This post from THE LAST ROCKSTARS announcement thread got me thinking. I think he’s on to something, so in my usual fashion I did some quick research.
The untitled sixth X Japan album was rumored at first to have a split between old and new songs, but this was later abandoned in favor of all new songs because Yoshiki said “it didn’t feel right”. The singles are confirmed to be on the album.
I.V. / 2008 / Extasy
Scarlet Love Song / 2011 / Japan Music Agency
Jade / 2011 / EMI (NA & US only)
Born to be free / 2015 / EMI
La Venus / 2017 / Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings
Kiss the Sky / ??? / ???
Rockstar / ??? / ???
- Japan Music Agency is a sublabel of Japan Music Agency Co. Ltd.
- Extasy Records is Yoshiki’s label, and for what it’s worth Discogs says that I.V. was also published under Japan Music Agency, so let’s consider them as a pacage.
- La Venus is Sony Records International.
- EMI Group Limited is a British label conglomerate.
I can already see a set up here where these three groups can’t come to a decision on some minor detail that prevents the band from using one of the singles they wrote for the album because they don’t technically “own” it. I see this in the (lack of) retro game releases all the time! Sonic 3 is forever prone to litigation issues because Michael Jackson contributed to the soundtrack. The label that owned the rights to the music from Jet Set Radio Future shut down shortly after releasing said soundtrack, so who owns the rights to the music is unclear. It’s a major contributor to why they’ve never re-released that game in any form. To go the other way, Dimmu Borgir kicked out their first keyboardist because he ripped the piano melody from a game called “Agony” and used it as the intro to “Alt lys er svunnet hen” without credit or permission.
Those examples are just ones I know off the top of my head about how music and litigation intersect in uncomfortable and unexpected ways.
Also, for what it’s worth, THE LAST ROCKSTARS are signed to William Morris Endeavor (WME), under Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. This would be a clean break from the purely hypothetical Sony / EMI / JMA headache. “I’m still mixing and mastering” is probably code for “all three labels I published music with under the last decade still haven’t decided how they want to split my ever dwindling revenue, it’s done but legally I can’t release it”.
Now having spouted enough exposition, it really makes me take the opening of THE LAST ROCKSTARS (the song) differently.
https://twitter.com/hyde_smile/status/1590922615535046656
Did they take the piano opening and some lyrical content from Kiss the Sky and attach it to some guitar / synth combo that was composed just for the new song? We never got to hear Kiss the Sky, the lyrical content more than matches to qualify for consideration, and I’m pretty sure one of those three companies (or perhaps all of them) are laying claim to those demos.
We probably won’t ever know because my unpopular opinion is that the new X JAPAN album won’t ever be released, not because YOSHIKI is lazy and preoccupied with other things, but because of who owns the rights to which singles.