Saturday, August 29, 2009

Review: Gackt - Jesus

Since I happen to be going in no specific order and since I have a few extra minutes after moving in, completing the slew of recent Gackt releases is definitely in order. I do only have two left, so those that aren't fans of Gackt won't have to suffer through much more but all this damned "mandatory orientation" is seriously screwing with the schedule I had over the summer.

Then again, I had all day during the summer to do reviews and I cranked out one a day. Now that I have about 15 minutes to scribble something together I STILL manage to crank out one a day. Doesn't that speak volumes about my work ethic...

http://blog-imgs-18.fc2.com/a/y/a/ayametrack/08111001.jpg
01. Jesus
02. Sayonara - ЯR II ver.-
03. Jesus (Instrumental)
04. Sayonara - ЯR II ver.- (Instrumental)

Jesus as a song rocks hard but as a single falters a bit short of my expectations. This stems in part from the fact that Lost Angels had two B-sides while this just has one and said B-side isn't as solid as some of his other efforts. I am quite aware that Lost Angels comes after this single but it's just the fact that this single could have - no, should have - come back in full force is what bothers me.

Usually when you re-do a track, you're supposed to make it better, not equally as bland. Sayonara is a re-recording from one of his tracks on the Rebirth album and I'm not fond of either track to be quite frank. Gackt's slower, more ballad-like songs have a tendency of dragging themselves on until they get to the point of unpleasant and Sayonara is no exception. Until it gets up to the part when the violins kick in, the song is terribly boring and minimalist almost to the point of bare-bones. The violin portion gets a mention simply because it brings up the entire atmosphere of the track and provides something halfway interesting to listen to. Needless to say it's the best part of the entire album. In it's wake, the rest of the song seems to get better and if you manage to stick it out to the violins you just might end up finishing the song. Nonetheless, this song is just too long for me to recommend sticking it on repeat.

Jesus, however, is more gratifying. It busts out of the gate with "hey's", guitar riffs that immediately grab your attention, and Gackt's singing is emotional without sounding forced. Couple that with a great solo, a better ending than normally expected, and no part of the track that leaves me unsatisfied, and I'm quite happy with Jesus. Some fans were unhappy with Jesus and thought Gackt was being anti-Christian with his lyrics and accompanying music video (Gackt sings about a guy begging to God and Mary to save him from suicide and the guy in the PV was supposed to be Hitler I read). What's so anti-religious about that? I have just one sentence to say to those people:

"Target the actual bands that actually say 'fuck Jesus' in their lyrics instead of those that include Jesus and poetic license in their music. I actually saw an album titled 'Fuck me Jesus'. There's something you should go take a look at, not some bishounen rock artist who is pumping out singles because he's running out of money >.>"

So that was three. Bite me. Other than that little rant I'm pretty much done with this single. Two instrumentals, not worth mentioning, one good track, one letdown.

Recommended:

Jesus

Score: 75%

2 comments:

  1. The video Jesus followed Gackt's concept for his latest tour, (an continuing of the story behind his 2002 tour for the Rebirth album) Gackt plays cyborg created by Nazi scientists.

    In the video ZERO confronts one of men (SS Colonel Archist) who turned him into a killing machine, to tell him that God (Jesus) won't help him, that he must have the courage to live or die by his own merits.

    ZERO calls on Maria in the song instead, Maria was his lover.

    The scene in the video takes place at the end of WW2, when the allies invade Berlin, Hitler and his General staff have taken their lives by shooting themselves or taking cynanide pills.

    At this point in Gackt's story ZERO and his comrades (GacktJOB) have already been destroyed, so they are appear as Shinigami or vengeful ghosts.

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  2. LOL where do you get this vast amount of information from, karadin?

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