Sunday, June 21, 2009

Review: The GazettE - Miseinen

I believe I’ve fallen into a the GazettE phase, which has never happened before. I’ve always regarded the GazettE as just an average band with plenty of hit or miss songs, most of which miss horribly. But after listening to Zetsu the other day, something awoke and now I’ve been motivated to review the big 3, or as I like to call them: Zetsu, Zakurogata no Yuuutsu, and Miseinen. In my opinion, this was the high point in their career and they’ve been on a slow decline ever since, tapering their awesomeness off at the aptly titled Stacked Rubbish...


01. 未成年

Well back to Miseinen. I haven’t given this song a fair listen just because of this runtime, so I shall start listening to the song now as I do a few random things to suck up time. Prepare for informative filler as I get through Miseinen twice. I believe I listened to this song once in it’s entirety and I felt it was awesome but I haven’t gone back since. Now would be the time.

*plays it in iTunes*

I’ll grab the lyrics and the translation while I listen to Miseinen.

Lyrics

gamushara ni nanika wo sagashiteta
tsumazuite mo ii kara mae ni
bakageteru no ha wakatteru,
tada koukai senu you hashiru no sa
shinrai dekiru no ha jibun dake de,
nakama nante iranakatta
nanimokamo ni muketeta yaiba
shishun no H ha moroku hakanai
tsuyoku naritai hitori de ikiru tsuyosa wo
hontou ha uragirareru no ga kowai dake
nigete bakari jya nani hitotsu kawaranai to
wakatteru no ni kawarenu boku ga iru
hokorashige ni kazashiteta kodoku to iu puraido ha
yaku ni tatanu risou he to nigeru tame no hane datta
hokorashige ni kazashiteta jikoshuchou to iu ‘RIOT’
kono hikari no mukou ni ha jiyuu nado nakattan da
Teenage Bluely Days
areteita mainichi ni oboretenda
kizuitara kodoku seotteta
tsurakatta. hontou ha hitori nante ne
nozondenakattan da

tsuyogatte bakari jya hontou no kao wasurechau kara
tama ni chikara wo nuite dareka ni tayoru koto mo daiji desu
kizutsuite… nakitai toki ha oozora ni mukatte oogoe de sakendemite
watashi ga watashi wo wasuretai you ni, watashi no mama de ireru you ni
konna yowai boku no tame ni senaka oshitekuremashita
hokorashige ni kazasu teta kodoku to shishunshou ha
yaku ni tatanu risou he to nigeru tame no hane datta
aoku hareta ano sora no jiyuu ga aru to suru nara
kono hokori takaki hane ga chigirete mo kamawanai
boku ha hashiridashiteta gamushara ni sora wo megakete
hane wo hiroge tobidatta rakkaten ha ‘jiyuu’ na no da to
subarashiki kazoku wo mochi subarashiki nakama wo motta
saikou no hibi datta umarekawattara mata aou…

Translation

I was frantically looking for something
it’s okay to stumble, so go forward
I know it’s foolish, I just run on without regret
the only one I can trust is myself, I didn’t need friends
the fangs I bared at anything and everything
sexual stuff in adolescence is delicate and fleeting
I wanna be strong, give me the strength to live on my own
honestly, I was just scared of betrayal
I knew that nothing would change if I kept running away
but I couldn’t change myself.
the loneliness I prided myself on
was a pair of wings to escape to my worthless dreams
the self assertion I prided myself on called ‘RIOT’
there was no freedom, nothing beyond this light.
Teenage Bluely Days
I was drowning in each rough new day
before I knew it I was shouldering such loneliness
It was hard. To be honest,
I really didn’t want to be on my own.

since always pretending to be strong makes one forget one’s true face
it’s important to occassionally loosen up and rely on others
hurt… when you want to cry, face the great big sky
and scream out in a loud voice
that you want to forget yourself, so you can keep being who you are.
the encouraging voices of my father, my mother, and my friends
spurred on, even one so weak as myself, they gave me light
the loneliness and pain of my youth that I prided myself on
were a pair of wings to escape to my worthless dreams
if there’s freedom to be had in that clear blue sky
I wouldn’t care if these wings I’m so proud of were torn off
I began running, frantically aiming for the sky
I spread my wings and flew away, and the spot where I fell
was ‘freedom’.
with a wonderful family, and wonderful friends
these were the best days of my life, if I’m reborn
let’s meet again…

