Review: Versailles - Prince & Princess

I've tried for an extended period of time to get into Prince. Up until I heard this release, I was always of the mind that Versailles put out quality piece after quality piece and that it only was a matter of time until I liked each track they presented to us. Prince has managed to defy that assumption for so long that I just thought I was listening to the entire track in the wrong context. I blamed it's placement on Noble, or how I would only listen when I was preoccupied with other things, or any other number of excuses that I could come up with to justify why I came across a track that was actually lackluster.

When they decided to re-release this as a single and I got wind that this was going to be re-recorded, I tried even harder. However, the adage still stands: "some things just aren't meant to be".

01. Prince
02. Princess
03. Silent Knight



01. Prince
02. Princess

Why is it when I sit down to listen to Prince I feel like I'm getting ready to watch a Gundam anime? I wasn't too crazy about this track when it was included on the second pressing of Noble but it was also included as a free digital download so I wasn't complaining if the track was lackluster. Sitting here looking at how Versailles elected to re-release this single in a whopping six editions just reminds me of how disturbingly effective their marketing strategies are. Prince isn't a very memorable song and is definitely not single material, even if Versailles decided to pimp this song with a re-recording, a new introduction and a smoother production value all across the board. The pace of this song is very awkward and Versailles sounds like they are trying to be epic with fast riffs and dueling guitar reveries while moving at the pace of a constipated sloth. Hizaki's solo is technically impressive (as always) but getting to it is such an exercise in patience it's not worth it. What results from this abomination is musical incoherence and the typical fade-out ending to Prince culminates in this song being below-average.

Listening to Princess makes me feel like I just ejaculated and then my imaginary girlfriend wants to go for round two. No matter how many different tricks she tries, or how long she attempts to continue on for, none of it comes up satisfying and I may just end up turning over and falling asleep. Versailles is a band that typically writes 8+ minute songs but they all aren't composed equally. Princess is that song that's at the lower end of this spectrum because it is bloated. It starts off with a captivating organ and guitar lines, but two minutes later it lost the edge it started with and Princess strikes with the rubber end of a blunted sword. As this song drones on and on for it's eight minute runtime, it feels like Hizaki tried to throw everything at the listener. The song becomes increasingly darker, increasingly repetitive, increasingly frenetic and increasingly boring. Princess lacks the edge that most other Versailles songs have in varying quantities and does nothing for my Versailles fix.

Silent Knight is a clever play on words and the only decent track we get out of this deal. In what sounds like Teru and Hizaki warming up before band practice, Silent Knight happens to be the only song with any sort of bite behind it and it's really not much. Sure, Jasmine You's bass brings up the deep end, Hizaki and Teru have some very complex guitar lines and Yuki's relentless drumming drives the pace up from the slow start to the explosive finish. Sure, they're all accompanied by a non-repetitive symphonic section that provides an accompanying ethereal atmosphere. Sure, sections of this song sound like it was lifted out of Aphrodite. What kills this song for me is that it's a sudden switch from classically written compositions to romantically written pieces and it is jarring. Out of this context, Silent Knight is a great song. In this context, I can't get into it.

Just as an interesting aside, the marketing for this failed miserably. All the "member editions" sold only under Hizaki, then Kamijo. The other three were lower down in sales and poor Jasmine wasn't even on the list.

So this wraps up what I would call one of the only Versailles releases I would recommend you skip. With only one good song (that being Silent Knight) and two songs that I haven't grown fond of in a year this is the last place any newcomer to Versailles would want to start. What sums up this single are these four words:

"too much too fast"

Recommended:

Silent Knight

Score (regular edition): 52%
Score (member editions): 40%