I don’t follow hyde’s solo project really closely, but PSYCHO LOVE and beneath the skin are probably two best songs that had miyavi on them in the past 20 years, both also have much better lyircs than the debut song
I’m really glad gackt is on hiatus and hyde took over his part in what sounds like a more ambitious s.k.i.n. follow-up
THE LAST ROCKSTARS is an outlier, but fuck is it an ear worm.
Gackt is not on hiatus anymore; however he’s not fully active either. He’s moving slowly, is all. I take it you prefer Hyde’s vocals over Gackt’s? or just not a fan of Gackt?
Ha well, Psycho Love’s lyrics are not from Yoshiki; not sure who did the lyrics for Beneath the Skin though 
but, that was composed by Sugizo but he doesn’t often write lyrics… this would be interesting to know, actually…
It’s hard to say if TLRS is truly more ambitious, or just the timing worked out (way) better this time around and thus, they were able to do more “out of the gate” than SKIN. I’d like to hope that Gackt could make a guest appearance in the future - I really would had loved to see SKIN move forward - they had a much cleaner, better start for sure.
I also wonder if the other 3 songs that SKIN performed that day will be repurposed into TLRS. I wouldn’t mind that, honestly. Might as well use them.
Just finished watching the original songs from the WOWOW broadcast and have some initial impressions:
-I’m sort of actually impressed and surprised with some of the other songs. Messiah is pretty rockin’. Hallelujah is good too - seems like a Sugizo composition considering the save the earth lyrics. The two weakest songs for me are the two they teased when this projects debuted: TLRS and Psycho Love.
-The Last Rockstars is definitely an outlier and by far the worst original song the band has. It really is two songs in one.
-That said, I think in the weird algorithmic streaming world that we live in, that song was probably the best choice for lead single despite most of us agreeing about how awful it is. It works in a live setting to get the crowd hyped up kind of like how ‘We will rock you’ by Queen is a sports stadium anthem in the US now - it’s great in those circumstances but does anyone actually listen to it at home simply because of the music itself?
-Hyde’s English pronunciation got better.
You can still see him glancing at the English lyrics on a screen since he probably hasn’t said some of the words he’s singing much in his life.
-Miyavi providing backup vocals to Hyde is great. He’s a good hype man. it makes you realize how much energy he could really deliver in his solo act if he had another guitarist or bassist in his band that could support him.
-Both MYV and Sugizo bring the rock in this band. Sugizo definitely holds things down on the rock front the most while MYV hypes and plays some of his signature guitar style, Hyde does more posturing than normal and Yoshiki plays half-heartedly on drums.
-Overall the video editing was pretty even and balanced among the members. My main complaint when X Japan used to perform was that Yoshiki was the focus of 50% or more of the cuts despite it being a band of 5 people. It was ridiculous and showed how his ego permeated even the live broadcaster’s editing desks who felt that they needed to show all Yoshiki all the time.
-Beneath the Skin sure is getting passed around a lot. First with Skin, then X Japan and now TLRS. It’ll make for a fun comparison between those vocalists.
-Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised and could almost see an album being half-decent and not the catastrophe we thought based on the band’s namesake song.
Seems interesting, to be honest! I sort of wanna purchase this now, but it seems like something that would be better seen IRL than over live stream lol. Ah, but who knows, it could be good!
There are people that came to this mode of thinking quite a while ago. Not everyone held on to that knee-jerk reaction of “oh my god with this much talent and this is what the come up with?” Hopefully seeing it here in the concert will make this more obvious all around.
And yea, I can honestly say that I have indeed played “we will rock you” just because of the music itself.
Agreed; had not doubt here. But i’m honestly curious - what do you mean by posturing?
hmm… have you seen MYV live, though? He can deliver on energy and then some… But I do agree that his backup vocals to Hyde - I was actually rather surprised by how well it goes together. Wasn’t expecting it to work so well.
Oh most definitely Hallelujah is a Sugizo composition - screams it. I’m curious about Messiah; I’d love to know if this is a TLRS remix version of his own Messiah (to which Hyde provided lyrics to), or if it’s just a song that heavily features his solo version. His solo works version is heavily woven in this TLRS version/remix…whatever it is.
lol is that what those looks are? I didn’t think about that being a reason
All in all, it’s an awesome start. Hopefully it shuts people up a bit; all the obnoxious doom-n-gloom whining that’s been going on, now that there’s more than 1.2 songs to listen to.
Sorry, didn’t mean to slam Queen in anyway - I guess my point is that some songs work much better live than at home.
Hyde in L’Arc has a certain energy - probably one that screams “I’m working my 9-5 and not a minute over”. Hyde when he performs solo is probably him being his true rock self. Hyde here is just him exaggerating what he thinks rock should be.
