Buck-Tick Zone

Original Titles in Japanese

Aku No Hana

Titles Translated

Aku No Hana - "The Flowers of Evil". This is the title for both a Buck-Tick song and album. The title comes from "Les Fleurs du Mal" by Charles Baudelaire, a favorite poet of Atsushi. In the remix album Shapeless, the title is translated as "Evil Flowers" but most translations of Baudelaire phrase it as "The Flowers of Evil" so that is what I prefer.

Notes

Ranked #1 on the singles chart. 220,000 copies sold. This is Buck-Tick's most successful single to date.

The title track is from the album Aku No Hana.

This is Buck-Tick's first #1 single.

A highly anticipated single by the fans; a writer at the time called it the epitome of Buck-Tick songs.

The cover artwork's intention was to resemble Japan in the 1920s.

The cover artwork for "Aku No Hana" single and album were essentially the same. It could be because they are of the same title and it is the only album where the song of the same name was made a single. Or they liked it a lot. Or they were lazy. You decide.

Per usual, the single mix is different than the album mix. Though supposedly, the only difference is that the single version of "Aku No Hana" has the keyboards omitted.

The title "Aku No Hana" comes from the book of poetry by Frenchman Charles Baudelaire (of whom Atsushi is a great admirer) of the same name ("Les Fleurs du Mal" or in English, "The Flowers of Evil").

The b-side lyrics were written by bassist Yutaka "U-ta" Higuchi and it is his only writing contribution to the band. Originally the song was going to be on the album for a total of 11 songs but they decided to reduce the album to 10 songs and put "Under the Moon Light" as the b-side.

The promo vinyl 7" is the last single put onto vinyl 7" by the band.

The music video was directed by Wataru Hayashi. Out of all the video directors that Buck-Tick has worked with, Wataru has worked with the band the most.

Promo Vinyl Images

front

label, Side A

label, Side B

Music Video Stills

Aku No Hana, directed by Wataru Hayashi