Alright. Honestly speaking, I just have this on as background music and I just jumped right into Reita’s solo. Even when I’m not paying attention, this song is pretty cool. On my second listen, I’ll inspect closely. Now, as for the lyrics: I think this was one of Gazette’s more shallow and easy to understand songs, which isn’t that bad of a thing. Sometimes lyrics shouldn’t be cryptic like hieroglyphics. Looking at someone else’s opinion, which I agree strongly with, the song was kinda of sung (I guess) from an average angsty teen’s mind. He thinks he’s got a grip on his situation and goes all out on it then realizes “Oh noez, what is I doingz?” and begins to notice that his friends and family were behind him the whole time and all that sappy stuff. He finds that freedom and happiness don’t come from breaking away from everyone but by staying with them so they can support him when he gets trapped in the pitfalls of life that he wouldn’t be able to normally crawl out of himself. It might have to do with Ruki’s teenage years and all that he went through with his various bands and his family and strained ties and all that cliche stuff. The song is moving, even if it is cliche and rather bland. It’s always the emotion of a song with me that makes it stay or go, which is why Miseinen fits in between Zakurogata (bottom) and Zetsu (top).

I think this song has two solos. One in the middle, and one within the last minute that leads out. The way it slows down and ends with the guitar wailing like that is also extremely awesome. I found the verses to be a little o_e but it wasn’t as bad as Zakurogata no Yuuutsu, which I still regard as crappy and rushed in hindsight. Miseinen definitely rushes at you at full-force with a riff and chaotic drums, but somewhere in the song it goes from riff laden to melody and then to kick ass solo. In order to get the song more I went to translate Miseinen. Miseinen means minor or someone that is not of age (think 17 or under), which fits in nicely with the theme of the song.

Damn I missed it again but it’s definitely before what I guess would be the refrain. I also think they repeat verses in this song, which takes away a little bit because it elongates this song especially too long, but it’s nullified by the solo(s) and then maybe even overlooked so I’m not going to bitch too much about it. As I said before, Reita’s bass solo is killer and you can feel it coming on even though it jumps on you. It’s a bit short, but it makes you appreciate it especially half-way into the song if you were feeling the energy taper off. I just found the interesting a little too loud and brash to jump into occasionally, but I overlooked it twice and found a nice, long song. For some reason, I’m not keen on the GazettE’s longer works for some reason. I have to go listen to Reila properly a few times just to say I listened to it.

And it’s official, they don’t repeat verses. That makes this song even better, but it doesn’t top Zetsu at all. After the song finishes, I’m going to watch the PV and share my thoughts on that below. Until then, I’ll throw in something here that I forgot to mention in both Zetsu and Zakurogata no Yuuutsu: since the three singles were released with a 10000 preess copy limit, it might be hard for you to find all three seperately. Therefore, the GazettE released a compilation single called Dainippon Itangeishateki Noumiso Chuzuri Zecchou Zekkei Ongen Shuu, which has all three singles on it. With the exception of Zakurogata, you’re not going to find the other two on any other non-live releases, so if you want it just follow the link and get your single. Or you could be a masochist and actually try to track down the singles in their original album covers.

I’m not going to stop you, but rather wish you the best of luck. And the ending is STILL kick-ass the second time around. Now time to watch the PV. I usually find that watching the PV makes me like a song more sometimes. Let’s see if that still stands true six minutes later.

Well, after the video I am speechless. Not out of shock, but because it’s the least disorienting of the three. I do say, the delayed intro in the video worked well. Miseinen doesn’t have that intro like Zetsu or Zakurogata does, and the brash head smash of the riff might turn people off at first (it did for me). But the song is a great song, maybe not the best they’ve ever done, but still a good song and worth at least one listen. Sadly, I won’t find myself playing this song over and over again because it’s way too long for my GazettE fixes, but in the end it gets a 4.5 out 5.

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