To celebrate the 35th anniversary of their major label debut, BUCK-TICK are releasing a special 5-CD best album titled “CATALOGUE THE BEST 35th anniv.” on 2022/09/21. Songs will be selected from all across the band’s history, to make up a definitive collection of tracks. The tracklist is not public yet, but they said that each disc will be thematically different.
It will come in the following versions:
regular edition: 5 SHM-CDs
limited edition: 5 SHM-CDs + Blu-ray (music video collection)
Victor Online limited edition: 5 SHM-CDs + Blu-ray + goods (T-shirt)
The band will also release the live footage of their show “魅世物小屋が暮れてから 〜SHOW AFTER DARK〜 in 日本武道館” on Blu-ray and DVD on the same date.
I wasn’t able to get my hands on catalogue ariola, I hope they’ll get all of that content in here plus some new stuff, I wouldn’t mind if price was a bit steep
Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what tracks they’ll choose! According to the official site the regular version is 6600Y, so not too bad for a huge 5-disc release (practically the price of two albums).
I’ve always loved Dress, but never took the time to get into this band since they’ve been around forever and have a huge disco. What should I try out to get a feel for them to figure out if this would be something I’d like to have since it covers their entire history.
I decided to start with all of the compilations and go from there.
Basically any of the compilations are a good choice imo. Obviously the more recent ones cover bigger ground, but looking through the tracklists, I’d like to recommend the double-disc “CATALOGUE 2005”. Of course it only goes up to 2005, but that’s pretty much the cutoff point for their top-tier albums (according to lots of fans). Plus, the tracks are arranged in chronological order so it might be interesting to trace the evolution of the band’s sound that way.
edit: whoops nevermind, it’s not exactly chronological order all the way, just more or less (but close enough)!
Are they considered gothic? I see a lot of stuff saying they are, but almost everything I’ve heard over the years has been rock and closer to pop even. Did they start off gothic or had a phase at some point? Obviously the looks have always been somewhat gothic, but I’m talking musically.
Not really. They were very much influenced by Western post-punk, goth and new wave bands tho (most of the members are big fans of The Cure, Bauhaus and the like). I’d say they only really have one truly “gothic” album, 十三階は月光 (13kai wa gekkou), which is a full-blown theatrical concept album to boot. Other than that, they have had hints of goth in some of their songs here and there throughout the years.
With a career spanning over 35 years, and subsequently releasing as many albums as they did, BUCK-TICK is just BUCK-TICK.
If HURRY UP MODE is straight up positive punk, with time they just became darker and darker both in lyrics and in musical themes. If I recall, the recording of Taboo in the UK and the band’s first hand contact with the alternative scene made them really get into the goth side of things. They literally made an album in tribute to Charles Baudelaire (Aku no Hana) so it couldn’t get more obvious. By Kurutta Taiyou I think they really morphed into their own sound, perfecting it on Darker and culminating with the fantastic six/nine (which has probably the best lyrics ever written by Atsushi). Cosmos marks their transition into the electronic era.
Anyways I digress, I could really go deep into BUCK-TICK as it is arguably the most prolific band into the scene, that never sacrificed anything, really getting a grip early on the balls of the record label to do whatever they want.
Every musical era of them (and the fact that they really have so many: from punk to electronic, disco and cool dad rock) shows us that they are fantastic and talented musicians that can make everything work.
PS: Atsushi’s project THE MORTAL is much more intense and heavier into the goth side.
