(iTunes top 25 updated!)
As you may notice, I just said something, namely that the list is updated. I decided not to change the date on the link every time cause it's more trouble than it's worth. So I'll just say when it happens. Like now. Also, all the old images remain
here for fun comparisons.
So in looking over this list, I am thinking about how I like music. And in large, it's in small parts. That is to say, I get addicted to very specific sections of music, often not more than a second or two. Let's look at the list, shall we? At #1 we have
Lively Motion, a song which, like so many others, has bizarrely been residing on my computer for years, practically unlistened to until I happened to begin watching the show it's from. Actually, it's not quite even that. As of its rise to #1, I hadn't actually ever seen it in use as the ending to J -> X, since I was much earlier in the series. But being only one of a few of the (way, way too many) themes I could find before finding the real CD for sale, it got onto my playlist for the show.
Yet as a song, it really isn't anything special. Even the body of the chorus, normally my favorite part of most songs, being rather simple-minded and dull I guess, isn't that great. But there was a single line at two points in it that got it where it is today. Actually, in the beginning, it was a single word, ja nai ("not"). If I had a list of favorite Japanese words, this one is up there, largely due to how many ways I hear it pronounced in music - always fun to think about, since in plainly spoken language, there is only one way for any word. In
Hearts (SO-EX), for example, the j is pronounced in an almost French manner. In this song, it's the timing that made it so fascinating. There's really no way to describe such a thing in words, at least not without knowing musical descriptors. But it's perhaps that it's fully separated into the three syllables, rather than the ordinary two you can hear. So anyway that's a pretty bizarre and specific thing, but it got me listening to that song over 20 times. You kind of have to when you are only interested in a single word in it. Incidentally, that word took a back seat later, after I became far more enthralled with the earlier part of the line, chikara (in the 1st verse) and namida (in 2). Yet in writing that too loses the feeling, for it was both those words complete lack of normal pronunciation for which I liked them - I had to look up the lyrics just to write it here, because they are said nothing like a word I could understand. And it's pretty easy to go from spoken to written Japanese even without fluency - and I even did know the first, once I saw it.
This brings me to a sub-point, which is, I have favorite Japanese words. That's kind of weird I guess, cause I don't have one for English. Maybe it's the removal from meaning so I can just like how they sounds. But #1 on that list is dakara ("so", as in "therefore", or "that's why"). Rather strange that these words I like have such uninteresting translations, but there it is. The first time I remember noticing the word is in
Denwa shite Daarin (1st ending of Mini-Goddess), and after that it just popped out to me everywhere.
Graduation from DDR EX is one, there's also some song Alicia has that's got it at the end of every line, which is neat. And really, I have no idea what's so great about it.
Back to the songs though. Down at a rather low 17th place is IceCapped (download now from
OC Remix). This may well be, for lack of being able to think of another right now, my favorite song of all time, in the respect that it's lasted in my top picks for years now. There have certainly been others I have liked more during their time, but few will I still listen to as often as this. The arranger, McVaffe, has taken a song from Sonic 3, and turned it into quite possibly the only remix I have ever liked better than the original - and even one which was already great on its own. Though in this case the whole thing is a pleasure to hear, there has always been a moment that stood out in it, and while looking over the comments on the site since its posting in 2001, I found I'm not the only one. Someone else cited a specific few seconds as their favorite, and on a hunch, I checked - they're the same as mine. I think he may be referring to a slight bit before where I like, but even so, I guess I'm not alone in this oddity. That time, by the way, is right about 1:58.
That transition sound there is similar to another that got me hooked on another song,
Challenge of the Bloody Chain from F-Zero GX. There's a very short part where the end of one tune overlaps the beginning of the next with a little noise that is just perfect. It's first at about 0:13-0:15. Also contributing to my enjoyment there was when I found out that it is actually a (yet another) remix of the Big Blue theme all they way from the original SNES. Counting the actual Big Blue stages in all the games, and the extra mix on the GX album, this is at least the 5th version I think, but the only one where I had no idea that it was even related. It's hard to pick it out even knowing it, but it's there.
So that's just a few of the stories behind this list. Many others aren't quite as interesting, such as "I listen to them in their actual CD order and so it counts things I couldn't care less about". But no one needs to hear about that.
Oh yes. I did forget a couple other things I wanted to mention in terms of songs I'm currently listening to, so quickly here they are.
P3 Fes is great. The song by that title, that is, not the game, I wouldn't know being denied a US release of that expansion. It rather charmed be the first time I heard it, with its mixture of
Burn My Dread,
Mass Destruction, and
Kimi no Kioku. The influence from
Mass Destruction is really quite faint, to the point I'm almost not sure if it's intentional, but there's a couple notes that sound like they're reused there, and (now) you know me and how I love a couple notes. My big disappointment with it is that there's no full version, it's only 1:30 long, and ends pretty abruptly. I would have liked some more allusions in it too, maybe some tunes from
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars (AKA the song title that failed in translation school).
The other is
Kimi no Kioku (Memories of You) itself. I listen to this song for one main reason only, and that is because of the effect it has one me. No, I'm not moved by its... whatever. What I'm saying is, it makes me feel out of breath. I don't know how Yumi Kawamura (copy-pasted that name, no idea who they are) didn't die singing that song, but it is totally insane. There's something like 4-5 bursts of lyrics in a row, with only a slight pause between them, each lasting something like 15-20 seconds straight.
And while we're at it, let's complete the triad there and mention
Burn My Dread, the full version of which has this crazy section which, when listened to on headphones, seems to warp back and forth between the ears. It's not just moving left to right, but doing so while leaving behind some bizarre remnants or echos. It literally gives me a headache on occasion. It's kind of fun. Like writing from 4:30-5:30 AM straight. At least until the next day comes.
