Category: music video

Bonjour Suzuki and Others

Posted on by NieA_78
“Whiteout” performed by Riko Azuna

I’ve left this blog idle for far too long, so it’s time to get things going again, and what better way than with one of my new favorite songs?

“Whiteout” is the ending theme to the Boogiepop and Others anime series from 2018. It’s written by Bonjour Suzuki, who I know from her theme song for Yurikuma Arashi. Suzuki does not perform “Whiteout”, however. The singer is Riko Azuna, who I did not know about until this song. Between Suzuki’s melodies and Azuna’s voice, to me this sounds like it could have been a Kate Bush song! Azuna sings in a register very similar to Bush, and her inflections are even similar, despite being in another language.

It’s a great piece of music, and one of my newest favorite songs. And as a bonus, the music video has a long take in it… one of my favorite cinematographic techniques!

Clearly

Posted on by NieA_78

This song – an adapted cover of “I Can See Clearly Now” – was the ending credits song for the animated film Next Gen. I liked this version of the song when I heard it, and was impressed by the vocal ability of the singer, especially during the chorus which has a powerful delivery. I had no idea who Grace VanderWaal was, let alone that she was only fourteen years old when the song was recorded in 2018! I’ve since heard most of her work to date and have become a fan.

Clearly a good movie about a girl and her robot

[ Song of the Week ] Imagine Dragons – “Birds”

Posted on by NieA_78
from the album Origins (2018)

So, like… I’m not even an Imagine Dragons fan. I’ve heard a few of their songs, and they make for some decent casual listening, but it’s not like they’re going to be my new favorite band or anything.

One day last week, I happened to randomly see this music video on a free TV streaming service which had just recently debuted a music video channel. I was curious so tuned in to see what they were playing, and after about ten minutes, this video began. It was animated, so that made me pause to take notice right away. And then I quickly got caught up in the story the film was telling, and thought it was really good. It didn’t quite have the gravity of, say, a Jess Cope film, but this short animated story was compelling and moving nonetheless.

On a side note, I wasn’t paying much attention to the actual lyrics in the song and how they might work with the images, but I rarely pay attention to the lyrics of any song until long after I’ve gotten familiar with it musically. So I don’t even know what the words to this song are. All I know is that the story the images were telling was enough to keep my interest, and the music seemed to fit.

[ Song of the Week ] Steven Wilson – “Remainder the Black Dog”

Posted on by NieA_78
from the album Grace for Drowning (2011)

The “companion” to my Song of the Week last week. Steve Hackett provides guitar on this amazing track from Steven Wilson’s second solo album. Lasse Hoile gives the song a visual element in his traditional dark and surreal style.

Who am I kidding? The video is nightmare fuel. You have been warned. šŸ™‚

[ Song of the Week ] Prince & The New Power Generation – “7”

Posted on by NieA_78
from the album undefined (1992)

I was listening to this song again recently, and I remembered how much I liked it. This was a fairly popular song back when it was released, but over time, it seems that most people forgot that Prince released anything after 1989, and there was still some good stuff to be found in those years.