COUNTDOWN: are you in?

October 10th, 2005 by Leanne · 17 Comments · 93.3%

COUNTDOWN
Release Date: 2005.10.05
Peak Position: #1
Label: HAUNTED RECORDS \ Ki/oon \ SONY Records
ISBN: KSCL 888
First Press: none
HYDE Official Web Site

After only reuniting with L’Arc~en~Ciel for two years, HYDE has returned to his solo project; which is slowly becoming less of a “project” and more of a career. It seems he has abandoned the idea of being an “interesting” artist with his contrasting angel (ROENTGEN) and devil (666) albums, and prefers to be a full fledged rock soloist. Don’t worry Laruku fans, although tetsu has confirmed hyde working on his solo project for the rest of this year, expect a new single by the band early to mid 2006.

HYDE returns to us with “COUNTDOWN” a hard rock number being used as the Japanese theme song to the movie “STEALTH” (starring Jamie Foxx) and lyrics crying out for peace. He has been recently going down a very open political road since the album “AWAKE” (L’Arc~en~Ciel) and shows no signs of shutting up. 13.12.11.10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1, Let’s review!

COUNTDOWN single cover

① COUNTDOWN

This is by far the hardest of HYDE’s singles. It may actually be HYDE’s best hard rock single. I really was impressed in the quality of this song. It maintains the style of his “666″ album, yet sounds fresh; it doesn’t belong with the tracks of the album. Like his fifth single, “HORIZON”, the verses of this song are slow while the chorus is faster and catchy. Unlike “HORIZON”, which was melancholic and soft, “COUNTDOWN” has a darker and harder feel. I really enjoyed HYDE “counting down” from 13 to 1, as well as the whispers in the last verse. HYDE describes the song as a track to match a sleek black stealth bomber, and I think he’s right on target with this one!

iPod iPod version (24.2 MB)

Sidenote: the PV is amazing! See some screenshots here.

Rating:

② COUNTDOWN <US>

This is the english version of the title track, and I must say that I was surprised. I understood HYDE’s english without any lyrics, even moreso than his last two albums. That’s quite an achievement. Don’t confuse me saying this with him speaking without a Japanese accent: it’s just perfectly understandable and anunciated english. Since language is all that’s changed, and the song sounds the same, what’s the harm in giving it the same rating?

Rating:

③ EVERGREEN <DIST.>

This is a “hard-rock tune rearrangement” of HYDE’s first single “evergreen”. This fact may scare away fans of HYDE’s “ROENTGEN” album, but don’t let it. This was the biggest surprise on the single, and an extremely good one at that! I hesitate to say that it’s better than the original; the original had a simple beauty that I doubt many others can recreate, but I will say that it’s refreshing. It starts off very simple with only one guitar, but after the first verse, it picks up in more or less the same tempo as the original. HYDE’s vocals are superb (especially when singing the line: “This scenery is evergreen”). I wouldn’t be disappointed if he decided to continue to release rocked out versions of his “ROENTGEN” songs. Note: this is the english version of “evergreen”.

Rating:

Conclusion: Don’t pass this single up. When I first heard that HYDE was concentrating on his solo activities for the remainder of 2005, I was disappointed to say the least. The two contrasting albums made his career so much more interesting and L’Arc~en~Ciel was supposed to be a unit now. After this single, however, let’s say I forgive him. “EVERGREEN <DIST.>” is not to be missed! This is an extremely strong single, and fans of HYDE will not be disappointed in the slightest.

Overall Rating:

HYDE · J-Rock · Review

17 responses so far ↓

eyn // Oct 11, 2005 at 6:14 pm

I’m truely amazed by how good both of the songs you posted are! I really like COUNTDOWN as soon as I listened to it, it’s a very nice rock song with a wicked melody that I find very catchy and interesting. I also enjoyed the electric guitar in this song. Those PV screencaps look very promising, I’ll definitely try to download and watch the PV if possible.

Just when I thought COUNTDOWN is pretty darn good, EVERGREEN totally blows me away and I’m not prepared for it at all! It’s a very nice soft rock (compare to COUNTDOWN) and the melody is again, brilliant! I have to put my hat off to HYDE for singing a full English song with such emotional vocal.

Overall, this single rocks my socks! Yes, I’m totally blown away by how good this actually is. ;) Pure awesome, 5/5 for this single! My only complaint is probably the rather stupid cover. :p
Lainay // Oct 11, 2005 at 6:30 pm

Thanks for this article!! Omg, HYDE is awesome!! I’m totally in love with COUNTDOWN, who possibly couldn’t? It’s so fricken awesome! So is Evergreen ~! Itsa fricken awesome single!! And a fricken awesome article! ^^

BTW, I like the cover. He looks…*drools*. XDDD
Jason // Oct 12, 2005 at 4:32 am

Maybe I attached too much with English rocks, so the COUNTDOWN is considered a normal rock song to me, but his vocal sounds really cool and nice, great performance.

