#494 Album Theory 20 | DRUG TREATMENT / Kuroyume (1997)
This is the 20th installment of my album theory series, where I talk passionately about albums.
This series takes the most effort to write, but that's part of the fun!
LUNA SEA and X aside, I will be talking about Kuroyume for a while, but today I'm introducing the 1997 masterpiece, "DRUG TREATMENT".
Following the previous year's FAKE STAR, this is a masterpiece representing 1997 that polished their rock and punk sound even further.
I think the album I loved most that year was ANGRY FIST, but this album is also excellent.
Kuroyume at the time of releasing DRUG TREATMENT
After releasing FAKE STAR, I feel like Kuroyume's media exposure increased significantly.
Part of it was that they were pumping out high-quality singles like Like A Angel in November '96, NITE&DAY in April '97, and Spray in June, but Kiyoharu-san was also making a huge splash in fashion magazines that were incredibly popular at the time, such as "BOON," "COOL," "GET ON," and "SMART." There was also
"BIDAN." That brings back memories.
Anyway, in the late 90s, Kiyoharu-san was truly a fashion leader. He looked cool on HEY!HEY!HEY! too. PUFFY also looks so young...
Released in the midst of all that on June 27, 1997, DRUG TREATMENT was quite a shock.
First of all, the jacket is cool. The two skulls with guns pointed at their temples, the splatter-style font, and the title are all cool.
Furthermore, for the tracks, they had this obsession where every song except the singles had a "D" in the title.
It still doesn't fade even when I listen to it now...
It's that kind of masterpiece.
DRUG TREATMENT track-by-track introduction
1. MIND BREAKER
This was my first time seeing the music video.
The album is punkish overall, but the first track starts with a relatively downer and heavy song. The title "Mind Breaker" is already heavy, isn't it? lol
It feels like a prologue or an opening chapter, so this position is perfect.
With that kind of mysterious lingering feeling, the album begins.
2. DRUG PEOPLE
The second track is a pretty upbeat rap song.
It's a rhythmic and cute song, but in the lyrics, it's clearly criticizing record companies and such, so it's not that cute lol
It's a song that connects to BARTER from the previous work.
People try to find meaning that isn't there in his castrated songs
We, who are too sharp, harbor a sense of rejection like a bad drug
As for this "he"...this person is the most likely candidate lol
3. DRIVE
And from around this third track, the punk accelerates. It's truly DRIVE.
What's problematic about this song is thatthe lyrics are so extreme that they've all been cut, haha.
"I want to violate you, I want to violate you, tell me your frustrations"
"I saw a hallucination again, I can't talk about it in detail though"
"I want to put it in and take it out with the lights on"
It's completely out of bounds, haha.
However, this is a cool song with a nice groove.
4. C.Y.HEAD
This is a staple song for live shows, and it was a valuedhardcore punk numberused right before the finale of the first part of the show (before SICK).
Anyway, this song also heavilycriticizes people with plastic heads, and there is a theory that itcriticizes Chiba (Chiba Yusuke), but I think that's definitely not the case, so I consider it a rumor.
5. CAN`T SEE YARD
This song isprofound rock and roll, isn't it? H-kun from my hometown listed this as his favorite.
Anyway, it's great from start to finish, and it's full of gimmicks, or maybe I should call them flourishes—it's full of tricks that make you think it would be fun to play live.
6. DISTRACTION
DISTRACTION means"diversion".
It's a simple song, positioned somewhere between rock and roll and punk.
And this song also criticizes "someone," but who exactly is known only to Kiyoharu... that's the feeling.
7. Spray (NEW TAKE)
Closing out the first half's punk time is "Spray," the advance single released in the same month as the album.
Kuroyume tended to treat singles carelessly,with a tendency to think of them only as tools to sell the album, but I feel like this song was a beloved track that was pop-oriented and suitable for a single, yet also played frequently at live shows, and above all, everyone really liked it.
8. LET’S DANCE
And while not quite to the extent of DRIVE, this song also has lyrics thatcontain a lot of content that touches on record censorship, and some of the lyrics are masked (such as the notation for drugs).
In the live shows the following year, they often played a version where this song was simply stripped down and reconstructed, but the original version is better, haha.
9. BLOODY VALENTINE
Is this a song called "Bloody Valentine"?From LET'S DANCE onwards, this track and the next one are rock ballads, or rather, a series of melodic songs composed by Hitoki.
10. DEAR BLUE
This song was also included on the later best-of album EMI, and it's just a good song in general.
If it were the BEAMS era (though that was only a year ago), it's the kind of melodic song that wouldn't have been out of place as a single.a melodic song that wouldn't have been out of place as a singleThere were a certain number of people who pushed for this song.
11. NITE & DAY (NEW TAKE)
And this song is just good. It's an aggressive ballad, or whatever you want to call it.
The original concept for this song seems to bethe image of a boy who only knows punk making a love song on an acoustic guitarand that makes sense. It's a nice song.
It's great how Hitoki is just freely playing the guitar in the PV and on TV as if it's natural, haha.
And it's good that they usedNITEinstead of NIGHT. This kind of attention to detail is important.
12. NEEDLESS
This was also a popular song.
With its impressive guitar riff,lyrics depicting a boy's state of mind, and a melodic A-melody to B-melody to chorus structure. It has many highlights like the bass solo and guitar solo in the song, so it might be fun to play in a band.
The production at the end that leads into the next song is also great.
13. Like A Angel (NEW TAKE)
And this is a single that represents Kuroyume, and it wasa song loved until the very end.
I had been listening to it since it was released in '96 thinking it was a good song, but it's a song I grew to love even more after '97 when I really started getting into them.
This song is very rewarding to play on bass; it moves quite a bit and is difficult, but it's a song I practiced with the feeling thatif you can play this, you're a pro. I still have the confidence to play the bass solo in the interlude.
I really love the live version, but the version included on this album isn't bad either.
It really is an incredibly important song for Kuroyume.
14. BAD SPEED PLAY
And this monster album ends with a perverted song, haha.
I seriously love this song, and it's a song I love so much that I selected it asnumber 2in the band theory discussion about Kuroyume that I introduced previously.
I want you to listen to the live version, but the original is alreadyfast enough and crazy enough, so it's quite worth listening to.
When listening to the album as a whole, it feels like the live show ends with Like A Angel, and then the encore is this song or something like that.
Summary
Anyway, it was a brutal album.
I used to own this, but I wonder where it went?
Besides this one, I also owned Kuroyume's CDs "Shinjuku Loft," "CORKSCREW," and "EMI," but none of them are at home anymore, haha.
However, seeing this cover or listening to the tracks brings back vivid memories of that time; it's an album that remains with me along with those memories.
Next time, I will introduce "Shinjuku Loft"!