The Klock single, plus the AA= live album

This single, the only physical CD single from AA=, is interesting in that it also functions as a live album from the #3 tour. There is a live DVD from this tour, but not an actual album to the best of my knowledge beyond this one. The only odd part is that, much like Daft Punk's Alive 1997, the entire live portion is presented as one continuous track. However, I haven't had the time to go through the entire track, and I'm not normally one for live albums (I don't even have a copy of 020120, for example) as it is.

The studio portion of this single is still interesting to have, even if you aren't a collector of live albums. The single version of The Klock is different than the "New Recording" version that would eventually show up on #4, yes, but not by too much. There's also a remix of Lasts from what would end up being the same album, but I don't know if that recording was eventually changed from whatever the original version was as well.

The studio tracklisting is as follows:

1. The Klock

2. Lasts (Your Rhythm Mix)

The live tracklisting, all part of one hour-long track, is as follows:

1. #3 Intro

2. Working Class

3. Distortion

4. Posi-Jumper

5. Step Code

6. Dry Your Tears

7. Colors

8. Greed...

9. meVIR

10. Loser

11. Roots

12. I Hate Human

13. People Power

14. Dreamer

15. We're Not Alone (AA= Ver.)

The artwork for this single is also very nice. Forgive me for my bad attempt at photographing the entire folded out "poster" that the liner notes booklet, but it really does look a lot better than this up close. The obi also has an ad for #3 on the back, as well as functioning as an extension of the excellent artwork already on display otherwise.

AA= #4

This is one of the odder releases, period, that I've ever seen through a major label. AA='s fourth studio album, for some reason that I can't comprehend, was split into two albums which came out only a couple weeks after one another, each with only seven tracks comprising about 20 minutes of material per disc. Perhaps it was a move to get the fans a little more involved in picking up the album? To making more money? I don't know. But in any case, it's a "split album", and I have both parts.

The packaging of the two albums is pretty interesting, actually, particularly the second half's. Whereas # just comes in a normal jewel case with all the bells and whistles typical of Japanese CD releases, 4 is packaged in a liner notes booklet. Seriously. It's a liner notes booklet in a small mylar, with a cel of the album artwork in front of the blank white cover, as the CD itself sits inside the booklet in an LP-esque plastic disc protector. # is actually a 2-disc CD case with an empty spot in the back for the 4 disc, and the cel with 4's artwork is meant to go in front of #'s cover. (Scroll down all the way to the bottom of this article for the result.)

There are a couple disadvantages to this packaging, unfortunately, those being:

• The mylar and disc protector for 4 become absolutely disposable once you combine # and 4 into their intended shape. Personally, I just keep the remains next to it in my stash of Mad stuff, but I can imagine other people thinking it sucks that there's disposable unique packaging with it.
• When you do combine them, there's still the obi that only recognizes #. On the other spine is another #, and underneath the obi it only says 4 for some reason. If the obi had just said #4, that would have been alright.

Granted, those are nitpicks, but it's still odd that the packaging doesn't totally gel together.

In any case, the material here is really solid. It's a little poppier than #3, and the songs are a lot shorter than most of their prior material. The short length of the material, considering you have to buy both halves of the split album separately, may scare some people off, but that doesn't make it not worth buying or anything. It's also odd that the music videos of the material are shortened even further for YouTube... splitting it in half to make people go for the tour DVD? I dunno. I don't have that one, either, nor do I have any of AA='s other tour DVDs.

The combined tracklisting of #4 is as follows:

#

1. Drone

2. WARWARWAR (# Mix)

3. Viciousness

4. Will

5. Distrap

6. PRG

7. Kilroy Was Here

4

8. HUMANITY2 (4 Mix)

9. ||:Repeat:||

10. The Jam

11. Path Of The Arrow

12. Lasts

13. The Klock (New Recording)

14. Endroll

NOTE: There was a recently released official #4 compilation that seems to combine the two albums into one disc. "I'll just get that!" you might say, but don't. From the look of the official #4's tracklisting, it omits two tracks from the separate versions: PRG from # and Endroll from 4. There's absolutely no reason to, either; it's not like they're interludes or anything, they're full songs! Just get these two and combine them, the extra tracks will make it worth it.