Awake

Artist: L'arc-En-Ciel
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 4582117984153
ASIN: B0009IH16Y

Release Date: 2005-06-07

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Customer Reviews:

Great CD.......2005-11-27

I origanally bought this for the track "Lost Heaven" which is the Full Metal Alchemist Conqerer of Shambala opening and ending theme, even though it is not on the movies OST. Also having liked Ready Steady go, and UNDO by L'Arc~En~Ciel, I suspected that I would like the CD. I was right, all the tracks bring somthing to the table and make this a great cd.

AWAKE to the Wonderment of L'Arcu.......2005-08-20

L'Arc~en~Ciel has always been a classic in my book. They seem to maintain this strong presence in their music, ever since the early 90s. Their style, even though it may remain similar, has always been unique and openly inviting. Though Hyde still needs to work on his English a bit, this album was astonishing. "As One", in more ways than one so different from "Jojoushi," still has Ken's style of guitar playing that most fans could recognize almost instantly. But the song that caught me and wouldn't let go was "Ophelia." Their soft rock was played down more, adding some contemporary jazz elements. "Jojoushi" was another song that stood out as well. I believe it was one of the first singles off the album to become played more often. It gives this bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. Magnifying Tetsu's outstanding bass skills, and giving once more another outstanding guitar bridge to Ken, Jojoushi shows how much L'Arcu has come about artistically over the course of more than ten years. Overall, you would not be wasting a single penny for this album. So buy it and be complete.

