Just A Moment is Ling Tosite Sigure’s third effort in the musical scene, signing to Sony Records they changed their style up drastically. Though, surprisingly, it wasn’t a bad change; this album sprouted their first ever single: Telecastic fake show, a powerful post hardcore song with rolling drums and high pitched wails. It included two b-sides that sadly only remain b-sides, they’re album worthy and are two of the better LTS tracks of all time. The album’s overall vibe is sadistic, a chaotic tornado of sound that resonates on a personal level. Toru Kitajima pushes his vocal chords to the brink with prolonged wails and screams popping up occasionally. JAM is also arguably LTS’s most technical work with an emphasis on fuzzy warm bass, and overdriven guitars, reverb and tremolo pop up all over the album; mainly during the many solos and powerful bridges. Though it isn’t as noisy as their previous two albums and EP, it makes up for it with chord progressions and odd drumming patterns.The first song is named Hakaiyo no Yume, roughly translated to “The dream of [...]” and is one of the better tracks. Hakaiyo no Yume starts off with a simple yet effective riff that sounds very weak at first listen but grows in size at the second. The song is mainly minimal when it comes to verses but it compliments when the chorus hits you like a speeding train. The song highlights the bassist, 345 and her impressive bass lines and soothing vocals as well as TK’s loud throat shredding screams. The lyrical theme, like all of TK’s words; is extremely hazy. Blasphemy and the loss of innocence seems to come up throughout the song, wishing to turn back time asking “God are you there?” The main character has seemed to lose someone due to their own failure, they want to be recognised again by the victim but they can’t. The song also includes an odd little bridge, similar to a breakdown. The said “breakdown” comprises of an odd little blast beat. It’s not as fast as your standard blast beat and you can hear the drummer Pierre Nakano struggle to keep up with the guitars. Overall the song is a great tune and it’s one of the most played on the album for me.The next song Hysteric phase show, is pretty much the sister track to Hakaiyo no Yume, with similar structure and emphasis on 345. It’s weak compared to the opening track but does have a really nice chorus and a fuzzy bass introduction that drills into your head. The band can never really get enough praise for their work on this album. All of the songs are strong. False illusions, phases, fake “shows” appear in many of TK’s writing, on top of that, musical terms such as arpeggios add to the mystery of his songs. This is no exception, for the life of me I can’t understand this song. Tremolo + A is the third track album and one of the only acoustic songs done by LTS, the other being eF on their fourth album “still a Sigure virgin?” the song is snare and guitar heavy while the bass takes a back seat. It’s TK’s time to shine and he does really shine. The acoustic guitar is fast and fluid, the strings reverberating across the neck of the guitar. The song is chaotic yet brings a feeling of calmness and bliss, you feel free for once listening to this track. Due to the lack of translation for this track, it’s hard to make out the song meaning, though it seems similar to Hakaiyo no Yume, where it speaks about wanting to be remembered. JPOP Xfile is the most straight-forward radio friendly tracks on the album, the chorus is fast and the fluidity is nice. TK and 345 quickly and efficiently trade off vocals, almost like like a group of protesters shouting at the industry, which is basically what the song is. Its a call for change in the music industry, LTS looks to change it with their chaotic sound, (As pretentious as it sounds). The sister track, A 7-days wonder, doesn’t really have much for it, it’s danceable yes, but it lacks in substance. 7DW could have so much for it if it was more layered.The next song on the album is the only instrumental Sigure track to this date, hilariously named “a over die” is mediocre at best. The track had plenty of potential to push the limits of everybody, the main disappointment is the solo, it almost gets there for me but quickly falls short when the strings don’t practically break on TK. A over die’s hook is also abhorrent, and quickly gets stuck in your head. Personally this is the only real song that I gloss over. Yes the song gets better as the minutes go by but its not truly at LTS’s best. Telecastic fake show comes back around as the next track, it opens with an odd sweep and rolls into TK sprouting about betrayal once more, he blames somebody for creating a false image of themself. The drums on this track are really interesting and I never really seen anything like this track. No they’re not Tool level experimental but they’re very strong in the experimental department. Drum rolls fill the chorus with an abuse of the crash cymbals. Along with the chaotic drums, the guitar and bass are in a power struggle, both TK and Miyoko Nakamura (345) are playing at their best in this song. Now comes the second act of the album, which as a darker, more shoegaze aesthetic. Seacret cm (yes that’s how it’s spelled) starts off with haunting reverb and TK’s quiet whispers. He asks the listener desperately to see something in the darkness of the coastline. He claims to melt the night for you to forget all your struggles. To go far away. “Find someone” is spoken and the chorus hits, it gets you lost in the almost vivid imagery of what he speaks. You look up to see someone shouting “find out” and the song continues the chorus. TK tells someone to look up, to make the world disappear. The instrumentals are almost perfect besides one thing, the guitars. To put it into simple words--they don’t sound loud enough. Other than that, it’s one of the best songs on the album. Up next comes the second single for the album, named “moment A rhythm.” The single version is around sixteen minutes long but is shortened to around seven for the album. Nothing is inherently changed with the album version besides a fade out. Which, technically, is the ending of the actual song. After the seven minute mark is mainly ambient guitar plucking and small whispers in the distance. The sound is nice to sleep to but feels tacked on. The bulk of the song is powerful though, TK shows his strong suits in this track with a freestyle solo as usual, the guitar pierces the ears of many and may or may not be the cause of my tinnitus. The chorus it self is minimal vocally, the mellow singing of TK compliments the slow but powerful instrumental. It holds a banquet of emotions and speaks once more about betrayal of some kind, or something much worse: murder. Surprisingly a taboo subject for the band. The song references twelve centimeters constantly in different contexts. The largest one is the fact that the main character stabbed the victim every twelve centimeters. This is one of the, if not the best song on the album. The final song on the album is oddly named, mib 126. A hybrid of two songs in the tracklist, maybe more. The most apparent two are Telecastic fake show and moment A rhythm. Capturing the mellow verses of mAm and the screaming of Telecastic fake show. Contradicting my statement from earlier, this has to be the best song on the album. The bass is a main part of this song, keeping a groove through the verses to make them not boring. And when the chorus hits, it's an explosion of emotion. The guitars are reverb heavy and the drums are full of power, another blast beat-ish. Just A Moment isn’t an average run of the mill Post-Hardcore album, it's something much more. It may not be as noisy as Inspiration is DEAD or as passionate as #4 but it still holds a special place in Sigure’s discography. It’s one of, if not the best LTS album out there. I rate this album a 9.5/10, Just A Moment is so close to perfection but falls short on minute details. Hopefully, their sixth studio album oddly called “#5” will finally take the reign as the best Ling Tosite Sigure album. The numbered series is iconic for the group so naming it that is a pretty bold move on Sigure’s part.Members of Ling Tosite Sigure:Toru Kitajima “TK” -- Vocals, GuitarMiyoko Nakamura “345” -- Vocals, BassMatoshi Nakano “Pierre Nakano” -- DrumsWriters:Norman Dotti