Well, I mentioned that Gackt was going to release a Gundam album, so I thought I may as well review it... ^_^
It's a bit disappointing that there are hardly any new tracks on it - six of the nine tracks are just re-releases of his previous Gundam songs. This review only covers the covers for that reason.
And there's no cover of "Tobe! Gundam" (which I only wanted because it would have been amusing).
They brought in Furuya Tohru to randomly say stuff as Amuro, during the songs, so that's fun. ^_^
Gackt's album version of Ai Senshi is much better than the live version that's been floating around on youtube, though it's essentially the same. He sings something closer to the right notes (well, at least for some of the song), and there's not so much clanging (it was too loud before).
After Amuro comes in, he seems to wander off into singing some other song, though...? I'm thinking "hey, wait, you were in the middle of this song! Come back and finish it, you slacker!" ... then he comes back and sings the wrong notes for a bit (like in the live), before finishing off the song.
Oh well.
The cover of "Suna no Juujika", or "Cross of Sand", is an acoustic guitar instrumental version. It's got a sound quality that really isn't studio like, it's not cleaned up, and it's got a real Mediterranean feel to it. The original version is 70s dramatic music with almost enka-style vocals. There's one point where distant church bells are heard in the background, and you get the feeling this is being performed in some Spanish café in the early morning... it's all very pleasant... right until... T_T ... the end, where someone thought it would be a good idea to ruin it all by ending the track as scratched vinyl skipping. -_-;
The final track on the album is a cover of "Meguriai". It seems to also be known as "Encounters" or "Unexpected Meeting", depending where you look. If you want to hear the original version, this AMV uses the song. Gackt's version is very Gackt. It's got a nice soft piano / vocal beginning, and then drops you head first into heavy rock. Impetuous for an old man, isn't he? Then it sorts itself out and builds itself from piano / vocal into rock gradually, then goes off the rails a bit at the end...
The rock parts make this song a little bit too similar to his cover of Ai Senshi, that's my feeling. I guess that's the sound he and his current band specialise in these days. I think it would have been better if it didn't sound so unbalanced; it would have been just as passionate a song if it had remained piano / vocal. Or if had built up to being heavy rock and stayed as such.
...it made me want to listen to Ishihara Shinichi's Para-Para Eurobeat cover of Meguriai! So I did! ^__^ I'm not sure how a Eurobeat cover can seem closer to the original of a song like this, but it does.
Overall Verdict: Gackt is too Gackt to be good at performing other peoples' songs. He rates his own style too highly to be able to adequately see the beauty in another person's song, so he wipes out too much of the character of the original. I know, from listening to his other works, that he's more than capable of producing the right kind of sound to suit these songs, and that he could have done a much more beautiful and faithful job, I think that irritates me a bit.
It's not bad but I don't really like it.
