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After listening to the album several more times, I’ve come to appreciate it a little more.

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Gackt

Love Letter

Review by: Mimi P

Album

Company: Nippon Crown

CD Length: approximately 52 minutes

Rated: PG (mild themes)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Gackt presented to his fans on a special Valentine’s Day, 10 love songs. From the joyful “Arittake no ai de” to the powerful “Sakurasou”, Love Letter will find a place in your heart and soul. You’ll definitely want to grab a close one, sit back, and cherish the moments that you have together.

FINAL EXAM:

Those of you who are familiar with the J-pop or J-rock scene will most likely be familiar with male vocalist, Gackt C. Over the years, he has managed to make a name for himself as some of the most popular artists coming out of Japan. Even if you haven’t heard his music, you’ve probably seen his face somewhere else. He’s filled the covers of many Japanese magazines, done some acting, appeared in many commercials for a wide range of products, and even has his own video game. (Well, it’s a video game character directly modeled after the singer.)

As some of you may know, Gackt started off his singing career as the lead vocalist for popular visual kei band, Malice Mizer. After some time with Malice Mizer, Gackt decided to leave the band to pursue a solo career. His first mini-album, “Mizerable” was the start of his promising solo-career. Later in 2000, Gackt released his first album “Mars” which was very well-received by the public. It could be heavily debated as his best album ever. The next year, Gackt would release yet another strong album “Rebirth”. Afterwards, Gackt began working on his “Moon Project”. This included his third full-length album titled “Moon”, a starring lead-role in “Moonchild”, his fourth album “Crescent”, and a series of tours in between them. Two compilations albums were released the following year in 2004, “The Sixth Day” (singles collection) and “The Seventh Night” (acoustic compilation). These albums were considered part of Gackt’s “The Gift” project.

The album, “Love Letter”, marks the conclusion of “The Gift” series. Opposed to the regular album release time frame, it was placed out on the shelves on this past Valentine’s Day. With an album title like “Love Letter”, it seems to make sense to have a release on the day of love. Anyway, let’s get to reviewing to see what the “mush” is all about.

Best track

Gackt shows us how you should always finish off an album with the title track, “Love Letter”. When I first heard this song, I couldn’t help falling in love with it. It’s like Gackt is taking you through one of those touching romantic movies with this song. It’ll definitely keep you smiling till the end. I can only imagine how much better it would be in Gackt’s original voice. I consider this my favorite track on the entire album, it’s very moving.

Worst Track

We return back to a more mellow state with “Peace”, the B-side track to one of his singles. Again, this is an acoustic ballad with the occasional use of the violin. I haven’t been fond of this ballad since the first time I’ve heard it. It doesn’t grab your attention like any other track on the album. For that reason, I consider it a skip track.

Perfect for Fans of:

Moon Child, hyde, Larc, Malice Mizer

Being a huge Gackt fan, it was only natural for me to get excited once word came out about a new album. I’ve been content with his releases so far, and had very high expectations for this one. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the album the first time I heard. When I popped it in my CD player, I must have passed out after entering the fifth track of the album. The next thing I knew was waking up the next day. My player was still on, but the CD had been long over. Perhaps it’s the fact that I was extremely tired at the time.

After listening to the album several more times, I’ve come to appreciate it a little more. Granted it’s got superb tracks like “Arittake no ai de” and “Love Letter”, but they’re not enough to save the album. It doesn’t have the usual Gackt magic seen in his other works, the kind that grabs you by the ear and keeps you listening. In addition, I prefer his old voice compared to the new one he’s using. I’m still having problems fully digesting it. The nasal sound doesn’t showcase Gackt’s full potential in my opinion. What I mean by full potential is that it sounds like he’s limiting his vocal range with the new singing style. I’m hoping that he’ll return to it with his next single coming out in late April. Love Letter is a decent effort, not anything exceptional. It’s an album that you’ll find yourself listening to from time to time, but not killing it in your player like you could with his other albums. For those who are interested in taking a look at Gackt’s works, I would suggest listening to his Mars album (happens to be my favorite) or any of his other albums prior to Love Letter for that matter. Love Letter is really an album that I can only see major Gackt fans investing in.

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