Buck-Tick - 狂った太陽 (Kurutta Taiyou)

Buck-Tick 狂った太陽 (Kurutta Taiyou)

Release Date - 2/21/1991

Country of Origin - Japan

Number of Tracks - 11

The entertainment media has been known by many people as being able to produce journeys. Now by this I mean that the medium the person is experiencing can suck them in enough that they feel as if they’re right along with the action. A movie can be a large example of this, with somebody feeling as if they’re in the world with the film’s characters. Yet it appears that while movies have this effect on people it is actually music that tends to create a journey even more. The reason being, in my opinion at least, is that the listener only has the music. There are no visuals to hook you in and thus you rely purely on the sounds of the instruments and the lyrics of the songs themselves. Considering a lot of people consider music a great outlet and escape to express what they feel and think and deal with anything in their lives drives the point home even more.

But what makes an album be able to do this? This is something that probably differs from person to person. My perspective is aside from the songs being good is that they invoke an atmosphere with them. A well executed flow is also essential as it means that the tracks were placed in a way to where they flow into one another and follow the previous one nicely. And while songs may not have the express intent to tell an album wide story one can honestly hear the lyrics and almost weave one together within their own imagination and perspective. They can take in the way the music sounds and deduce what they believe the emotions to be about and hear the lyrics and take from them what they so choose. One could argue that books aren’t that different from albums in that sense since the reader processes the information given and plays it out in their own way. Quite a few readers can make movies from the text given, which is probably why some people get upset about film or television adaptations (perhaps an article for another day). Both can blatantly express what they want to get across, yet I think music has the bigger advantage since it has a sound to it and does allow for a bit more personal touches, whereas a book simply tells the reader. Really in the end, no matter how one dictates how an album can suck a listener in and takes them on a journey is up the listener themselves. And to me Buck-Tick’s 狂った太陽 (Kurutta Taiyou) is quite possibly one of the best examples of this.

Released in 1991 Kurutta Taiyou is the band’s sixth album (and third that will be covered on this blog). While it isn’t their best selling album (Aku no Hana still holds that record), Kurutta Taiyou for many many fans is the strongest contender for best album next to Darker Than Darkness. Like the album that would come two years later (DTD) it is considered a masterpiece within music and completes the holy trinity of Buck-Tick’s catalog (Aku no Hana, Kurutta Taiyou, Darker Than Darkness). It’s practically an album that needs no introduction among fans. Even those not super into the band attest to how good the album is. However if you recall the last time we reviewed a Buck-Tick album with that huge of a pedigree my thoughts drifted from a lot of the norm in that I didn’t find it to be a masterpiece or living up to the hype built for it. So the question is there. “Is Kurutta Taiyou deserving of the hype?” Time to decide that now isn’t it.

Tracklisting

1. スピード (Speed)

2. Machine

3. My Funny Valentine

4. 変身 (REBORN) (Henshin (REBORN))

5. エンジェル フィッシュ (Angelfish)

6. Jupiter

7. さくら (Sakura)

8. Brain, Whisper, Head, Hate is Noise

9. M・A・D

10. 地下室のメロディー (Chikashitsu no Melody)

11. 太陽ニ殺サレタ (Taiyou ni Korosareta)

The sound of Kurutta Taiyou is a rather diverse one and while most of the tracks carry a very soft industrial sound to them offer quite a bit. Some have a pure rock sound to them, some have a swingy dance one to them, there’s some acoustic work, and just outright hard industrial rock to them. Yet even when the songs get heavy they carry a great catchiness to them. It’s rather easy to find yourself humming or tapping along to the music and sing along with Sakurai. All of this adds to the album’s greatest achievement; it sucks you in completely. This truly is one of the best albums in terms of bringing you into the world of the album and taking you on a ride. Many have compared the album to its namesake; a giant fiery ball of energy and that description fits perfectly. I’ll speak about the lyrics in a little bit, but the instrumentation perfectly conveys the senses of insanity, sadness, happiness, and melancholy. Every track will strike an emotion within the listener as the ride goes on and that is no easy feat. But what about the flow of things? That too is perfect. Each track goes into the next one as it should and creates a very nice flow to it. Perhaps the perfect example of this is with Chikashitsu no Melody ending with the sound of television snow and Taiyou ni Korosareta starting off with a sound similar to one trying to find a signal on a radio. This is simply great. If I had anything negative to say, it would be that on a personal level I don’t like how echoey Jupiter sounds and prefer how it sounds like on Climax Together. But that is more of a personal matter and honestly I don’t have a critical negative thing to so. Suffice to say Kurutta Taiyou carries a perfect sound to it and achieves in spades being able to suck in whoever listens to it.

