Chrissy  - Lights 2
Having discovered globe through their huge hit âgenesis of nextâ from the Cyborg 009 2000s anime I was initially quite keen on their electronica stuff from their outernet, Lights and Lights 2 album. After all, I wasnât all that familiar with standard Jpop faire quite yet and futuristic early 00s stuff was really what got me drawn into the J scene. However that was not the reception of their main fanbase who had come to love them throughout their big pop hit filled 90s career.Â
If there is one album that finally severed the tie between old and new globe fans it was definitely Lights 2. Of all their post 2000 albums itâs definitely the least pop friendly and trance heavy. Now trance was a big deal at the time in Japan, or at least peaking in its success, but this was generally due to trance remixes of radio friendly pop tracks. globe however had reinvented themselves as a more serious group with trance and odd, experimental pop at the forefront. While I didnât truly enjoy Lights 2 as much as itâs predecessor and twin album, Lights, at the time, I did grow to love it over time. Especially considering how globe as a group would basically be defunct in a few years time. :â(
The good - I always loved how âfade in2 (part2)â picks up right where Lights leaves off. Like seriously, listen to âfade in2âł and part 2 back to back and itâs awesome. It shows how both albums are two halves of one project. That of course gives way to the epic trance opener âTRANSCONTINENTAL WAYâ. Itâs among my very favorite globe trance album tracks, second only to perhaps LEVEL 4â˛s âout of Š controlâ. Itâs so ethereal yet heavy and of course KEIKOâs vocals are nothing short of angelic.
The albumâs only singles,the double A-sides of âOVER THE RAINBOWâ and âINSPIRED FROM RED & BLUEâ try to capture the pop sensibility of globeâs past singles and marry them with the trance of the other tracks but they arenât quite as successful as say âMany Classic Momentsâ. They did chart much higher but that had more to do with MCM being screwed by being released on the same day as Lights. However thatâs not to say they donât work well as album tracks. Particularly I love the minute plus addendum to âOVER THE RAINBOWâ as it adds more of a sense of completeness than the single version.Â
In fact many of the albumâs tracks do actually compliment globes traditional sounds well. âKnockin'on the door of my heartâ âSTARTING FROM HEREâ and  âă˛ă¨ăăă¨â all sound like they could be lifted from Relation or Cruise Record with their cool yet subtly creepy vibes.
The bad - All globe fans know that there are times when Marc is great and other times when heâs... not so great.  Despite being a cool track âedge of darknessâ seems a little too drawn out and a little too Marc-heavy. Other than that I donât feel thereâs much wrong with this album unless youâre looking for catchier hooks or more aggressive beats but as stated before those can be found on other globe releases,
The tragic - As much as I worship me some KEIKO, âUSâ is not her shining moment. It just sounds like some shit her an TK threw together in the studio one day and would have been better suited to tack onto a single or ballad compilation. In fact the epilogue of Many Classic Moments kind of puts the albumâs one proper ballad to shame. At least when KEIKOâs actual vocals come in. TK has always been pretty great at instrumental interludes of songs and this final track really pulls both albums together since itâs also the opener of Lights. We once again come full circle.
Lights 2 was really given a lot of flack back in the day but in reality, itâs the artistic mirror to Lightsâ pop trance, hence the highlighting of the mouth and ear on their respective covers. While this may have been the end of globeâs string of many chart topping pop singles it did prove TK could have respectable work outside of being a pop ingenue. And itâs a miracle that we had a TK nomination this month that wasnât my doing!
