Unlike younger generation who usually manage their playlist on apps like “joox”, I still go with conventional offline way, adding new songs and deleting old ones manually from my phone. I usually mark some songs as favorite and only listen to those selected few in repeat when I’m in the mood. In this post, I want to share about some of my current favorite songs, and why I like them.
1. “11 Gatsu no Anklet” (November’s Anklet) – AKB48
Eversince Mayuyu announced her graduation, I’ve been waiting for her center song and hoping wholeheartedly that it will be a song that I can love. AKB singles I particularly like are usually election singles, like “Flying Get”, “Gingham Check” , and “Koisuru Fortune Cookie”.
I moderately liked newest election single #Sukinanda, but all singles released during 2016 until then were disappointments to me. I just can’t get into “Shoot Sign”, and what is even “High Tension”? I was ready to be resigned that AKB won’t release cheery, dreamy, idolish type of song that I like ever again, but I got a strong hope for Mayuyu graduation single.
And then a live performance of “11 Gatsu no Anklet” is published on youtube, and it was everything I could hope for!
The melody is nice, a bit Christmas-esque with the bells and perfectly suits the festive mood. The lyrics is about letting go of a loved one, with feeling of regret, but you won’t know that from the melody alone, since it sounds very much like a happy song. In that aspect it is similar to “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, where the music is holiday-season-appropriate but the lyrics is about missing someone.
I like the golden-ish festive costume, of which someone in fan forum said “Marie Antoinette style”. And I especially like the dance with the creative formations. At the chorus, the members line up to form a hallway through which Mayuyu walks, while they sort of taking a peek and making cute poses before she pass. Little shrugs, simple sway and coordinated steps from part to part make the routine overall very cute and suits the song’s atmosphere perfectly.
I was hoping that I would be able to see the dance routine more clearly in the PV, and was initially disappointed when the PV didn’t show anything like that. But now I’ve grown to like it, because as weird as it is, you do get to see something different from live performance. But I still think the first scene where several Mayuyu appeared bear an uncanny resemblance to a scene from horror movie “The Grudge” XD.
2. “Hono to Mori no Carnival” – Sekai no Owari
So yeah, my current jam is not always a newly released song. This song was released in 2014. I just found it now, along with the artist who sing them, “Sekai no Owari”, but better late than never, right?
At first, I was attracted to this song because the melody is catchy, but as per usual, I love it even more after I’m able to discern the lyrics.
It was about a guy who take the girl he likes to a carnival inside an amusement park, where a wizard told him to keep his love a secret. It is very fairy tale-ish, but at the same time not, because when we’re in love everything becomes a little bit rose-tinted. So everything could be just the guy’s imagination because he was afraid to tell the girl how he truly feels about her.
It ends very romantically because instead of saying anything, the guy just kissed the girl and held her hand tightly, intending to never let go.
Love,love,love that part!
Other “Sekai no Owari” songs I also enjoy are “Snow Magic Fantasy” and “RPG” . The group apparently hasn’t released that many singles, and nothing since 2015 until now. I hope they will release something new in near future and I’ll certainly check it out!
3. “Gomennasai no Kissing You” – E-girls
Talk about finding out something late, I am really late in finding “E-girls” charm. I knew that they are sort of sister group to “Exile”, but that was it.
More recently, I found their version of “Odoru Ponpokorin”, which is a nostalgic song for me because I couldn’t count how many times I danced bon odori to it in Japan culture festival. Bon odori time is always my favorite part of any Japan festivals.
E-girls’ version is more modern, just as energetic but with a splash of youthful cheeriness. Since I like their “Odoru Pon” so much, I decided to check their other singles and got really hooked to their break out 2013 single, “Gomennasai no Kissing You”.
And wow! I’ve noticed that their dance is realy sharp before, but “Gomennasai” opened my eyes that these girls can REALLY dance.
Their movements are just reeeea-ly powerful and precise, their routine is complicated but they make it looks so easy.
I learned that E-girls consist of “singers” and “dancers”. The dancers basically just dance the whole time, while the singers dance less or minimally when it’s time for them to sing.
But even so, it amazes me so much how steady the singers’ voice are even in live performance. This is not to say that the dancers are less amazing, because singers and dancers both make up E-girls’ brilliant performance.
