Roentgen Stories

Released November 13, 2004 by Ki/oon Records and Haunted Records.

ROENTGEN STORIES is a DVD collective of four music videos (Promotional video: PV) by popular Japanese rock vocalist HYDE. It features the PVs of the three singles and additional bonus music video. All songs are from his first solo album, ROENTGEN.

:1. EVERGREEN:2. ANGEL'S TALE:3. SHALLOW SLEEP:4. SECRET LETTERS

The order the videos are arranged on the DVD are coincidentally the order in which they were released.

The videos are meant to be watched in a series, so that the four together tell a story, with prevailing themes of life and death and the mingling of the two. The sweeping ballads of ROENTGEN mask a much more solemn message.

An interesting note is that the cover of the EVERGREEN single features one rose. ANGEL'S TALE features two tulips. Continuing in this pattern, SHALLOW SLEEP, the third single released should have three flowers, in its case, lilies. However, the single's cover clearly depicts four flowers.

Two theories are possible:

:1. Lilies are a classic symbol of death. The number 'four' (四; shi) is a Japanese homonym of death (死; shi.) :2. ROENTGEN STORIES features not only the trilogy of singles, but also a music video for another ROENTGEN song, SECRET LETTERS. Perhaps SECRET LETTERS was the "lost" third single.

The first theory is more likely, though, due to the arrangement of the videos on the DVD and the progression of the story told through them.

Singles Featured

*(2001.10.17) "Evergreen"
*(2001.12.12) "Angel's Tale"
*(2002.02.27) "Shallow Sleep"

Related Albums

*(2002.03.27) "Roentgen"
*(2002.07.10) "Roentgen Overseas Version" (English)
*(2004.10.14) "roentgen.ENGLISH"

External links

* [http://www.hyde.com HYDEIST (official site)]
* [http://www.haunted-records.com HAUNTED RECORDS (record label)]
* [http://www.larc-en-ciel.com/ L'Arc~en~Ciel (Official Site)]
* [http://www.tofurecords.com/artists.php?artistid=hyde TOFU RECORDS (artist page)]
*imdb name|id=1046946|name=Hideto Takarai