Disco de L'Arc~en~Ciel: “Ark [Japan]”

With a whopping 5 singles, and a majority of songs written by tetsu (and not ken as usual), "ark" is definitely a fan favorite and remains the best selling album for the band.

Like "ray", it's a fairly solid album all around, and has it's bright spots, but also like "ray" most of the songs are just mediocre and the album falls short of their others.

My favorite song is "Driver's High", one of my favorite Laruku songs of all time. Extremely energetic and catchy, tetsu's best pop track of all time I think. I bought this CD for this song and wasn't disappointed.

Other highlights: the opening track by ken, "forbidden lover". An extremely emotional, powerful song that is one of their most moving ever. tetsu's catchy "DIVE TO BLUE" is also one with an infectious melody that won't soon be forgotten. Can't forget hyde's big single for this one, "HEAVEN'S DRIVE", another rock song with a catchy melody.

yukihiro contributes 2 songs to this one. "Cradle" I hated upon first listen, but I really like it now. It's a slow moving, space-y track that demonstrates some excellent arrangement and a good melody, which is quite unlike yukihiro. "Larva" is a strange techno instrumental, whose only purpose seems to be to lead into "Butterfly's Sleep". It's one of the few rock songs on here, and will certainly become one of your favorite album songs.

The last half of the CD though is just not extremely memorable. "Perfect Blue" is a quirky, Hawaiian themed song, with contrastingly mean lyrics by tetsu. "shinjitsu to gensou to" is another slow moving piece, with excellent lyrics but can't quite measure up as a song. "What is love" is a light tune by tetsu, also slow, and pretty good but nothing really special. "Pieces" is a grand ballad; not my favorite of their ballads, but an excellent closing track.

As you can see, after "Butterfly's Sleep" the album gets reeeeally slow. This is somewhat of a problem, but the first five tracks are good enough to somewhat offset that.

"ark", like "ray", shows the band was stretched a bit thin for music and ideas on this one, but nonetheless you get a good collection of very L'Arc-ish songs. I highly recommend you buy this with "ray" if you're new to these boys.

buy it, listen to it, dig it....... it's that simple. butterfly's sleep ( track 7 ) needs to be checked out as well.....tchno fans will live " larva " ( track 6 ). ballad lovers will like " pieces " ( track 11 ) drivers, for you there's "heavan's drive" ( 2 )..... yukihiro talent shines not only as a drummer, but also as a techno buff, as proven in "larva".. kens guitar always stands out, and you always know its him. tetsu's bass really kicks in tracks 2,3,4,5, and 7. hyde's vocals can change from adrenalized ( drivers high ) to slow ( " pieces " ) without sounding plastic....... just buy the dam cd.......but not here, go to cdjapan, or yesasia.........ja matane!

Pleasant Japanese pop; L'Arc-en-Ciel tries on several different styles here: "Cradle" reminds me of recent U2, "Butterfly" wouldn't be out of place in a James Bond flick from the 70's, and "Pieces" is like some lost Burt Bacharach tune; Dive to Blue is just a great little pop song.

Complete track listing: 1. Forbidden Lover 2. Heaven's Drive 3. Driver's High 4. Cradle 5. Dive To Blue 6. Larva 7. Butterfly's Sleep 8. Perfect Blue 9. Shinjitsu to Gensou to [Reality and Illusion] 10. What is Love 11. Pieces [Ark Mix]