Aku no Hana
Aku no Hana (悪の華, "Flowers of Evil") is the fifth studio album by the Japanese rock band Buck-Tick. It was released on cassette and CD on February 1, 1990, through Victor Entertainment.[1] It peaked at number one on the Oricon charts and is the group's best-selling album to date,[2] having been certified double platinum by the RIAJ for over 500,000 copies sold. The title comes from Charles Baudelaire's volume of poetry, Les Fleurs du mal.
| Aku no Hana | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 1, 1990 September 19, 2002 (digital remaster) September 5, 2007 (remaster) | |||
| Recorded | October–December 1989 at Victor Aoyama Studio in Tokyo | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:09 | |||
| Language | Japanese, English | |||
| Label | Victor | |||
| Producer | Tsutomu Nakayama and Buck-Tick | |||
| Buck-Tick chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Aku no Hana | ||||
| ||||
Releases
The album was digitally remastered and re-released on September 19, 2002, with two bonus tracks. It was remastered and re-released again on September 5, 2007. "Aku no Hana" and "Love Me" were later re-recorded for the group's compilation album Koroshi no Shirabe: This Is Not Greatest Hits (1992).
On February 1, 2014, Aku no Hana was re-released again as a digital remaster to celebrate 25 years since its release, giving the songs the sound they imagined and would like them to originally have but couldn't due to limits of the equipment. It was released in three editions: a regular edition remastered album, a video album of the music videos, and a remastered limited edition collector's set format called 惡の華 -Completeworks-. The last contained the album as a vinyl LP, photo cards, remasters of the music videos from the album on DVD and Blu-ray, the 2015 Re-mix album as a Platinum SHM CD, and the 惡の華/Under The Moonlight 2015 Re-mix single also as a Platinum SHM CD.
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Atsushi Sakurai, except where noted; all music is composed by Hisashi Imai, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "National Media Boys" (lyrics written by Imai) | 4:26 |
| 2. | "Maboroshi no Miyako" (幻の都) | 3:59 |
| 3. | "Love Me" | 3:15 |
| 4. | "Pleasure Land" (lyrics and music written by Hidehiko Hoshino) | 5:00 |
| 5. | "Misty Blue" | 4:23 |
| 6. | "Dizzy Moon" (lyrics written by Toll Yagami; music written by Hoshino) | 3:25 |
| 7. | "Sabbat" (music written by Hoshino) | 5:08 |
| 8. | "The World Is Yours" | 4:52 |
| 9. | "Aku no Hana" (悪の華) | 4:18 |
| 10. | "Kiss Me Good-Bye" | 6:17 |
| Total length: | 45:09 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Aku no Hana" (single version) | 4:10 |
| 12. | "Under the Moonlight" (lyrics written by Yutaka Higuchi) | 3:41 |
Personnel
- Atsushi Sakurai – lead vocals
- Hisashi Imai – lead guitar, backing vocals
- Hidehiko Hoshino – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Yutaka Higuchi – bass
- Toll Yagami – drums
Additional performers
- Tsutomu Nakayama – keyboards
Production
- Tsutomu Nakayama; Buck-Tick – producers
- Will Gosling – engineer, mixing
- Jun Kanazawa – assistant engineer
- Ken Sakaguchi – cover art, graphic design
- Bruno Dayan – photography[3]
References
- "Aku no Hana". jame-world.com. Retrieved 2011-04-12.
- "BUCK-TICKのアルバム売り上げランキング". oricon.co.jp. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
- "Aku no Hana". Buck-Tick Zone.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-19. Retrieved 2012-01-28.