''Crescent'' is the fourth full-length studio album released by Japanese solo artist

Gackt , better known by his mononymous stage name Gackt (stylized as GACKT), is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Born in Okinawa, Japan, to a Ryukyuan family, Gackt learned the piano at a young age and was raise ...

on December 3, 2003. It is conceptually linked to its predecessor ''

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

'' and comes with booklets for both records (''Moon'' did not originally contain one). ''Crescent'' also features a duet with

L'Arc-en-Ciel L'Arc-en-Ciel ( French: 'The Rainbow', stylized as L'Arc~en~Ciel), also known as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band, formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitarist ...

vocalist Hyde for "Orenji no Taiyou" with whom Gackt co-starred in the 2003 movie '' Moon Child''. The album is seen as a turning point in Gackt's career. A lyrically emotional and musically varied record, it is often seen as Gackt's strongest release and when he finally mastered his style of poetically romantic lyrics set against an art rock music background.

Release

In the third counting week of December the album reached number five 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, with sales of 75,561 copies. It charted for 11 weeks. Since its release the album has sold more than 250,000 copies, being not certified Gold due to change of criteria, but Platinum by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

. Preceding the album release, were released three singles, "

Kimi ga Oikaketa Yume is a single released by Gackt on March 19, 2003 under Nippon Crown is a Japanese record label established as Crown Records on 6 September 1963. It is a spin-off of Nippon Columbia and is owned by karaoke maker Daiichikosho. The record labe ...

", "

Tsuki no Uta is a single released by Gackt on June 11, 2003 under Nippon Crown. It peaked at third place on the Oricon weekly chart and charted for seven weeks. The song "Tsuki no Uta" was used as the first ending theme for anime Texhnolyze ''Texhnolyze' ...

" and " Last Song". The first single "Kimi ga Oikaketa Yume" reached number two on the fifth counting week of March, with sales of 59,265 copies. In the upcoming two weeks, it was at number nineteen and twenty respectively, with sales of 15,010 and 9,234 copies. It charted for 10 weeks, and sold over 100,000 copies, certified Gold by the RIAJ. The second single "Tsuki no Uta" reached number three on the fourth counting week of June, with sales of 49,952 copies. In the upcoming week, it was at the number eighteen, with sales of 10,267 copies. It charted for 7 weeks, and was certified Gold by the RIAJ. The third single "Last Song" reached number five on the fourth counting week of November, with sales of 40,745 copies. In the upcoming two weeks, it was at number fifteen and twenty respectively, with sales of 12,116 and 10,029 copies. It charted for 13 weeks, and was certified Gold by RIAJ.

Track listing

Notes

* The song "Tsuki no Uta" was written as the ending theme song for anime television series ''

Texhnolyze ''Texhnolyze'' (stylized as ''TEXHNOLYZE'') is a Japanese experimental anime television series animated by Madhouse and directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, with screenplay by Chiaki J. Konaka, with original character design by Yoshitoshi ABe and pr ...

''. Throughout the liner notes, "TSUKI no UTA" is printed above the kanji for the song's title as

furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana or syllabic characters printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known ...

. * The song "Kimi ga Matteiru Kara" was used as the ending theme song for the first movie in the

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is a 1985 Japanese television anime series, the second installment in the ''Gundam'' franchise, and a sequel to the original ''Mobile Suit Gundam''. The show was created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, with character designs by Yoshikazu ...

trilogy ''Heirs to the Stars'', and was re-released as a B-side on Gackts single "

Metamorphoze is a single released by Gackt on May 25, 2005 under Nippon Crown. It peaked at second place on the Oricon weekly chart and charted for thirteen weeks. In 2005, it was the 62nd best selling single of the year, with sales of 156,709 copies, making ...

". * The song "Mind Forest" was used as the ending theme song for the second Zeta Gundam movie "''Lovers''". The "Mind Forest English ver." was re-recorded by Gackt for the

Yellow Fried Chickenz Yellow is the color between green and Orange (color), orange on the Visible spectrum, spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 Nanometre, nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, u ...

's European tour and was released on live album ''Attack Of The Yellow Fried Chickenz In Europe 2010'' in 2011, while the official YFC version which also featured vocalist Jon was included in single "The End Of The Day" in 2011 and studio album ''Yellow Fried Chickenz I'' in 2012. * The song "Dybbuk" was used as the second ending theme song for the third Zeta Gundam movie "''Love is the Pulse of the Stars''", and was re-released as a B-side on Gackts single "

Love Letter A love letter is an expression of love in written form. However delivered, the letter may be anything from a short and simple message of love to a lengthy explanation and description of feelings. History One of the oldest references to a lo ...

Album credits

; Personnel *

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

: Gackt *

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

: You *Guitar: Yukihiro “chachamaru” Fujimura *

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 ...

: Toshiyuki Sugino *Drums: Ryuichi Nishida *Guest Voice: Hyde (by the courtesy of Ki/oon Records Inc.) * Bass: Toshimi Nagai *Bass:

Ju-ken Ju-ken (born June 27, 1971 in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese session bassist. He was a support member of Gackt, The Wanderers and Anna Tsuchiya. He is one of the most in-demand bassists in Japan. Career Ju-ken started his ...

*Bass: Kolchi Terasawa *Bass: Jun *Violin,

Viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

: Gen Ittetsu *

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

: Masami Horisawa *

Contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

: Jun Salto *Keyboards & Orchestra arrangement: Shusei Tsukamoto ; Production *Producer: Gackt *Associate Produced: Yukihiro “chachamaru” Fujimura *Executive Producer: Shigenori Nishino (Nippon Crown), You Harada (Museum Museum) *Recorded & Mixed & Pro Tools Edited: Motonari Matsumoto *Assistant Engineer: Michinori Sato (Burnish), Yoshitaka Ishigaki (Burnish), Chie Miyasaka (Burnish), Mitsuru Shibamoto (Prime Sound Studio Form), Satoshi Sasamoto (Prime Sound Studio Form), Katsuyuki Abe (Pradise Studio), Akinori Kaizaki (Pradise Studio), Taro Kuroda (DLT Studio) *Recording Coordinator: Maki Iida (Burnish) *Mastering Engineer: Yoichi Aikawa (Rolling Sound Mastering Stuio) ; Design *Art direction, Design: Jun Misaki *Photographer: Kenji Tsukagoshi

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crescent (Gackt Album) 2003 albums Gackt albums