Other E-girls’ songs I enjoy are the above “Follow Me” and “Diamond Only”, my typical inspiring, motivational songs. Unfortunately, the girls have changed their music direction since, and two of three main vocalists in “Gomennasai” have even graduated to focus on solo /other activity.
4. “One More Thing” – Tohoshinki
I became a Tohoshinki fan from their more upbeat release, “Maximum”. But they also have some gems among their slower songs. For example, “One More Thing”, which is also a soundtrack for a Japanese drama starring Sawajiri Erika, “L et M”.
I don’t know what makes me especially like “One More Thing”, maybe purely because of the melody and the great instrumental work. The lyrics itself is a classically cheesy love song. I don’t dislike it, but I can’t say I appreciate it greatly either.
Funnily enough, for someone who generally do NOT like sad songs, I also like the A-side of “One More Thing”; “Still”, which is a song about lovers separation. If I’m feeling melancholic, I’d listen to “Still”. But I guess I’m lucky that I can listen to “Still” without feeling too affected, since I never experienced a romantic heartbreak in similar fashion.
Tohoshinki will release a new single “Reboot” on 20 December, and I’m still on the fence about it.
Hopefully the song will grow on me later, just like “Catch Me”, which was meh at first but then became one of longest staples on my playlist.
5. “Remember Me” – Miguel feat Natalia Lafourcade
But Flo, you just said you DON’T like sad songs, you might say.
That’s right, I don’t. I really don’t. But this song left quite an impression on me.
So I watched Disney-Pixar newest movie “Coco”, and the reviews actually already give some warnings that it is a sad movie. Just as I don’t like to listen to sad songs, I also refuse to watch sad movies or movies with dark themes, such as war, and to some extend, horror movies. That is because I want movies to only be my happy place.
If the movies are dark themed, they have to be set in fantasy world, far removed away from reality for me to be able to stomach it. Since “Coco” is an animation, I thought I would be just fine.
Turned out, I wasn’t fine at all.
In the movie, Mama Coco is senile and she can’t even recognize her own family, including her daughter Mama Elena. She asked “who are you?” when Mama Elena took care of her. But Mama Elena took no mind of it, probably because she’s just used to that condition.
But in the end, Miguel singing “Remember Me” to her made her gained mind clarity for a while, and when she looked Mama Elena, she called her possibly because she looked so sad, “Elena, what’s wrong chica?” (or at least that’s what I could catch).
And I remember, remember, remember, when my mum’s cancer already spread to her brain and she couldn’t recognize me sometimes. I would wipe her face or change her clothes, crying silently and think about all the things I wish I’d done sooner.
I wish I took better care of her when she was healthy. I wish I wasn’t so focused on my study, or my self. Because screw good grades. I wish I helped her more often with house chores, and listen to her more.
And one time the fog on her head seemed to clear for a bit, and she looked at me, and she said exactly those words. “What’s wrong, baby? Why are you crying? Don’t cry.”
After she’s gone, I always tell my self she’s now in the better place, far happier than I could ever make her. But now and then, I would remember that time in the hospital and that always brings me immeasurable sadness.
So I cried my eyes out, shaking silently in my seat for last 30 minutes, thinking “Damnit, I didn’t sign up for this!”
My sister said I look so weird in the picture we took after the movie finished.
I want to tell her that, my face looked weird because I just drained at least a year worth of tears and snots.
For comparison, this pic is taken before we watch the movie. I looked happy wahaha. Little did I know that soon be changed in just few hours.
For “Coco” the movie as a whole, I suppose the plot has been built up from the very beginning, but it took long enough for the twist to be unveiled. Whether the story progressed interestingly enough to hold your attention until then, I guess that depends on individual taste. Admittedly, I have such a high expectation for this movie, though it was kind of unfair because the expectation comes from “Book of Life”, which turned out to have no relation whatsoever to “Coco”.
And this might not stand out because this is an animation movie, but isn’t the villain is one of the worst kind? He wasn’t only like cheater or thief because a circumstance, but he did what he did very deliberately, and even appeared to have no hesitation in repeating the deed, to an underage child to boot.
“Coco” score: 7 out of 10.
So, that was it for this week.
I hope you enjoy this post. Is there any songs that catch your attention? How often do you change your playlist? Do you have any song/movie recommendation? Tell me all about it!
See you soon!
peachflowerblooming 