[FOSCOR70 56]

Cheodara by Dimlim lol.

 

Thought it was just going to be another album by a run-of-the-mill vk band trying to be heavy.

 

Boy was i wrong. This album filled the gap that TIW made.

[ahnchc 309]

NERO by THE GALLO. The compositions and mixing are just great and they tie together so well. I can't pick a favorite from the album.

 

Also、Premier Amour by MALICE MIZER. It's a beautiful album full of poppy but often melancholic love songs and the track Claire ~月の調べ~ features one of my favorite genres of all time: bossa nova.

[Doesn'tEvenGoHere 121]

Not an album (because they have no albums), but Oshimai by Kizu took a second listen for me to like. The music sounded great from the get-go, but Lime's vocals took some getting used to. I've been meaning to listen again to DIMLIM too and see if second time's the charm. 

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

Macabre by Dir En Grey

 

This was my least favourite Diru album for a while now. I honestly don’t know why, but I think it was due to the fact it felt boring compared to the insanity that was Gauze.

 

I eventually re listened to it a while ago and while it’s not Diru’s BEST album (I think Kisou was wayyy better than Macabre), it’s still a great album nonetheless and brought Diru to a more edgier and progressive sound.

 

I would say The Insulated World, but I rank that album above Macabre and my opinion on that album hasn’t changed (this goes for most of their albums tbh) and I liked that album first listen 🤷🏻‍♀️

Edited September 4, 2019 by psychonnect_rozen

[Milayou 36]

1 hour ago, psychonnect_rozen said:

Macabre by Dir En Grey

 

This was my least favourite Diru album for a while now. I honestly don’t know why, but I think it was due to the fact it felt boring compared to the insanity that was Gauze.

 

I eventually re listened to it a while ago and while it’s not Diru’s BEST album (I think Kisou was wayyy better than Macabre), it’s still a great album nonetheless and brought Diru to a more edgier and progressive sound.

 

I would say The Insulated World, but I rank that album above Macabre and my opinion on that album hasn’t changed (this goes for most of their albums tbh) and I liked that album first listen 🤷🏻‍♀️

Macabre kind of feels like it suffers from being indebted to Gauze, like at that point in their career they were still concerned with keeping the wind in their sails and replicating their previous album's success instead of letting loose and allowing themselves as much creative freedom as they wanted. There are some less inspired moments on it where the similarities are really hard to overlook, like I could swear Myaku and Riyuu were written to pack the exact same one-two punch as Schwein no Isu and Yurameki.

 

At the same time though, what makes Gauze so notable in the first place is how diverse it is and Macabre pulls that part off just as well imo. They're perfect companion albums because Macabre covers all of the ground that Gauze couldn't cover, and i'll always maintain that they're the BEST window into what was happening in VK around that time as a result whether you're a Diru fan or not.

[Himeaimichu 1535]

Kuroyuri to Kage's first album took a few listenings for me to like. Partially because I had to grow past the fact that they no longer had that traditional Japanese theme Memento Mori had lol.