Wiki
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Release Date
1 June 1991
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Length
10 tracks
Jealousy is the third studio album by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan, then known as simply X. The album was released on July 1, 1991, by Sony, as the band's second major label release. Jealousy is the band's best-selling album, having sold more than one million copies, it topped the Oricon chart and stayed on the chart for 50 weeks. The album's singles would also reach the top three on the chart. It is their last album under the name "X", before changing to "X Japan", and the last to feature Taiji on bass, who would be replaced by Heath.
After releasing their second album Blue Blood in 1989, which reached number six on the Oricon chart and charted for more than 100 weeks, selling over half of a million copies, X Japan received the "Grand Prix New Artist of the Year" award at the 4th Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1990. Sony told the band they could go anywhere they wanted, so Yoshiki visited Paris and London, while the other members chose Los Angeles. When deciding where to record their next album, Yoshiki was outvoted.
X left Japan on November 24, 1990, to begin recording Jealousy in Los Angeles. When members arrived back in their home country in June, 500 members of the Japan Self-Defence Forces were at the airport to control the crowd. The album was released in July 1991 and debuted at number one, selling over 600,000 copies. On August 24, the band performed their first concert at Japan's largest indoor concert venue, the Tokyo Dome. This was part of the Violence in Jealousy Tour which lasted to the end of the year, when once again Yoshiki collapsed, this time after the October 24 Yokohama Arena gig. The X with Orchestra concert at NHK Hall on December 8, saw the band perform backed by an orchestra.
The band began 1992 with sold-out concerts at the Tokyo Dome on January 5–7, titled Tokyo Dome 3 Days: On the Verge of Destruction. Just days later, on January 31, it was announced that bassist Taiji had left the group. On August 24, 1992, X held a press conference in New York at Rockefeller Center, where Heath was announced as their new bassist. Around this time, the band's success in Japan made an international breakthrough appear likely, leading to an American record contract with Atlantic Records and the renaming of the band from X to X Japan, in order to distinguish from the American punk group X. (An American album release would never happen). Their first show with Heath was at the October 1992 Extasy Summit at Osaka-jō Hall
Jealousy is X Japan's most diverse in terms of songwriting credits. Besides Yoshiki who composed and wrote four songs, hide composed and wrote the lyrics for "Miscast", "Love Replica" and "Joker", Taiji composed two songs, "Desperate Angel" and "Voiceless Screaming", for which Toshi wrote the lyrics, while Pata contributed his only song in the band's catalogue (excluding Dahlia's "Wriggle" which he wrote with Heath). "Voiceless Screaming" was written during a period when Yoshiki's health condition worsened and they needed more songs. The lyrics express Toshi's feelings about the previous loss of his voice.
The song structure of "Silent Jealousy" is comparable to "Kurenai", opening with a calm intro, performed on a single instrument, followed by a speed metal composition with symphonic elements. It also includes a short excerpt of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" during the piano-driven bridge. The album's only other speed metal tune "Stab Me in the Back", is one of X's oldest songs, having been written mostly in English with a few Japanese lines in 1986. An entirely English version was first recorded for the 1987 Victor Records sampler Skull Thrash Zone Volume I, which was the band's first material with guitarist Pata. This album version's lyrics were rewritten once again.
"Silent Jealousy" served as wrestler Chris Jericho's one night entrance song for his return to Japan.
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