.
Just a heads-up...the lyrics and translations to all the songs on Spirit are now up over at Not Greatest Site, so go ahead and read them! If you have comments, please leave them on this post.
Perhaps when the full album comes out, I'll write a review, but in the meantime, I have one comment, and it is this: there is nothing more goth than claiming in an interview that you see the word "mortal" in a positive light, as representing the essence of humanity, and then releasing an album in which you sing about the following themes -
1. Ecstatic Grief and Excruciating Pain (oh yeah, and some crying and weeping and pouring rain and razorblades and shooting for good measure)
2. The Joys of Theater (doesn't count because Mr. Sakurai didn't write that one)
3. Literally wanting to make out with Death so badly that you cut yourself and then pour your blood over some candles till it smokes and sizzles just like that strange boner you have for Death who you naturally imagine as someone hot because you are just that fucking goth, DEAL WITH IT
4. The Complete Annihilation of Cities (and possibly some good old post-destruction sexual tacos atop the smoking remains!)
5. Slowly forgetting the only memories you had of someone you loved who is now gone, but deciding that it's okay after all because everything dies but dreams are forever (shucks Hallmark should make a card out of that one!)
Now let's pour the wine, gaze somberly into the candlelit darkness of our solitary rooms, and ponder the brevity of joy and the pointlessness of existence, while touching ourselves. Because goth is nothing unless it hurts so good.
.
Thanks so much for the translations! I'm so looking forward to hearing the whole mini-album.
ReplyDeleteHere's a question for you as a frequent concert-goer in Japan: I love "Pain Drop." Considering the lyrics, how bad are the Japanese fangirls going to hurt me if I'm the only one in the audience who can't help dancing to the song? Because let's face it - the music is freakin' amazing.
The question is not whether you are dancing or not (Japanese fans, as a general rule, do dance.) The question is how close you are to the stage. The closer you are, the more the other fans are likely to hurt you. If you're supremely averse to being beaten on, I suggest hanging back in about the tenth row or so where there's less full-body contact and elbow-based violence.
DeleteEven when the seats are assigned?!? They are at NHK Hall, right?!
DeleteHaving had that little outburst, I'm not afraid of a little blood. ;) Bony elbows on the other hand...
Thanks for the advice. :)
If you want more information on standing vs. seated concerts, I strongly urge you to go and read (or re-read) the Japanese Concert Guide and So You Want To Go To Japan To See Buck-Tick sections on NGS.
DeleteI did read them before I went to the final standing live at Zepp Tokyo last year but I will have another look.
DeleteCheers!
Wait, does that mean clinging to the past and whining about the good days being gone is not goth?
ReplyDeleteBecause if that´s emo I might just be an emo with a soft spot for goth clothes!
As soon as you start whining, you're automatically emo. Goths don't whine. Goths give an elegant and dignified lament for the dearly departed. Plus if the past your clinging to is a past devoid of the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, well then, your past lies in dust, my friend. Because they are old, old, noisy, noisy bands.
DeleteThank you very much for the translations :) I enjoy the mini album very much. I can't stop listening to Pain Drop. I can listen to nothing but Pain Drop these two days, actually...
ReplyDeleteI adore the direction this is going. I adore it very much that I am going to burst with happiness. Now I cannot wait to hear the full album.
[Impression overload, doing my best to keep this short before Cayce kicks me out.]
ReplyDeletePain Drop. I was prepared this was going to be bad - after the name, and interviews, and the bits of the lyrics I understood - but it still cut. Brings me back to songs like Detarame Yarou, and don't get me wrong, I love it, but sometimes I wonder where's the border between healthy goth darkness and, well, depression. Better to sing about this anyway.
Loving the Sakurai "translations". Here's to the people who criticise him as a writer: the definitive proof that it's not that he can't come up with anything different - he had perfectly fine lyrics that he could take literally if he wanted - he just isn't interested in singing anything else (: Now that is another thing you can criticise him for, but perfectly fine by me.
And I love Yume, it reads simple, but becomes much more powerful when performed.
Thanks for the translations, Cayce!
Thank you so much for the translations!
ReplyDeleteAnd for once more pointing out the elegant and dignified way of being essentially goth.
Thank you for the translations. Best, P&M
ReplyDeleteoh my... so being goth has evolved.... Mr. Sakurai is actually a Gothique-Prince after all.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought PAIN DROP was the "black sheep" of the mini-album (you know, with the rhythm and all that) but DAMN....
now I'll continue my Gothique-Prince-Acchan-chan-Gothic-Journey by translating the songs into my native and no so goth Spanish, if you want I can send you the results, in the same way I did with the B-T's lyrics (I have to ask for your forgiveness because I do have more translations but I haven't send you anything else...)
I don't believe it's ever been in doubt that Mr. Sakurai is 110% goth. But Gothique Princes are of a different breed - frilly, flowery, self-serious and self-pitying, washed clean of any inconvenient vulgar masculinity, they exist only in the minds of fangirls who prefer to create their own reality rather than looking at what's before their eyes (see The Sisters of Mercy's "When You Don't See Me" for more info on the phenomenon.) Mr. Sakurai is surely not one of their number.
DeleteFor a fangirl of the type you describe, perhaps they realize that the real man is so far out of their reach that the only way they'll ever have a chance to "be" with him is turn him into something else altogether. Then, as you said yourself, if they get a glimpse of the real man they get angry and go into denial. Red pill or blue pill?
DeleteAnyway, I love your line, "washed clean of any inconvenient vulgar masculinity." I saw a video of Mr. Sakurai once, and I have no idea anymore what song it was let alone which concert, (you probably know it) where he was sitting on the stage, on a step I think, and he took a swig from a bottle (water?) and dribbled it back out on the floor. I remember thinking simultaneously a) maybe he's drunk, b) that's SO not something a Japanese person would approve of, and c) that's so damned human! It impressed the hell out of me.