Posted on 27-03-2016
Ongaku Box: Spring Playlists by Yuki & Linda
Spring has come and Yuki with Linda present you springtime playlists! The songs which were chosen, refer as much to sakura as to the students’ feelings, who are either graduating or getting ready for the next grade at this time of the year. We encourage you to live this amazing season intensely and accompany all your favourite moments with the equivalent song!
Linda suggests:
- HITT - Sakura Romance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT8OGyXmYZA
A wonderful, spring love song offered to us by the amazing HITT. It is about forbidden love, lust and the artist’s desire to “place” his flowers, sakura flowers to be precise, onto his lover’s heart. A not-so-famous song, with powerful lyrics nonetheless, about the power of love and the salvation it offers; a song that shouldn’t be missing from anyone’s playlist.
- Gackt - Sakura Chiru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2emDPhUIJu8
Spring, the season of love, something which Gackt perfectly describes in his amazing song “Sakura Chiru”. By touching the sakura blossoms, the symbolism of beauty and love, the artist remembers his loved one and surrenders himself to the pain he feels, for they are no longer near him, and the hope that one day he will see them again! A pure and loved song that makes us want to go flower watching with our loved ones too.
- Kagrra - Sakura Zukiyo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Ij1OE432U
The memories of the past nest in our hearts the same way the sakura petals fall gracefully on the water, according to Kagrra. The sweet scent of spring brings back things from the past, which leave us with a bitter taste that comes and goes throughout the years. Isshi expresses with his melodic voice the reminiscing over the happy moments we’ve lived and the fact that we can’t return to them.
- A -Anonymous Confederate Ensemble ( ACE) - SAKURA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BSNzKx9tk0
Another exceptional picture about love during spring, given to us by ACE. How lovely it would really be if the time would stop while we’re dancing below the cherry trees with our loved one, before everything is lost. “Sakura” is a melancholic yet erotic song which shows the darkness of reality and the magic of love that’s trying to withstand the difficulties. The present is everything, because as Nimo says: “your life won’t wait for spring to come”.
- Kiryu - Shi Gou Mi Sakura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHRrz0JTAPM
Here comes “Shi Gou Mi Sakura” by Kiryu, the lords of the dark, known for their macabre songs. A creation with a dark content that portrays the hard separation; all the lies, the empty promises and the ...wrong moves come to a hurt soul’s mind as the sakura petals knock on the window. That moment when spring is just a season, when the innocence of the flowers leads you to the opposite outcomes. “Shi Gou Mi Sakura” ladies and gentlemen. Where the darkness meets the beauty.
Yuki suggests:
- An Cafe – Cherry Saku Yuuki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJCsACeWVWs
A simple song that bears a clear message: during the season in which cherry trees bloom, many things end and begin. As seen in the video, this is a about a song dedicated to students, a song that promises to take you back to your school years or mentally prepare you for your future. The childish “immaturity”, the sadness caused by separation, the different path each person follows are presented in a fairytale-like manner. The comparison of the graduates’ new life with a “flight”, a simile that combines travelling and the feeling of owning the world, seems to play a key role.
- Alice Nine – Shunkashuutou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czNtvo55JN8
“Shunkashuutou”, or “4 seasons” in English. Although this song isn’t solely dedicated to spring lyrically, one could say that it hints to the way the seasons affect the students’ mental condition. Each part ends with a simile: just like before, the strength that the students have acquired and everything they will need for the path they want to follow are presented as a flight, as “wings for tomorrow”.
- Aicle – Shunkashuutou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ebDxAdwVG4
One of my favoure oshare kei bands. I couldn’t possible fit everything the lyrics mean to me within a few lines. The well-known concern of many teenagers is presented so poetically: “Spring turns into summer, the flower buds bloom into flowers. What will I become? In which textbook, in which reference book is my future mentioned?”. This is only a small part of the narrator’s inner monologue, who’s seeing signs that the time is passing, that he’s slowly becoming an adult typically, without really knowing whether he’s prepared for this or to face his dreams and his fears.
- Scandal – Harukaze
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na1nNsYX9ro
And some spring romance, because we shouldn’t forget that spring boosts sensuality and the mood to begin, re-live or reminisce about a romantic idyll. Even though this specific song describes a breakup and the narrator seems quite sad and confused, in my opinion the end of a relationship comes with such strong feelings that it’s difficult for somebody to deny their deeper, actual beauty. These experiences make us strong, because they provide us with self-awareness and motivation to find what’s better for us, whatever that might be.
We’re finishing off this article-spring tribute with a song that represents Japan ultimately. A classic, traditional composition and the respective outstanding performance bring forth a more grandiose side of spring.
We wish you all to enjoy listening to these tracks!
Yuki & Linda, radio producers.
