Thursday, August 6, 2009

Review: The GazettE - REGRET

These are the kinds of singles that cement in my mind the reasons why people laugh at Japanese Rock music. Sure, you can tune them out with similarly crappy songs that stroke their love muscle, but when the day is done there are shitty bands and shitty songs in every genre of music.

This happens to be one of them.


01. Regret
02. Psychedelic Heroine
03. Worthless War

Regret is not a ballad or a rougher number so classifying this genre-wise is tricky. What this song does embody is a feeling of "playing it safe". All the instruments come together nicely, Ruki's voice sits atop them and belts his notes well, and the production is nice and crisp but it's all too damn standard. None of the members try to take a turn and do something unexpected and it turns a "Gazerock" track into a radio-friendly hit. I don't listen to alternate genres of music for something I can hear on the radio. The radio sucks.

At the end of the day Regret comes off boring.

Psychedelic Heroine tries to infuse some disco and punk into The GazettE's rock soul but the quick pace hurts the guitars as they struggle to keep up with Ruki and the rhythm section. Thankfully, the rhythm section is just as audible as the leads and that allows Psychedelic Heroine to turn around at the chorus. From there the song is solid straight up to the end, where one guitar strums some chords before another one comes in. It's a better addition than a 24 second fade. Ruki's vocals are quick and loud but the female backvocals are overused (like usual). I like the amount of experimentation this track uses. It's something Regret needs.

Best song here.

Worthless War starts off with a bang but gets repetitive quickly. It's the whole "soft intro, hard song" formula. While the oriental-inspired beginning is creative, it gives way to a heavy portion that sounds too familiar. Ruki's lyrics are about war, but he repeats his verses twice which makes the song less interesting. The chorus is underinspiring at best and gives way to a short solo that's cool but can't save this song. Another problem with this song is that it doesn't fit on this single. Both of the tracks that preceded it were upbeat numbers and this tries to rear it's head and be dark. That attitude does not work here. As a standalone song it's decent but in the context of this single I would suggest you just end at Psychedelic Heroine.

Recommended:
As a matter of fact, all I recommend is the second track. The first is safe and the third is overshadowed by The GazettE songs that tried that formula and did it better (Akai One Piece, Anti Pop, Crucify Sorrow).

Score: 47%

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