Every ‘LUNA SEA’ Album Ranked
I’m starting to take a liking to writing these album ranking lists lately, though feel a bit guilty about doing two in a row. Regardless, I’m just happy to have the energy to write at all lately, so I might as well write about something I love, something that’s giving me that energy in the first place. I’ve been very deep in a visual kei mood these last few months, and while there are likely dozens of English language rankings easily found with a quick search for some of the really massive pillars of the movement like X Japan or DIR EN GREY, I find it a bit fitting that there really aren’t any for LUNA SEA, a band of near-equal status in influence at this point to X Japan despite being their own protégé of sorts but far less appreciation internationally. They’re legendary to the point now that LUNA SEA guitarist Sugizo has even taken the empty spot as lead guitarist for X Japan since their reunion in 2007 after the untimely passing of Hide in 1998. Here’s my ranking of all of their albums to date, including both B-side compilations.
1. MOTHER (1994)
One of the all time visual kei classics, Luna Sea’s fourth effort MOTHER is more than an album — its a nigh untouchable legacy, a cornerstone to an entire genre and movement. It immaculately showcases a unique blend of punk and metal that Luna Sea were best known for in their early career, though the production values leaned more towards the maximalist and the band’s gloomy cohesion shined through brighter than ever. This is displayed off the bat on the moody first track ‘LOVELESS’, with a dreamy atmosphere giving way to cleanly picked acoustics and droning electrics as the kick drum pounds at a steady rhythm and the snare rolls into the main progression. The Luna Sea of 1991 would have gone right into double-time and power chords, but the Luna Sea of 1994 had become far more nuanced in those short 3 years and 3 albums from their debut. No, instead, the drums keep their tempo and instead only a frantically moving and muffled bass riff joins in. Their songwriting had evolved into something far more progressive and thoughtful by this point as well. It takes a full two minutes and forty seconds before the songs triumphant “loveless lovemaking” shout-along chorus begins; many songs on the band’s debut would be approaching their end by this point.
While ‘LOVELESS’ is a brooding and downbeat opener showcasing Luna Sea’s early maturity, it’s the following track ‘ROSIER’, in my opinion one of the greatest songs of all time, that really showcases what Luna Sea had mastered in just a few short years — the fast punk rock tempos and hard strumming electric guitars, the infectious multitude of hooks and basically two separate and memorably choruses. This is Luna Sea perfected to a science. ‘ROSIER’ also showcases a more experimental approach to guitar playing that Sugizo has since become one of the world’s most respected guitarists for, with some really extreme flange effects that make it sound like a completely different effect altogether than someone like Van Halen made it famous for. It’s also worth noting that the guitar solo — again in my opinion one of the all time greatest — absolutely rips. Sugizo’s playing on the record is so simple yet so effective.
MOTHER is host to so many more of Luna Sea’s most beloved songs to this day like the hit single ‘TRUE BLUE’, the mostly-acoustic title track ‘MOTHER’ and the following ‘FACE TO FACE’ which takes on a similarly brooding mid-tempo drum beat and emphasis on riffing bass much like the opener ‘LOVELESS’. Admittedly, if you go into MOTHER having chronologically listened to Luna Sea’s discography to this point, the album might not immediately hit. Their prior records are exceptional and classic in their own right, but the tracklist of MOTHER might take a bit of time to get into. Many of these songs are a lot more downbeat and glum compared to much of those first three albums, though the more upbeat and punky stuff like ‘ROSIER’, ‘FAKE’, and ‘TRUE BLUE’ really show off a more evolved form of that early sound. ‘FAKE’ is also one of the finest examples of Sugizo violin, performing an evocative solo atop the fast pace of the track. MOTHER really is an album for the history books, truly one of if not the finest album in the genre.
10/10.
2. IMAGE (1992)
In many ways, IMAGE is the perfect sophomore album. Just a single year and one month after their debut self-titled album Luna Sea already begin to show an incredible level of progress in both songwriting and production value. It’s another toss-up of what the best album truly is, though I think most fans would agree that MOTHER and IMAGE could easily go toe-to-toe for the top spot, and I frankly could come up with pretty strong cases for both myself. What IMAGE lacks in the more matured scope that MOTHER brought to the table it more than makes up for in the songwriting department.
