Style (Luna Sea album)

Style is the fifth studio album by Japanese rock band Luna Sea, released on April 22, 1996. It was the band's last on the record label MCA Victor, became their first number one on the Oricon Albums Chart, and charted for 21 weeks. In 1996, it 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
Style was supported with Luna Sea embarking on the sold out Un Ending Style tour, which opened with two consecutive concerts at Yokohama Arena and continued for 16 concerts in nine locations, and mobilized an audience of over one hundred thousand people. It was continued in October with the Un Ending Style ~To Rise~ tour, 28 concerts in smaller venues, and ended with a Christmas concert on December 23, titled Christmas Stadium ~Mafuyu no Yagai~ (Christmas STADIUM 〜真冬の野外〜), at the outdoor Yokohama Stadium. During the concert it was announced that the band would have a temporary year break in 1997 for each member to pursue solo careers

The single versions of "End of Sorrow" and "Luv U" (b-side of "Desire") are slightly different from the album's.

"G." was used as the theme song of the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans.

"End of Sorrow" was covered by Yu-Ki & DJ Koo of TRF for the 2007 Luna Sea Memorial Cover Album -Re:birth-.

"In Silence" features singer Akino Arai during the chorus. It was used as the theme song for season one of the Japanese dub of the American television drama Chicago Hope.

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 "End of Sorrow", "Desire" and "In Silence". This version reached number 218 on the Oricon chart.

Style 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.

Reception
Style became Luna Sea's first number one on the Oricon Albums Chart, and charted for 21 weeks. In 1996, it was certified Platinum by the RIAJ for sales over 400,000.

Personnel

 * Luna Sea
 * Ryuichi – vocals
 * Sugizo – guitar, violin
 * Inoran – guitar
 * J – bass
 * Shinya – drums


 * Other
 * Akino Arai – chorus
 * Yukiko Sakanoue – female voice
 * Shinozaki Group – strings
 * Daisuke Kikuchi – programming, synthesizer, strings arrangement

2023 re-recording
In 2023, Luna Sea re-recorded the entirety of Style and Mother (1994) 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. 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. 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. Pleased with the work he did producing their 2019 album Cross, Luna Sea asked Steve Lillywhite to mix the re-recorded albums.