SIAM SHADE – Blow Out
SIAM SHADE has a special place in my heart. They were the first J-Rock band I truly fell in love in. Back when I was in the services, I remembered roaming within Towers Record during weekends, trying to test out full-tracks from the latest albums. That was when I come across the band and their album, “SIAM SHADE 5″. And as with the case of the CD-carousel, you would inevitably be listening to the first track more than any other tracks. With the catchy song “Blow Out”, which is not a single from the album, I quickly learned more about the band through magazines and through saving and purchasing their albums. Yes, it was the days before the internet, so there wasn’t a lot we could do then.
What is so interesting about this particular song? For one, it is not a typical SIAM SHADE song. As explained in my earlier entry, Siam Shade is more a progressive rock band, than a popular-act (as perceived from their tremendously successful anime ED single) or a visual-kei group (as perceived with their earlier involvement as a travelling band with Luna Sea). With most progressive rock song, there usually would not be so much of a verse-chorus combination, but changing musical progression from the song, often with different emphasis of different musical component to give an overall tight feel. The progression is distinctively lacking in this song, along with the noted absence of Daita’s outlandish performances of his guitar.
What this song brought however was catchy lyrics that is reminiscence of a somewhat bubble-gum pop feel. More specifically, the lines “It’s so hard to break loose from this lonely night | I know it’s hard for you to do but please don’t worry” were repeated four times overall in the song, with the lines repeated twice in rapid succession. And as with the bubblegum pop, these lines (which are fully comprehensible to an english-speaker) are easily picked up and easily deciphered. It is so easy in fact, I was often humming those lines during those days and, much more infrequently, today.