My favourite is the evergreen (dist.), his vocal for this song is even better than the previous one, I really enjoyed this song and repeated this song for this 3 times. The chorus part is totally blew me off, that’s so attractive!!
blablablaidontknow // Oct 15, 2005 at 1:34 am

i like countdown! omg, this song is so good, one of his best songs i think! and i love the PV too it’s so cool. 2 things that i dont like from this single are:
1. the cover
2. evergreen [dist.]

overall, worth to buy!
Miya // Nov 5, 2005 at 10:37 am

I have to say… Hyde’s voice quality on this song is just… wow. The song itself is amazingle catchy, and has a nice climax-feel to it, but you can actually feel Hyde’s progress on this.

Am I mistaken?

All I have to say is: hooray for the new single, and WE WANT MORE!

Nice reviews :D
Lesca // Jan 21, 2006 at 9:29 pm

This was an astounding single. I absolutely adored it, and I went out to buy it, even. I’ll be sad that hyde’ll be working on this more than L’Arc, but I can’t say completely. I’ve always been impressed by his solo releases. I guess, this is just more of hyde’s own talent shining through ^^
Fukki // Mar 10, 2006 at 12:10 am

Hyde’s always been one of my favorite Japanese Rock star.
I was well, a little disappointed to hear that Hyde will be working on a solo album since i was a bigggggg fan of L’arc~en~ciel and L’arc~en~ciel Rock; my favorite Laruku songs are All dead, InnerCore, Shout at the Devil, The rain leaves a scar, and Existence. Anyways I listened to Countdown maybe not because I wanted to but when my friend was playing in her mp3player. When I heard it, I thought it was so cool and I immidiately bought the album. I still think it is so cool and I am kinda looking forward to Hyde’s new performances.
Todd Squad // Jun 26, 2006 at 6:55 pm

Hyde phreakin rocks :) The Rock version of evergreen is just amazing. I think it should be released as a single in the states.
happy // Aug 22, 2006 at 8:52 am

blew my mind away, i can actually understand hyde’s english… for a japanese, he’s damn good.. he has every right to be proud of his achievements including his mastery of the english language..hyde you rock bigtime!! \m/
Josef // Oct 27, 2006 at 8:17 am

My opinion: Countdown is not as good as Horizon.
Both versions of evergreen are great, well, AWESOME!
Season’s Call (newest single) is great, better than Countdown.

If only all his songs are in english, I would’ve appreciated extremely more his talent of creative writing.
DarkKnight // Nov 9, 2006 at 10:16 am

HYDE ROCKS! This is my favorite song of his so far.
Shinrai // Nov 24, 2006 at 9:39 pm

I like the english ensemble (rock version) of EVERGREEN. It actually moved me to tears. *lol* I think it was because of the music’s “intensity”. But I still like the ballad version, both in Japanese and English.

Lovely.
cat // Dec 13, 2006 at 4:55 pm

wow! Evergreen was absolutly amazing, i love how HYDE sings the line “the scenery is evergreen”, plus his english was amazing! Definatly a favourite, and a great intro to HYDE!

I loved countdown too, the actual countdown sounded really cool : )
Shinrai // Jan 31, 2007 at 11:16 pm

Thank you for sharing! I love the rock version of Evergreen; touched me more than the original [ballad] version. It actually me to tears! How uncanny. =p
Shinrai // Jan 31, 2007 at 11:17 pm

I never realized that I’ve already made a comment here. =D
TaylorSha // Jun 18, 2007 at 2:55 pm

Good review. I couldnt have typed any of this better myself. I enjoy listening to Countdown. The first word in the second verse I was amazed…yeah I know…its just a word. Anyhoot. Evergreen [dist] is not bad but I prefer the original probably because I understand the words better. In this song I guess from me being used to hearing him singing in Japanese the words sound like Japanese lol.

My favorite two from this album are “Countdown” and “Season’s Call”. I even learned the lyrics to “Season’s Call” thats how awosome I think it is. The video is simple as well. Love the beginning of this song where its just the music playing without the lyrics and his vocal ability is good. I havent heard a few of the others. So Im off to listening.
keiyuki // Jul 8, 2007 at 1:43 am

Countdown gave me the tingles! ^_______^ Haido-sama really owns the song~

the cover made haido look like a crossdresser (which he really was before, but never leaning on being a homo [aah no offence meant for homos, I love 'em])

evergreen is punked! whoaaaaa~ I hope to hear shallow sleep punked soon!