I would really like to know if he truly believes everything he’s saying about these two albums in the media.
Sometimes it feels like he changed a lot in recent years - and I’m not only talking about the music.
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jonny litten writes english lyrics for one ok rock and he worked with miyavi before; for half of other names out there listed I think those people are label staff lyrics writers who pen demo songs and toss them to different artists, who later buy them out + slap a couple original lines here and there and this is how you get “Takamasa Ishihara” credited on every song.
I don’t wanna say anything about an album I won’t listen to, but this is what beyonce and other pop artists who “produce their own music” have been doing for the past decade, to the results that are typically extremely lukewarm.
I wonder why there was no visible change of style and production quality following his recent-ish label switch though, TLRS popped off for a moment and fizzled out way too fast.
the real tragedy is that no one really replaced his indie sound in the entire scene since 2005, that’s almost 20 years at this point and it’s just crazy to me that there’s a copycat for anyone in the yaoi metal genre but not his 2002-2005 stretch that was packed with groundbreaking shit tbh
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Talking about tragedy - it’s a shame that he is apparently much more popular with his recent bland stuff than before. No surprise here of course. He is not the first artist in this situation and won’t be the last. But it’s still a shame 
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LOST IN LOVE, FOUND IN PAIN is by far the worst album he has ever released. It’s garbage. I’ve always managed to find an enjoyable track or two on previous releases that I didn’t like, but this album has 0 good songs. Doesn’t even have Running In My Head which was one of his catchier releases in a while.
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It doesn’t help that all songs sound so similar.
In a recent Interview with the german webpage of GQ magazine he said about this album that he feels like his journey has just begun and from now on the songs belong to the fans and people who are listening them. I might be overinterpreting or maybe there was something lost in trancelation but to me, that sounds a little like he is distancing himself from it.
He also mentioned that a lot of songs are dealing with the topic of self-doubt. If you are struggling with self-doubt, you are much easier to be influenced so I can imagine that all these people with whom he surronds himself lately having a much bigger influence to his music nowadays than what he truly wants.
Later in the article he was asked about his plans for the future. His answer was to go with the flow, that he can’t control anything but “we have some kind of plan” - his “we” emphasizes again that there a more people involved in his music nowadays. Obviously, that is always the case for every solo musician, but I do think the choice of words is interesting as most solo artist probably would have stated that in singular as in “I have some kind of plan” .
There are many passages in the interview that are very interesting and leave room for reading between the lines. But, like I already wrote, maybe I am just overinterpreting.
It’s not as if his music was great before the hollywood thing. I remember his guitar playing had taken a back seat to his rapping and breakdancing and doing michael jackson style dancing etc etc. it’s a bummer he hasn’t done a lot of guitaring. Personally i wish he’d gone the John 5 route and released a string of guitar instrumental albums and built a legacy as the great guitarist that he is instead of this horrible ‘no talent on display’ pop idol thing he’s trying to do. He has the talent to earn worldwide respect as a guitarist, but instead is chasing tik tok views? sad
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I assume you are referring to the This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock Album? I liked that one. At least it was creative and different than the stuff other J Rockers did at the time.
Regarding John 5 (cool guy, btw): I assume he probably had no choice because he can’t sing at all 
Everybody knows that Miyavi was at no time one of the best singers in his genre, but he does have some skills. (On a side note, he used to sound a lot better when he was singing in japanese, imho).
Who knows - maybe he has some kind of a creative burn out and his mindeset is now something like "Whatever, at least this kind of music let me provide for my family 
"
Would not be surprising considering he is in this business without a break since more than 20 years.
I am not willing to giving him up yet 
Hopefully, the day will come when his music appeals to me more again.
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i guess. but the few seconds of guitar playing he does in the Fender ad for his signature guitar is the best thing I’ve seen him do in a long time
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Tbh I think the Kabuki rock phase was his best era. It was refreshing and something new and combined his old style with something different. I consider this the end of his VK looks though.
After that I remember he toured Europe one year after that with basically no theme or concept and I think that’s where he went major/changed labels (?) and released the “Victory Road To The King Of Neo Visual Rock” compilation.
The title also made it sound like the vk era was going to and end in the sense of “I went that victory road and now reached the goal”? What’s my name felt rougher/back to the roots again, but then it kinda went downhill 
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he parted ways with ps company, his management agency that handled him all the way from due le quartz days. rumor was that psc prohibited their members from marrying someone which is why he immediately announced his own production company, marriage and a babby.
his record label was the same universal/its various forks - even his current crew after singing with bandai namco label start-up is heavily universal emi affiliated.
His answer was to go with the flow, that he can’t control anything but “we have some kind of plan” - his “we” emphasizes again that there a more people involved in his music nowadays.
it’s probably a reference to skolnik, his sound producer of the past decade, and maybe his label management - they’re good at getting his music out there, while the music consistently sounds subpar.
his acting skills at the time are much better than his music efforts tbh.
I’ve never been really fond of him and I didn’t listen to him for over 15 years except for this year what got posted here. From the comments I expected worse but I have nothing to compare these to so that’s alright.
After reading what all of you have written there’s that part on my mind about working and earning money.
So what, if this ain’t the kinda music he wants to make? But it’s the one he’s earning more with? And he rather goes for music that’s not coming from his heart but provides him some kinda safe life for himself and his family because doing so by making music is still better than by some kinda office job or whatever? Like a compromise that at least lets him keep on making music at all?
That’s a guess, of course, but to me that were an explanation and even one I can relate to to a certain extent.
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I don’t have the numbers to back it up, but I strongly suspect his sales peaked between final due le quartz years and his first major album before taking a very long nose dive
Asian people in TLRS youtube comments remembering him as miyaBi should tell you everything you need to know about his domestic relevance atm, and I don’t think his global spotify spins bring enough money to afford much.
I’m glad he gets acting and model gigs still though, the music is not it.
I never really followed him but these new releases suck ass. If he is writing the music he has zero talent for it, sorry. If he wrote better music before… then he lost it, dropped the ball.
I doubt he is as famous as some make him out to be.
And if he really is, it will slowly fade away releasing super bland stuff like this.
Is he really a good actor?
Solid acting skills, I’d say. But tbh I haven’t seen him in bigger roles.
Hmmmm maybe it was not “better” in a truly objectiv way but it was more intresting, more outstanding. He had his own style and a lot of charisma and guitar skills. He was never the best singer but good enough for his thing to work.
I do miss the old Miyavi 
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