Customer Reviews

Ark

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DO NOT BUY THEM FROM HERE FOR THIS STUPID PRICE! go to asiacd.com or cdjapan.co.jp and buy from there instead if you live anywhere outside of Japan! they are less than half the price charged here it is unbelievable! Really these albums are incredible but if you want buy from somewhere else because this is scary pricing I think.

With a whopping 5 singles, and a majority of songs written by tetsu (and not ken as usual), "ark" is definitely a fan favorite and remains the best selling album for the band.

Like "ray", it's a fairly solid album all around, and has it's bright spots, but also like "ray" most of the songs are just mediocre and the album falls short of their others.

My favorite song is "Driver's High", one of my favorite Laruku songs of all time. Extremely energetic and catchy, tetsu's best pop track of all time I think. I bought this CD for this song and wasn't disappointed.

Other highlights: the opening track by ken, "forbidden lover". An extremely emotional, powerful song that is one of their most moving ever. tetsu's catchy "DIVE TO BLUE" is also one with an infectious melody that won't soon be forgotten. Can't forget hyde's big single for this one, "HEAVEN'S DRIVE", another rock song with a catchy melody.

yukihiro contributes 2 songs to this one. "Cradle" I hated upon first listen, but I really like it now. It's a slow moving, space-y track that demonstrates some excellent arrangement and a good melody, which is quite unlike yukihiro. "Larva" is a strange techno instrumental, whose only purpose seems to be to lead into "Butterfly's Sleep". It's one of the few rock songs on here, and will certainly become one of your favorite album songs.

The last half of the CD though is just not extremely memorable. "Perfect Blue" is a quirky, Hawaiian themed song, with contrastingly mean lyrics by tetsu. "shinjitsu to gensou to" is another slow moving piece, with excellent lyrics but can't quite measure up as a song. "What is love" is a light tune by tetsu, also slow, and pretty good but nothing really special. "Pieces" is a grand ballad; not my favorite of their ballads, but an excellent closing track.

As you can see, after "Butterfly's Sleep" the album gets reeeeally slow. This is somewhat of a problem, but the first five tracks are good enough to somewhat offset that.

"ark", like "ray", shows the band was stretched a bit thin for music and ideas on this one, but nonetheless you get a good collection of very L'Arc-ish songs. I highly recommend you buy this with "ray" if you're new to these boys.

L'arc~en~ciel has always struck me as a band that could do well in a hypothetical world where native English speaking listeners tend to forget the world of music beyond their own language.
L'arc~en~ciel (Laruku) are a stylish, accomplished and sophisticated band. The vocals are excellent.

On this album, there are some great songs. The emotional strength in the vocals behind Forbidden Lover, the rocking beat of Heaven's Drive (a personal favourite) are a great opening.
Driver's High is universally liked by all, except me. I think it is far too formulaic, going back to the tried and true of J-Pop.
Cradle is a beautiful, delicate which demonstrates the softer abilities of the lead, Hyde.
The following, Dive to the Blue, was the song that attracted me to Laruku in the first place. It's crisp guitars mixed with the vocal flexibility of Hyde are all to see.
Perfect Blue is a techno instrumental which fits in well with a quick beat to raise your blood pressure. The next song, whose Japanese name escapes me for now, is one of the faster songs but is rather unmemorable.
What is Love is a dreamy little piece of holiday crooning.
Pieces, another one of the singles, is a solid but also rather typical. Butterfly Sleep is a nice song to finish off with.

Overall, it is one of their better albums, although not coming even close to their first and best, Dune. Highly recommended all the same.

buy it, listen to it, dig it....... it's that simple. butterfly's sleep ( track 7 ) needs to be checked out as well.....tchno fans will live " larva " ( track 6 ). ballad lovers will like " pieces " ( track 11 ) drivers, for you there's "heavan's drive" ( 2 )..... yukihiro talent shines not only as a drummer, but also as a techno buff, as proven in "larva".. kens guitar always stands out, and you always know its him. tetsu's bass really kicks in tracks 2,3,4,5, and 7. hyde's vocals can change from adrenalized ( drivers high ) to slow ( " pieces " ) without sounding plastic....... just buy the dam cd.......but not here, go to cdjapan, or yesasia.........ja matane!

My copy of this album (Taiwanese) has 11 tracks-the 10 on the non-anniversary versions, plus Shinjitsu To Gensou To as the 9th track.
Although slower than AWAKE, SMILE or KISS, this album still rocks. I bought this album for Driver's High and Pieces after hearing them on the LIVE in USA dvd; I liked them better live, but the studio cuts are awesome too. My favorite track is definitely Cradle because it sounds like some strange sad lullaby. I also love Shinjitsu To Gensou To-Hyde's vocals are somewhere between sleazy and beautiful which gives the song an interesting feel. Perfect Blue, with it's Hawaiian sound, is just different,quirky and fun. My copy of this album has a DVD (region 3) with video's for "the making of" Forbidden Lover, Heaven's Drive, Driver's High & Pieces. A live version of Butterfly's sleep, 4 recollection sessions-(interviews, but not with the band) and a short documentary of the 1999 Grand Cross Tour. The DVD would have been better, had it been subtitled and if it actually had the music videos on it along with the behind the scenes footage. DVD is still great just to watch the band goof off.

Pleasant Japanese pop; L'Arc-en-Ciel tries on several different styles here: "Cradle" reminds me of recent U2, "Butterfly" wouldn't be out of place in a James Bond flick from the 70's, and "Pieces" is like some lost Burt Bacharach tune; Dive to Blue is just a great little pop song.

Complete track listing: 1. Forbidden Lover 2. Heaven's Drive 3. Driver's High 4. Cradle 5. Dive To Blue 6. Larva 7. Butterfly's Sleep 8. Perfect Blue 9. Shinjitsu to Gensou to [Reality and Illusion] 10. What is Love 11. Pieces [Ark Mix]