IMAGE is a nonstop barrage of poppy punk hits (mind the wording, this is the furthest thing from the genre of pop-punk than you could imagine) like the shout-along opener ‘DEJAVU’, the syncopated and tight title track ‘IMAGE’, and the progressive ‘VAMPIRE’S TALK’. The latter song as well as the other longer tracks like ‘SEARCH FOR REASON’ and ‘MOON’ — all coming in at over 6 minutes each and the latter of which is an extended rerecorded version of the track from their first album — feel like the blueprint for what the band would soon do on MOTHER, the progressive and more atmospheric style when compared to their usual and most popular punk sounds.
IMAGE sees the band trying to push themselves forward more than ever before so immediately after their debut and showcases the sound of a band ready to break out of the shadow of their masters.
10/10.
3. STYLE (1996)
A bit of a controversial choice for the third spot, I think STYLE, the band’s follow-up to the massive success that MOTHER brought them is also their first major step away from the visual kei style into something more alternative, and it absolutely nails the landing. While things can get just as slow and just as fast as MOTHER does, STYLE overall keeps the mood a lot brighter and less gloomy than its predecessor did, obvious from the very second the opening ballad ‘WITH LOVE’ opens the album with the lone sound of Ryuichi’s voice in the pickup measure before leading the whole band in on the first beat of the next.
The third track ‘HURT’ is another huge standout to me within Luna Sea’s discography. It feels almost immediately familiar in a way with the simple but effective power chord lead guitar riff and head-bopping, feet-off-the-floor-jumping tempo; it almost feels grunge. The song that really does it for me however is the penultimate ‘IN SILENCE’, which has what I believe is one of Ryuichi’s catchiest singalong hooks to date, Shinya’s beyond-infectious drum groove under Inoran’s acoustic guitar strumming and Sugizo’s delayed and arpeggiated guitar picking. ‘IN SILENCE’ is perfection, and would even function as a phenomenal closing track were there to be an absence of the hypnotic and dreamy closer ‘SELVES’.
10/10.
4. LUNA SEA (1991)
The band’s self-titled album, their shortest to date, is yet another well-respected visual kei classic, made extra apparent by the band’s appearance on the album cover. Opening with the blasting of the 80-second ‘FATE’ which seamlessly transitions directly into the following ‘TIME IS DEAD’, the album’s modus operandi is immediately present: this is a band that isn’t here to fuck around, playing a hard but flamboyant version of punk rock not often seen outside of Japan, especially in the pre-Green Day era. It’s one of those albums that proves that the sound of modern punk has basically existed for over 30 years now in the less-appreciated areas of the world, at least to the western onlooker.
There isn’t even a hint of the balladeering band to be on this debut outside of the slightly slower track ‘MOON’ which would later appear in a more fleshed out and nuanced form on the following album IMAGE. Outside of that though, LUNA SEA is entirely made of the band’s uncompromising take on punk rock. An excellent debut setting the groundwork for even more excellence to come. There’s also a rerecorded version of this album released in 2011 shortly after the band had gotten back together after their breakup in 2000. While it’s not a superior version by any means, it showed that the band at the very least still had it in them.
10/10.
5. CROSS (2019)
Bit of a controversial take here, but hear me out: I think CROSS is one of the band’s best albums to date, and I don’t just say that as a hardcore Gundam fan; many of the songs on 2019’s CROSS, the band’s third album since reuniting in 2010, were used for various projects in the Gundam franchise. Far from the melancholy and the punk of old Luna Sea, CROSS is instead a collection of emotionally raw but uplifting tracks that aren’t quite ballads but also not quite bangers either.
The opener ‘LUCA’ feels more like a “power march” than a power ballad. It opens on a really light and airy note and sets the tone for the album to come. Gone is the brooding moodiness Luna Sea established themselves on in the 90s, instead opting out for a much brighter sound made all the more clean by legendary producer Steve Lillywhite, marking the band’s first collaboration with a foreign producer. It’s frankly a move that pays off, as CROSS in general feels crisp and pristine the whole way through, especially on the more traditionally fast songs that the band thankfully still haven’t abandoned, like the third track ‘Closer’ or ‘Sora no Uta ~Higher and Higher~’ which both immediately bring to mind the sound of their mid to late 90s output from MOTHER to LUNACY, especially with Sugizo’s delay-heavy rhythmic guitar leads.
