FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE "LAREINE"?
Actually, not that many people ask this. But they should. The name is based on the French words "la reine", which means "the queen".
In Japanese, it's pronounced "RAREENU". If that doesn't make any sense to you because you're not familiar with the katakana system, try...
"LA REN". As in "Ren and Stimpy", not "rain". This is a fine approximation of the French pronunciation for English-speakers.
WHAT'S THIS ABOUT A STORY?
Many Lareine releases are concept ones and tell an ongoing story. The story began with the CD photo-storybook release Lillie Charlotte. That release introduced the star-crossed lovers Jeremie Florence de Jarger and Lillie Charlotte. The story continued with the release of "Chantons l'amour", which came with 2 letters from Lillie to her present-day incarnation. (Letter 1, Letter 2) The album "fierte no umi to tomo ni kiyu" tells the story of the lovers in the present, as the conflicted characters "Asphodel" and "Justicia". Asphodel is forced to make a choice at the end, and the lyrics of "Chou no Hana" are written from his perspective afterwards.
I'M A NEW FAN, WHICH CD SHOULD I BUY FIRST?
disclaimer: the following is just inertia's opinion, and I love all the CDs...
I'd recommend "fierte no umi to tomo ni kiyu ~the last of romance~". This is the only full-length major-label CD they released with all 4 members. It contains all their major-label singles and c/w songs released before the 3 left, with the exception of "Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru". It's a concept album and tells the story of the modern incarnations of Jeremie and Lillie, the characters from the EP "Lillie Charlotte". As far as the sound goes, it has a lot of different styles... there are some rock songs, some pop songs, some instrumentals... there's a lot of variety.
"Blue Romance" is Lareine's only full-length indies album. It's very good and more unified in sound than "fierte", but the production quality isn't as high and because it was released on their own label, it's harder to find. I think all Lareine fans should have it, but maybe not as their first purchase.
"SCREAM" is technically a Lareine CD, but actually it's more like Kamijo's solo album. It was made after Mayu, Emiru, and Machi left the band. Due to a different arrangement style, it has a harder rock sound than any of Lareine's previous work. If you like Kamijo's songwriting (and he wrote maybe 60% of Lareine's music), you're sure to like this CD. But if the thing you like best about Lareine's sound is Mayu's intricate guitar playing, you might be a little disappointed.
But of course, if there's a particular song that you love, buy the CD which contains that song and never mind what I say...
AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT FLOWERS?
Obviously there's a song called "Fleur" (French for "flower"), which is also the name of the fan club. More than that, flowers are very symbolic in the world of Lareine.
Each member of the band is symbolized by a flower.
Kamijo: blue rose
Mayu: purple lily
Emiru: pink daisy
Kazumi: bird of paradise
Machi: red rose
The red rose can also symbolize love/romance in its usual way.
Fans carry these flowers to concerts to show support for their favorite members. As the fans hold the flowers in the air during the concert, you can see that the flowers represent them as well. In some of the lyrics, such as those of "fiancailles", the flower metaphor is used as a way of symbolizing the fans. "Hanatachi" (flowers) specifically refers to Lareine fans, as the "~tachi" ending not only makes it plural but anthropomorphizes the object.
There's also the flower symbolism of the album "fierte no umi to tomo ni kiyu", which you can find out more about on the Language of Flowers page.