I got into Luna Sea only a couple of years ago, but man it was a revelation. I've always liked a good J-Rock tune, so I felt silly waiting so long to get into these guys. The first four Luna Sea albums are absolute, bone fide classics and essential albums for any J-Rock fan. The high energy, aggressive post-punk vibes, the occasional progressive rock leanings, the ethereal atmosphere, and the sheer catchiness of the songs in that portion of their catalog are simply irresistible.
Afterwards, the band would come back down to earth with "merely" a very good album, Style, and then have a couple of blips along the way with Shine and Lunacy. Those two aren't terrible albums or anything, but honestly there's not much reason to play them when you could just play one of their other albums instead. Afterwards the band would briefly split up for a while before reuniting in 2007 and then releasing their 8th album, A Will, in 2013. A Will may not be as good as those first four albums, but it is a damn good album that I always enjoy whenever I play it.
So with all of this in mind, I was extremely excited when I heard Luna Sea was finally going to release a new album in 2017. I was eagerly waiting and thoughts like "this could be the Album of the Year" were constantly in my mind. A little bit later, the full MV for Hold You Down came out and I was pretty let down by it. Despite the bad warning sign, I still held out hope. After all, A Will is an excellent album and that was only 4 years ago. Limit is a decent song, and it's on the album. Surely these guys still have it? So finally near the beginning of this year, I got my hands on a copy of LUV, gave it a listen, and realized that it sucks.
The biggest disappointment of 2017 is definitely the fact that Luna Sea released this garbage. This album is so bad that I've literally only listened to it 3 times despite owning it for about 8 months, and the third time was just to remind me how crap it is while I write this review. To understand what went wrong here, you have to understand why Luna Sea was (note the past tense) good. The sound of classic Luna Sea is hard to describe, but it was like an intriguing mix of post-punk, progressive rock, J-Rock, and other elements. They crafted a unique sound with a great sense of atmosphere, catchiness, and good instrumental work. Add Ryuichi, easily one of Japan's best singers, to the mix, and you have a winner.
Now, I'm a reasonable man. I realize that not every album is going to be a masterpiece. A Will is certainly not as good as Mother or Image, but it's a very good album in its own right. I didn't expect Luna Sea to somehow go back and duplicate their artistic peak. I just asked for a reasonable effort. This is not a "reasonable effort" in any way, shape, or form. The vast majority of the album is lazy, by-the-numbers, bland, and phoned-in (bar one certain song but it still sucks anyway).
Hold You Down starts off seemingly innocent enough. The song sort of slowly builds up over time, and you hear Sugizo wail away a few nice-sounding high notes. This is all well and good, but then you check the time and realize you're two minutes into the song and it still sounds like an intro. And indeed, the entire song ends up sounding like a big buildup to something, but that coveted "something" never actually arrives. It's basically just one big meandering tune with some randomly 3-note solos from Sugizo sprinkled in. Not a good way to kick off the album.
As the album goes on, you're smothered with stock J-Rock melodies left and right. What the hell? I thought I was listening to Luna Sea and not some generic clone J-Rock band. There are some slightly better songs on here like Brand New Days, Limit, or The LUV which have a little more energy and inspiration. However, most of the album is slow, bland, and boring. Did you love the high-energy aggression of an old track like Shade? Or how about a progressive rock-influenced oddity like Search for Reason? Or maybe just a straight-up good and catchy J-Rock tune like Rosier? Well too bad, nothing here is even remotely in the ballpark. Hell, nothing on LUV can even come close to Rouge, a great rocker from the previous album, A Will.
The instrumental work is just plain boring. Sugizo has like one or two good guitar solos on the entire album. I'm not asking for some shredfest or anything, but surely he can do better than a handful of notes. Inoran's rhythm is extremely dull. J is audible and plays some stock J-Rock bass lines, but that's about it. Shinya's drumming is totally lifeless and on autopilot. I thought these guys were way more creative and fun to listen than this? What on earth happened? To his credit, Ryuichi still sounds good vocally, but he can't save an album with poor songwriting like this.
Now there's one song that deserves special mention for inducing a "what the fuck are you doing" reaction from me. That would be Ride the Beat, Ride Dream. This is a song that sounds straight off of one of Sugizo's solo albums except that Inoran and Shinya have credits for it. For those who have no handle on what Sugizo's solo stuff is like, just think of a nonsensical blend of electronic junk and "experimental" (i.e. random noise and sampling) elements. If that kind of stuff is your thing, that's whatever. But a "song" like that has absolutely no place on a Luna Sea album and sticks out like a sore thumb. Sure, I'll give it credit for breaking the previous mold of phoned-in, stock J-Rock, but it is still awful.
Who do I blame for this travesty? Maybe Yoshiki's bad musical ideas are rubbing off on Sugizo? Maybe the label pressured them to put something out, so the guys had to get together and rush this one out? Whatever the case, I really hope LUV doesn't end up being the creative death of Luna Sea. If you contrast this album with A Will (which came out only 4 years earlier), the difference is night and day. A Will was post-reunion Luna Sea that lived up to their great legacy. It's an album I happily play and enjoy nearly as much as their classic material.
On the other hand, LUV is just plain horrible. If this was released by some no-name J-Rock band I suppose it wouldn't be quite as bad. Sure, I would still throw the album in the trash where it belongs, but it wouldn't be nearly as disappointing. These are literally the same guys that released Mother and Image! How did they fart out something so awful and boring? Shine and Lunacy are nowhere near my favorite albums, but neither of those albums are completely bland or boring. They have their moments and don't tarnish Luna Sea's legacy. LUV, by a mile, is the worst Luna Sea album. It's not even close. The best song on here, Limit, is about a C-grade Luna Sea tune. Everything else is worse with most of it being completely terrible.
You can check out LUV via Spotify or something, but that's really a waste of time. LUV isn't even the entertaining kind of bad album. It's the boring and uninspired kind of bad which is arguably the worst kind of bad there is. The music might have some value in putting you to sleep if you suffer from insomnia, but that's all. And of course it goes without saying that you shouldn't spend a single cent on any of the trash here. Maybe, just maybe, you can justify buying Limit digitally, but I wouldn't bother with that even if I was desperate for new Luna Sea. Instead, do yourself a favor. Pick up your copy of the debut album, or Mother, or literally any other Luna Sea album besides this one. Remember the material that actually made the band great, and pray that LUV doesn't mean that the band is artistically dead.
Rating: 15/100