You might be able to guess that my praise carries over to the instrumentation. And you would be correct. Every instrument is clearly audible and is tightly composed. But with this being Buck-Tick’s first step into a more industrial and electric sound, and with my criticism against the experimentation in Darker Than Darkness, you may be asking yourself how I feel about it here. The answer is that I like it. A lot. The industrial and electronic aspects are done on a softer side save for some of the heavier tracks and thus doesn’t overwhelm the listener. It also helps that the album isn’t as loud as DTD which drove home that album’s noise sound. Here though the integration of noise is as crisp as the instrumentation. If I had to sum it up a bit simpler, Kurutta Taiyou is like a Nine Inch Nails album while Darker Than Darkness is akin to a Ministry album. I’m not sure what more I could dwell on here. Just like the sound, the instrumentation of Kurutta Taiyou is very much perfection in musical form.

Perhaps the biggest contribution to Kurutta Taiyou’s engrossing nature is that of Atsushi Sakurai’s lyrics. Each song on the album is pure poetry. The lyrics here tell stories of venturing off on journeys of entertainment and of pleasure. From the opening track of Speed filling you with the energy and will to jump headfirst into the world and unleash your emotions and yourself no matter the situation. Explode and showcase fully who you are and what you wish to be and do, even if those around you aren’t as crazy. This fireball of energy keeps going even when things slow down, enveloping the listener into a world of sensuality and pleasure, My Funny Valentine and Angelfish possibly proving to be just as if not more erotic and decadent than Misty Blue (though nothing will ever trump Victims of Love). Yet while the energy and emotions are still present they begin to slow down. This leads to possibly the most poetic tracks of the album; Jupiter and Sakura. Jupiter is a song of melancholy and evaluating one’s actions. Afterwards though is the emotional bomb of the album in Sakura, it bathed in romanticism, sadness and hopefulness. Kurutta Taiyou’s energy returns once this duo of softness ends. While Brain, Whisper, Head, Hate is Noise is another round of sexual energy, there’s more of heaviness to it. It is erotic, but there’s hinting at destruction and what a physical union can bring with it. However the heaviness turns into a frantic desire with M・A・D and gets even more crazed with Chikashitsu no Melody. The general theme of Kurutta Taiyou is one of crazed energy and it all comes to a head with M・A・D and Chikashitsu no Melody. But this is not the end, for the finale resides with Taiyou ni Korosareta. It returns briefly to the softer side of the album, but it builds and builds until it explodes in the chorus proclaiming the statement which best suits the end of the album and general feel of the journey:

“I was killed by the sun…before I could say goodbye…”

There’s not much else to say other than the album’s lyrics are perfection and fit the feel and journey that the record presents, it hammered home by Sakurai’s amazing vocal work here, it resulting in some of his best lyrics ever and, in my opinion, his finest performance on an album.

It is not very often that something can transcend being what it simply can appear to be. Buck-Tick’s Kurutta Taiyou transcends being a simple album and is art in its purest definition. This is an album that sucks the listener in immediately and walks and then sprints them through a journey of the thoughts and emotions a person may experience in everyday life; happiness, sadness, attraction, depression, melancholy, etc. From having air tight composition, remarkable sound, and having some of the best lyrics to ever be penned. I may be typing but words truly do not do this album justice. It must be heard to fully understand.

Now you might be wondering where my usual Poe’s Favorites part is. Well truth be told I love every single song on this album. It in fact is one of the few albums I completely love beginning to end. There are some standout songs though with Speed, My Funny Valentine, Jupiter, Sakura, M・A・D, and Taiyou ni Korosareta (my absolute favorite track of the album is M・A・D). Every listen only makes the album better and it never gets old. Personally it is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Truly I cannot say much else. In the end, my final words are plain and simple; Kurutta Taiyou is a perfect album and is one of if not the best album I have ever listened to. Buck-Tick fan or not, do yourself the pleasure and honor of listening to this album.

S

Buck-Tick in 1991