I have seen him live, in Hamburg Germany, and he was great so I don’t mean what I say that he’s lacking. Back then it was just him and Bobo the drummer and for just two musicians, they held down the room really well. I think Miyavi is great as a performer but him in TLRS shows how a proper band behind him would push him and his sound over-the-top and really push his music to that next level. You know, singer-songwriter in a bar playing tunes on the piano versus singer-songerwriter on stage with a great backing band. They haven’t changed or given any less energy, it’s just the packaging around it them has.
I totally didn’t catch that it was Sugizo’s song. I need to go back and listen to it. But my comments about MYV apply to Sugizo too. Those solo songs of his probably would sound even better with a band behind it which is usually the case when he uses he writes for Luna Sea.
Oh got what you meant; I do agree. It looks like my comment didn’t come off right 
my bad, should had constructed that better.
ahh. I did get a different feel from his solo vs here, that’s an interesting point.
ooh I see what you mean now. Hmm. it is pretty nice seeing the difference; your on to something there 
I can’t agree with “better”; but I can agree that its an enjoyable difference in dynamics between him using a full/partial/or no backing band in is solo works.
I’d be curious to know what your take of Messiah is, whenever you give it another listen.
I was hopeful but unfortunately it’s too cringe for me personally, this interview is insightful and painful to listen to lol
I love Hyde with all my heart and idk why but he reminds me of Yzma from Emperors New Groove here
Sunglasses.
Painful indeed … 30 minutes of talking about nothing in broken English That’s actually the first time I heard Yoshiki speaking.
I watched it 2x and could barely handle the cringe.
I was shocked HYDE said so little, goes to show he hasn’t exactly worked on his English in the past decade.
This interview, is like an egocentric interviewer, interviewing an egocentric person.
Very interesting and embarrassing at the same time.
Honestly I’m disappointed. I expected better from him, but then again I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d only rehearsed his solo English songs with a tutor lol Or perhaps he’s out of speaking practice.
I listened to Sugizo’s original and I enjoy it and think it’s different enough where I can appreciate both versions. I prefer the TLRS one since it’s less dance-y / electronic.
So less SUGIZOy lol
I finished watching the clips online atm and the only song I liked was BANG (i don’t even like miyavi’s music), I’m shocked HONEY and glamorous sky are not hitting it for me… I miss tetsu’s bassline lol. Initially I would’ve been interested to hear these covers because I’ve never seen luna sea and l’arc en ciel live but these sour it for me 
yea… that was super rough. But got some nice info out of it. Her mention of the VK summit reminds me of an '09 vk festival that was streamed. I’d love to experience another JrockRevolution. Finally get a follow-up to it after all this time… that’d be something!
I like what was said about the language barrier stuff - I’d love for some of their songs to still have Japanese lyrics within them, sometimes they just flow and sound so much better so… what was said makes me feel like this is possible, and that, unlike k-kop, (and like it is with Jrock in general), they are, and always will be, unapologetic about being Japanese and doing “rock” - lifestyle, genre, and/or otherwise, their way. (additionally, Sugizo for sure would not be keen on anything less anyway. But I think all of them in some way have this mode of thinking regardless).
I know people like to shit on the title/debut song, but, if you take a moment to think about what its saying; read between the lines, if you will, it does convey that want to inspire people to live “with a rock-star spirit”, which is their driving point - I can really get behind that - I agree it’s the best mindset to live by, honestly. So I really like what they are doing and how they are conveying this concept. It will be cool to see this expand over the year, see where it goes. I"m definitely behind them 100%.
Outside of the important information / insight gained…
Perhaps Myv should just take over lead in English-based interviews lol There were so many times where it really low-key looked like he wanted to expand on something Yoshiki was saying, or answer more straightforwardly than Yoshiki was.
I’ve noticed that Yoshiki likes to tell stories before getting to the answer. Which is fine but it can take forever to get to the point, which… is not everyone’s cup-o-tea.
I almost feel like if Sugizo had a larger vocabulary, maybe a bit stronger base for English, he could probably answer questions more directly; a little better than Yoshiki could, even with knowing less English than Yoshiki and Myv. I’ve seen/heard Sugizo speak here and there, while the grammar is off at times… could be done if he’s asked questions a little more simply and directly.
You know, its not odd that Hyde never learned to communicate in English. To learn how to communicate in real-time take a certain amount of dedication, drive and effort; sometimes a need as well. If none of those things are there, then its not surprising that he doesn’t communicate within it. Learning some English for a song is way different and way easier than having to speak and convey yourself how you want to in real time.