Mother is the fourth studio album by Japanese rock band Luna Sea, released on October 26, 1994. It reached number two on the Oricon Albums Chart and was certified Platinum by the RIAJ for sales over 400,000. Luna Sea re-recorded the entire album and released it on November 29, 2023, through Avex Trax.
Overview
Guitarist Sugizo cited "Rosier" as one of the songs wherein he tried to replicate the "psychedelic feel of shoegaze bands" by using effects, "like playing fast with a wah-wah pedal, or using tape-echo and harmonizers. I couldn’t figure out how they did it, so I just made it into my own thing."[2]
The single versions of "Rosier" and "Mother" are slightly different from the album's. The album was remastered and re-released by Universal Music Group on December 5, 2007, it came with a DVD of the promotional videos for "Rosier", "True Blue" and "Mother". This version reached number 195 on the Oricon chart.[3]
Mother and the band's other seven major label studio albums, up to Luv, were released on vinyl record for the first time on May 29, 2019.[4]
Reception
Mother reached number two on the Oricon Albums Chart, and charted for 30 weeks.[5] In 1994, it was certified Platinum by the RIAJ for sales over 400,000.[6] The album was named one of the top albums from 1989 to 1998 in a 2004 issue of the music magazine Band Yarouze and number 49 on Bounce's 2009 list of 54 Standard Japanese Rock Albums.[7][8] In 2021, Jamie Cansdale of Kerrang! included Mother on a list of 13 essential Japanese rock and metal albums. Calling it Luna Sea's magnum opus, he wrote that it achieved "huge success by blending the gothic romanticism of albums past with radiant vibrancy."[9]AllMusic called the album one of the band's best, along with 1998's Shine.[10]
Covers
"Rosier" was covered by High and Mighty Color for the 2007 Luna Sea Memorial Cover Album -Re:birth-.[11] It was later included on their 2008 album Rock Pit. It was also covered by defspiral for Crush! 3 - 90's V-Rock Best Hit Cover Love Songs-, which was released on June 27, 2012, and features current visual kei bands covering love songs by visual kei bands of the 90's.[12] Fantôme Iris, a fictional visual kei band from multimedia franchise Argonavis from BanG Dream! covered the song on their first solo live Fantôme Iris 1st LIVE -C'est la vie!-.[13]
In 2023, Luna Sea re-recorded the entirety of Mother and Style (1996) and released them simultaneously on November 29 through Avex Trax. Guitarist Inoran said that after their December 22–23, 2018 concerts, where the band recreated setlists from the tours for Image (1992) and Eden (1993), they wanted to do the same for Mother.[14] Feeling it would be fun to do it as a tour, they decided to make it a dual tour with Style, and then felt it would be even more fun if it was tied to albums.[14] Although there were no major re-arrangements done to the songs, Inoran said it depended on the composer of the original song. In his compositions, he slightly changed the synchronized parts and phrases, but noted it might be hard to notice these small details. He also opined that J did not change his songs much, but Sugizo's alterations depended on each song.[14] Pleased with the work he did producing their 2019 album Cross, Luna Sea asked Steve Lillywhite to mix the re-recorded albums.[14]