It’d be hard to talk about CROSS though without mentioning the absolutely brilliant ‘THE BEYOND’, which served as the theme song for the Gundam franchise’s 40th anniversary celebration. The high production values of the album really shine through on the orchestra-accompanied tearjerker, accentuating an already powerfully-written chorus. While CROSS could mostly be described as a ballads album, the ballads that are here are excellent and never overstay their welcome and many even qualify as a little faster or harder than the average, with the occasional fast number also occupying the tracklist. It’s just an excellent album from a band so prolific that you’d only half to expect them to have burned out by now, but that 10 year break followed by another 10 years back at it must have really done a lot for the band.
9.5/10.
6. A WILL (2013)
The band’s first album in 13 years after their reunion in 2010, A WILL is actually pretty fantastic. They pick it up right back where they left off in 2000 with LUNACY but sound far more enthusiastic about it than they did on their previously-final album. ‘Anthem Of Light’ opens A WILL up on exactly that kind of note, a light and anthemic track that signals the return of one of Japan’s finest. The following ‘Rouge’ and ‘The End Of The Dream’, then, are a signal that the band too still has it in them to do the hard rock thing, with pounding drum beats and bluesy riffing guitars.
Putting A WILL at #6 almost feels cruel, because it’s an amazing album front to back with very little in the way of flaws or issue. Every song here feels strong, even the complaint that “they’ve done this sound before” is basically null because while it’s true, they’ve never quite hit the mark with this sound as well as they do here. Songs like ‘MARIA’ and ‘Ran’ certainly could fit in on SHINE or LUNACY, but they’d completely outpace most of the other tracks here with the intensity and fire the band puts into them. Just really incredible stuff here, the sound of a band who took a 10 year nap and woke up feeling more refreshed than ever.
9/10.
7. SHINE (1998)
If I have to say anything truly bad about SHINE, it’s just that it’s too long. I know that’s kind of my brand at this point, hating on long albums and everything, but it’s always gonna take points away from all but the rarest of cases (see Autechre’s brilliant 8-hour quadruple LP NTS Sessions 1–4). Despite its length though, SHINE still stands to be one of Luna Sea’s most respected albums for its consistent quality in songwriting and production values as well as its place in visual kei history as being one of the first albums by a massive visual kei band to be an active statement of rejection to visual kei; the band was well into making their transition to a more conventional rock band. Until its release in 1998, the band had never sounded brighter, sparklier, or as ready to hit the mainstream.
Their progressive songwriting prowess up to this point finally hits its peak, with most songs on the album sitting well over 5 minutes in length and featuring much more rigid structure than the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus outing, with plenty of room for the performances to breathe and build tension to a release, apparently immediately on the opener ‘Time Has Come’. Right away after, ‘STORM’ is another huge live favorite for the band, almost feeling like a direct response to the popularity of ‘ROSIER’ and taking the place as a warmup for the latter song in live performances. It has that same rhythmic strut to its beat, that same catchy kind of melodic chorus, Sugizo’s guitar prowess still cutting through the mix.
While most of the songs here are great, there are some duds that drag on far too long like ‘ANOTHER’, where the repetitive guitar chord-riffing just gets to be all too obnoxious by the 4 minute mark before you realize there’s still another 3 minutes left. The final two tracks ‘BREATHE’ and ‘UP TO YOU’, while both great songs, feel like they should be reversed in the order, as ‘UP TO YOU’ ultimately leaves you feeling like there’s gonna be something else at the end (that is, if you’re not burnt out on over 70 minutes of Luna Sea doing progressive and alt rock already). SHINE could be a fantastic album, and while it does have some of Luna Sea’s most iconic material, it just has a tiny bit too much fat that needed trimming before it could get there.
8/10.
