is the fifth studio album by the Japanese

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Buck-Tick Buck-Tick (stylized as BUCK-TICK) is a Japanese Rock music, rock band, formed in Fujioka, Gunma in 1983. The group has consisted of lead vocalist Atsushi Sakurai, lead guitarist Hisashi Imai, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino, bassist Yutaka Hig ...

. It was released on cassette and CD on February 1, 1990, through

Victor Entertainment , also known as in Japan, is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Ent ...

. It peaked at number one on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

charts and is the group's best-selling album to date. It was certified gold in the month of its release, and sold 435,080 copies in the first year of its release. The title comes from

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

's volume of poetry, ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...

''.

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

Personnel

Atsushi Sakurai is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter. He has been the vocalist of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1985, previously being their drummer from 1983. He released the solo album '' Ai no Wakusei'' in 2004 and was also a member of Schwein alongsi ...

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

Hisashi Imai is a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is known as lead guitarist of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1983. He has also performed in musical side-projects such as Schaft (1991–1994, 2015), Schwein (2001), and more recently Lucy (2004). Car ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

Hidehiko Hoshino , nicknamed "Hide", is a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is known as the rhythm guitarist for the rock band Buck-Tick since 1983. Life and career Buck-Tick In 1985, when Hide and Yutaka Higuchi graduated from high school they moved to Toky ...

–

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

, backing vocals * Yutaka Higuchi – bass *

Toll Yagami , known exclusively by his stage name , is a Japanese musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1985. He is the older brother of Yutaka Higuchi, Buck-Tick's bassist. Life and career Toll Yagami dropped out of high s ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Additional performers * Tsutomu Nakayama –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Production * Tsutomu Nakayama; Buck-Tick –

producers Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

* Will Gosling –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, mixing * Jun Kanazawa – assistant engineer * Ken Sakaguchi – cover art, graphic design * Bruno Dayan – photography

References

Buck-Tick albums Victor Entertainment albums 1990 albums {{1990s-punk-rock-album-stub