Geraldine Ee
Japanese rock band, Alice Nine (アリス九號.) has just released their latest album, Vandalize, and The UrbanWire dives straight into their world of light, darkness and stars.
Breaking into the Oricon charts at third place when it was released on the 14th of January 2009. Vandalize is a delight to listen to and a must-buy for all fans.
Softening their look from their visual-kei days, Alice Nine broke into music charts and became a major rock band in Japan. They are under PSCompany and King’s Records.
Nasal vocalist no more
It was annoying to hear vocalist, Shou , sound like he has a really bad cold most of the time back in their indie days. But the release of Vandalize clearly shows a drastic improvement in Shou‘s vocal ability.
You would find that Shou has managed to control his vocals very well for songs like “RAINBOWS” and “Kiss twice, Kiss me deadly“. He is also able to hit many other pitches and notes, giving much vocal variety to the album’s tracks.
Not just head-banging
Vandalize has a few soft and slower tracks, such as “Subaru” and “Waterfall“. One could tell that Alice Nine has experimented with many various genres in this album. Composer and bassist Saga, has definitely experimented with different genres and sounds.
LIGHT is the word of the day….
The album is packed with many moments where Shou sings about light and darkness. This can be seen in songs, “RAINBOWS“, “Kiss twice, Kiss me deadly” and “MIRROR BALL” etc.
…and the universe is the theme.
As seen by the album CD sleeve and also elements in many of the tracks’ lyrics. It’s no surprise to fans that Alice Nine has taken a liking to anything that has to do with the sky. Guitarist Hiroto is known to be fond of the sky. In a heart-warming gesture, international fans had came together and sent a photo compilation of pictures of the sky to Hiroto as a gift.
ENGRISH still dominates PSCompany and their bands.
We heard solo artist, Miyavi with his odd pronunciation of “POP IS DEAD” which sounds like “Pope is dead” and the GazettE‘s random English sentences being thrown into their lyrics at any given chance, “Reckless driving cucumber”. Alice Nice has also fell into the steps of their seniors as more than half of the album’s track titles are all in English. Well, at least they somewhat make more sense than their seniors, because honestly, what does “Reckless driving cucumber” mean?
The band:
Shou, vocalist
Hiroto, guitarist
Tora, guitarist
Saga, bassist
Nao, drummer
Pictures from: PSCompany Alice Nine Official Site
Tracklist
1. “the beautiful name”
A lovely opening song from the album. Much like the album sleeve design, the song includes snippets of descriptive words about the universe. It has a typical feel of Alice Nine that fans would recognise anywhere. The essence of the song speaks of the beauty of names as in Japanese society today, more and more youths hardly call each other by their names, but with an “Oi” or “Ne” (typically a “hey” in English)
2. “Hyakka Ryouran” : Blooming of many different flowers
A pleasant change for the mixing of the track. But frankly because of their engrish, this UrbanWire writer heard “two plus two is” rather than “too fast to live, too young to die”.
3. “RAINBOWS”
Personally, this is by far the best track on the album heard and is worth placed on perpetual loop. Shou showcases his vocal talents in this track. The upbeat melody also gets one’s head bobbing to the song. According to bassist Saga in a Shoxx interview, this track was initially more electronic sounding but they made adjustments to fine tune everything. A lot of effort was placed in this track as both bass and guitar parts were a pain to perfect.
4. “Kiss twice, Kiss me deadly”
Lovely guitar chords and wonderful control of the vocals on Shou‘s part. Composer and bassist Saga captured the essence of old school rock. Did you know? This is one of Tora‘s favourite tracks on the album too.
5. “Cross Game”
A very typical A9 song. Many fans would have heard this from their Cross Game single about partings and moving forward.
6. “Subaru : Pleiades”
A soft rock ballad song that talks about unity of people. This also ties back to their theme of the universe.
7. “www.”
Not world wide web, but world wide warning. Shortest song on the album at 3.45 minutes, but it’s worth a listening to. Once again Shou displays his improvements as a vocalist.
8. “Drella”
Short for Cinderella who also has a seemingly evil side, “Dracula”. This song tells of a girl that is like two sides of a coin. Cute yet dangerous.
9. “MIRROR BALL VANDALIZE EDITION”
This is another slow song that has piano accompaniments. No guitar, no bass, no drums. Just Shou and a piano. A beautiful piece that gets you into a dreamy mood.
10. “Inosensu” : Innocence
“Run! Run! Reach! Reach! Reach! Until your wishes are fulfilled!” A song on achieving your dreams. Not one of the best tracks but it has a cute motivating factor that draws most to it. Shou wrote the lyrics to this song while thinking of Hiroto‘s naiveness.
11. “Waterfall”
Waterfall is one of the slower tracks. Waterfall would probably mean the tears of sadness that streams down one’s face. It’s a sad piece and Shou has placed a lot of emotion when singing.
Is it worth the money? Definitely.
There was a period of time where this UrbanWire writer gave up on Alice Nine, but Vandalize takes her back into the days of good rock music made by a great band.
UrbanWire gives it a 7.5 out of 10.
Get your copy of Vandalize at CDJapan or at local HMV stores today.