If you liked SMILE..........2005-08-02

If you were a curious Jrock newbie or a long time Laruku fan buying SMILE, you will LOVE "AWAKE". Or, if you have over 25 of their mp3s downloaded to your computer and love it all, you'll LOVE "AWAKE". If you've only heard "READY STEADY GO", or "Driver's High", or "Killing Me", or ANY Laruku song and liked it, YOU WILL LOVE "AWAKE". In fact, if you just love Jrock, YOU. WILL. LOVE. "AWAKE". How's that for a good sales pitch?
L'Arc~en~Ciel's new album, I think, is a bit more diverse than SMILE. Now, don't get my wrong - I LOVE SMILE. However, I think this album goes more to the extreme, genre-wise.
When I first got this album, I had heard "New World", "Jojoushi", "Killing Me", "AS ONE" (a live version), and "Jiyuu e no Shoutai". So some of this album didn't come as a surprise to me.
Track one is "New World", which is a great song to open up a CD with. More mellow and less hyper than some of Laruku's other stuff, New World was composed by HYDE(vo) and Yukihiro(dr). Also, something I think is a first - Yuki did the lyrics. Never seen that before, has anyone else...? Anyway, it's a calm-ish, uplifting song with a great bass line and nice guitar, plus a good drum rift. And of course, HYDE's vocals are great. Also, the PV is a plus, considering HYDE is sexy and the rest are adorible. ^^
Track two is "LOST HEAVEN", which was my first new track on the CD. And, wow - it surprised me! This song was composed by Ken(g), and written by HYDE. This song was more upbeat, with a very interesting "Engrish" chorus. Very catchy, and sure to be liked.
Track three is "Jojoushi", which I must say I am biased for. A beautiful ballad, Jojoushi caught my attention mainly because of the vocals and gorgeous arrangement. This song includes an orchestra and such, and they all get mention in the lyric book. LOVE this song.
Track four was another new track to me - "TRUST". And this, if anything, was a better surprise than "LOST HEAVEN". It begins slowly, with a flowing first verse, and suddenly gets loud at the chorus, with the line "Come into the light". It seems to be a song of allowing people to see who you really are... or something. At any rate, the composing is awesome, as are the vocals and background vocals. And as usual, I tend to take the instrumentals for granted - I just assume they'll be awesome. I mean, they always are.
Track five is "Killing Me". If you've heard "READY STEADY GO", just assume Killing Me is AWAKE's version of it. That's not to say they're being unimaginative - far from it! That's not at all what I meant. Killing Me is a very fun song, perfect to jump around with, and HYDE does those great "HA!" sounds. Heh. The song is fast paced, and the guitar and bass lines are awesome as heck. HYDE's voice becomes distorted towards the finish, and then the band launches into two last choruses. It ends on a more mellow note, switching the line "killing me" with "kiss me". All and all, a great, energetic song.
After track five, the lyric book gives us a picture of each band member - which I think is a HUGE bonus, especially considering the lack of actual pictures of the band included in SMILE. Here's also a good place to point out that the lyric book is very colorful, and I like it a lot. ^^
Track six is "AS ONE", which I'd heard recorded live, but not studio recorded. Surprisingly, I think I may actually like the live better - or at least, that's what I thought at first. AS ONE is definitely leaning more towards the 'metal' side of Laruku, with heavy bass and guitar lines, and fast drums. HYDE's voice also takes on a much darker, lower tone to it - which really helps the feel of the song. Most of the song is in Engrish, but as far as it goes, I think HYDE is great at English. So actually, he's pretty easy to understand. And anyway, you have the lyrics book, so... there ya' go! This song helps to really diversify the album, and is of course a great tune by itself.
Track seven is "My Dear". It starts out with keyboard or synth, and HYDE's smooth voice crooning in a sort of sad way, and Tetsu singing in Engrish in the background. The chorus is even more depressed sounding, with beautiful violins (etc), more synth sounds, and HYDE's voice pulling everything together. After this, drums, bass, and guitar come in, and the song begins to sound a bit more rock-esque, while still maintaining the slow sound. The song escalates after this, with louder violins and drums and I think synth - plus echo-y voices. Fun stuff. Ending the song is HYDE singing as he did at the beginning, with mainly the violins and such. Plus, he gets a syllable in acappella, which I think is beautiful. ^^
Track eight is "EXISTENCE". Surprisingly, I think this may be my least favorite track - I say surprising, because I actually really like this song. Which should give you an idea of how good this album is! I even love my least favorite song! Wow! Anyway, this song is more hyper and slightly angry (reminds me of AS ONE). I think the main reason this song is low on my favorites list is because of the weird voice at the end. It doesn't seem to have much to do with the song, and sort of takes away from it, in my opinion. Maybe it's just because I'm an ignorant American, 'cause that's fully possible. Heh.
Track nine is "Jiyuu e no Shoutai", which was a single during or after SMILE, I believe. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, this is an energetic song, with some of HYDE's "soprano" voice happening. I'm always impressed by HYDE's range, and this song definitely shows it. Even though this isn't very new, the fans all love it (with good reason), and I think that's why it's on this CD.
Track ten is "Ophelia". Now, I'm not quite sure what the significance of the name is - perhaps Laruku are Shakespeare fans? - but at any rate, it's a good, sort of sad song. It starts out with "acoustic" piano (Which means actual piano... as opposed to keyboard. I guess.), and some brass instruments are soon added, as well as bass and I think guitar? The guitar has an odd sound to it. But it's still good, of course. I think the difference in instrumentals is a treat... I mean, who's ever heard of a "flugelhorn"? Come on, don't lie. All in all, this song is interesting, very pretty, and a bit on the gloomy side. It's also great. Ha ha.
Track eleven is "Hoshizora", which starts out again with gloomy-sounding instrumentals - this time acoustic guitar. Following quickly is HYDE's voice, melodic and depressed. With lines like "Nobody knows, nobody cares, I have lost everything to bombs", this song is at once sad and... weird. Bombs? What? But anyway, the song itself is really good, despite the odd Engrish. Also sounds a bit desperate. Awwww... T_T
Track twelve is the last track (YAY for two more tracks than SMILE!). It's called "twinkle, twinkle", and contrary to popular belief, is not a rock rendition of "Twinkle, twinkle little star". ...Okayyyy... so maybe it was just me who wondered about that. Anyway, this song is more upbeat than the previous few tracks, and provides a good closing to the album. There's a slight mix-up in future/present tense English, but for one I don't care, and for another, they don't even HAVE future tense in Japanese. Can you blame them? Besides, the song is fun and HYDE's voice hits some more higher notes - plus, the vocal line is just catchy as heck. And again, assume this for the whole CD - instrumentals are amazing. Yup! That goes for all tracks. I'm just too lazy to say it each time.
All in all, this CD is diverse, catchy, beautiful, and just worth every penny. If you have the money, buy it. If you don't, then dammit, get out there and get money! And THEN buy it!

Ratings:
diversity - 4/5
inst. in general - 4/5
vocals in general - 4/5
packaging - 4/5

overall - 5/5
(What? "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts". So there.)

~> Becca

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