Dum Spiro Spero and some greetings...

So I'm going to start this whole thing out by saying that Blogger has probably some of the most difficult coding to over ride that I've ever seen. And I use to sort through Livejournal over rides for giggles. So I had to do a little cheating to try to get it to work right... or at least close to right. It still won't quite do what I want, so I just tweaked so it wouldn't look horrible.

Now onto business!

'sup?

Dum Spiro Spero was released earlier this month - and I have it. Because I'm like that. I burned it for my car, and that is essentially where I've been listening to it. So for weeks, the album has been interrupted by my constant need to actually leave my car when I go places.

That's why I decided I'd actually sit down and listen to it straight and see if my opinion on it has changed on it.

Once it hit me that I'd hit the halfway mark without even noticing, I'm going to assume this isn't probably the case.

This is starting bad, so let me back up and say that I don't hate this album. There are no pitchforks or torches coming from my direction. I'm not going to get up on a soapbox and reminisce about the good old days when Dir en grey was in drag and could barely play their instruments. What I am going to say is that this is an unusual album and probably another one that I can barely remember the track names for.

It brings Vinushku to mind. It's as if they looked that track over said "Hey, we like this", just kept playing, and decided they might as well split each section up into tracks because it's now an album. It's got the same kind of bout of schizophrenia that I've learned to accept, just enough to keep all the tracks from bleeding into one another completely.

I've noticed a lot of my friends either don't like it or don't hate it. It's been a very wishy-washy "Eeeeh..." So I've come up with a theory as to why this is. Because that's what I do.

You remember when Vulgar first came out? Everyone loves that album now, but I didn't. I still really don't. As a whole, it wasn't that great. However, it does have some slap in the face amazing tracks on it that are quite memorable. I didn't like most of the songs but the ones I did like, I liked a lot. They can just keep re-releasing Shokubeni on however many singles they want, I'm perfectly fine with it. Hell, if they want to make an entire mini-album of just re-recorded tracks of Shokubeni on it, I will buy it. And I will listen to it forever. I can die happy because I've heard Red em... live and I am not going to exclude myself from the fans who go crazy whenever they hear even a hint of Obscure.

It's a formula that Dir en grey has learned to perfect. Even if the number of bad songs outweigh the good, if the good songs are so good you can actually forget the bad songs exist, you can trick people into thinking that you just made the best album in the entire world.

The problem is, since Dum Spiro Spero is conceptual and experimental and it plays like one extended Dir en grey song, there are less of those amazing songs to carry it into the memories of fans. The only songs I can pick out are the ones that were previously featured on singles, and I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to if I hadn't been listening to them for the past odd number of months.


So while all the songs might be just fine on their own, since they are all crammed onto an album and not paired with some memorable songs that you could shout the lyrics to at the top of your lungs, in the minds of the Dir en grey fan, the album falls short and just sinks to the bottom of their favorites list.

A couple of random thoughts:

• Kyo's got this weird chanty thing to pair with his usual screeches. It's like Uroboros but turned up to 11.
• I like the last two tracks together (what are they called? Vanitas and Ruten no Tou?). They're audio conjoined twins. I can't separate them and be happy about it.
• The album cover doesn't make me want to stab myself in the eye with a pen.