8. ANOTHER SIDE OF SINGLES (1997)
Strangely enough, I think ANOTHER SIDE OF SINGLES, the second disc of the band’s first singles compilation album titles SINGLES comprising of B-sides from the singles off of EDEN to STYLE is one of their best. Certainly there’s a lot of beloved songs on here like ‘SLAVE’ and ‘Ray’, but there’s some really underrated gems too like ‘TWICE’, which was the B-side to the single ‘End Of Sorrow’. Overall this album feels like a combination of mostly MOTHER and STYLE leftovers which just can’t be a bad thing no matter how you look at it; only thing is at only 7 songs it kind of just makes you want more.
8/10.
9. EDEN (1993)
The black sheep of Luna Sea’s legendary four-album run in the early 90s, their third album EDEN unfortunately doesn’t stand as tall as the other three despite again housing some of the band’s most iconic tracks like opener ‘JESUS’ and the single ‘IN MY DREAM (WITH SHIVER)’. One thing that stands out most about EDEN is just how experimental the band had already become, incorporating a lot of room for less traditionally guitar work for the band, with lots of acoustic guitars occupying the sides of the mix and Sugizo starting his experiments with guitar pedals.
Ultimately, EDEN’s experimentation was only the blueprint for what the band would perfect a year later on ‘MOTHER’, leaving it to feel a bit more forgettable in the shadow of the albums that surround it. Tracks like ‘BELIEVE’, ‘STEAL’, and ‘ANUBIS’ still hit the heart hard and ‘Providence’ is one of the most enchanting songs I’ve ever heard and really shows off Sugizo’s violin skills more than any other Luna Sea song I can think of, but the more obscure cuts like ‘RECALL’ and ‘LAMENTABLE’ just don’t do much for me anymore.
7/10.
10. LUNACY (2000)
The band’s second technically self-titled album and final release before their 2000 breakup, LUNACY is a fairly inconsistent and obscure record within the band’s discography despite some fan favorite tracks like ‘TONIGHT’, ‘gravity’, and ‘KISS’. The album itself was Luna Sea’s furthest stray away from the flamboyancy of visual kei and more towards an alternative, almost new wave-y sound, utilizing plentiful string and synthesizer arrangements on top of an emphasis on the more hard rocking side of the band that doesn’t always hit as hard as it sounds like it is.
The album itself is still pleasant to listen through, though only a few songs really stick out upon repeated listens, leaving many of them simply forgotten to time; it’s an album that you enjoy while listening to but end up forgetting as soon as it’s over. It’s almost fitting then that this is the only Luna Sea album that doesn’t have a proper high quality digitized album cover, with all online results for it leading to various photocopy scans of the physical paper CD jacket.
6/10.
11. LUV (2017)
The only true miss in the band’s discography, 2017’s LUV is entirely forgettable. I’ve listened to this album so many times at this point and I honestly couldn’t begin to tell you a single thing about it besides the fact that I was bored throughout it’s over-60 minute runtime. Seriously, how did this happen? I have tried constantly to remember anything about this album and the most I can is that ‘Hold You Down’, the opener, is basically the same type of anthemic and airy opening track they’ve had on their other 3 post-reunion albums though far less memorable, less powerful, and far more overproduced.
The only other song to really remember here is the emotional ‘Miss Moonlight’ which stands a high cut above the rest of the songs and could still find its way onto a “Best Of Luna Sea” playlist were I to ever become a playlist kind of person. It’s not like I outright hate LUV, it is still a mostly pleasant listen — probably, it’s just that it’s so forgettable otherwise.
4/10.
12. ANOTHER SIDE OF SINGLES II (2002)
Luna Sea’s second B-sides compilation album, consisting of B-sides from SHINE and LUNACY is about what you’d expect of leftover songs from those albums. They’re not inherently bad songs, but they’re not great either. Nothing on here even really makes way into the band’s live shows the way older B-sides like ‘SLAVE’ still do. There’s certainly some gems here like the brutally hard ‘inside you’ and ‘INTO THE SUN’, but nothing that really stands too high above the others and often leaving the album just feeling like an inconsistent mess of leftovers that had no place on their A-side’s respective albums, nor do they have much of a place in a compilation album either.
3/10.
