A more atmospheric approach?

Eh gonna bunch the second and third songs together because I feel they're more atmospheric than anything else. One is extremely energetic and focuses on falling into love and the fun antics that it brings and the other is a somber, jazzy creation that is almost like listening to poetry.

The second track in her Grapefruit Album, Lyrics again taken from here.

Overall Impression
Pure energy? A "first time in love" song xD I tried to get some meaning out of the lyrics but my limited japanese(since I'm wondering what other words could be substituted instead of the current translation) doesn't allow me to do as much with this one as I could with Feel Myself so I'll just cut this one short and move on ;;

I do want to mention though that there's a somewhat hidden point there in the sense that she stresses that she's thankful for having friends who are willing to wait for her.(albeit it's more or less in passing, perhaps it's to say that you need friend's support? ... hmm... *continues pondering*)

(P.S I love the percussion in this song! it's just so energetic! xD)

Onto the namesake of the Album, Grapefruit!(Translation here)

Overall Impression
The lack of instruments at the beginning create a powerful atmosphere. Her soft tones here really make it an interesting song. I'd almost say it's more poetry than song really. Deep Jazz tunes really serve to enhance the whole it's poetry point without turning it too dark. I'd interpret the song but I believe that this is one of those songs which will mean different things to different people so i'd rather let you decide for yourself what this song is saying.

Some minor digging brought up the fact that whilst Maaya sang these songs(actually almost all of the album is written by someone else sans 3 songs(one of which was co written anyway XD)), their lyrics were written by Yuho Iwasato who specialises in heart to heart connections with the reader/listener, both of which are evident in the songs if you read the lyrics. More information here

*insert the usual disclaimer nonsense here. Mp3s is the same as before, here*

Strike whilst the iron is hot!

>> Well since I know I probably won't update if i don't do it sooner or later... let's just start off with one song.

Feel Myself from the album Grapefruit.(translations taken from here since I don't know Japanese(other than scraps here and there))

Overall impression
The meaning behind the song is very strong to me at least, it's simply to continue loving yourself even if you get hurt because if you get hung up over something(in this case, her specific example is breaking up with someone), you won't notice that everyday, new things are changing and happening (in this case, she mentions the weather,sky, stuff like that and perhaps more importantly feelings.)

Breakdown part by part
Starts off by listing off the things which change rapidly and with time, the sky, changing scenery, changing seasons which I felt set up the premise of the song being that life goes on even if you're hurt or something bad happens to you.

The next paragraph homes in on a painful/horrific memory(falling in love and then breaking up) and finishes with the fact that her feelings are alright. There's nothing wrong with feeling this way.

Why? it's explained that the feeling is painful but she won't give in because she has faith in herself, stressing that she is not strong and it's not her strength of character that makes her feel this way but rather that she believes in herself with her heart that knows neither time nor space.

Moving onto one of my favorite parts of the song, who knows who she will meet from now on in the sea of overflowing people? No matter where she is or where she's going, she will continue to believe in that one feeling(Loving herself). I personally extend this to mean who knows what will happen from now on as you continue to go through the trial and errors of everyday life.

Concentrating on the change part, she specifically mentions that everything will continue to change and disappear even if you don't want them to. Both feelings of happiness and feelings of sadness, eventually they will fade and turn into memories.(sidenote: kinda reminds me of someone saying you're still young/green/wet behind the ears/you'll understand when you grow up.)

She brings up that only these feelings(her love for herself) she will never hand over to anyone else, and that the energy of these feelings make her feel that she is able to do anything. She also mentions that you should be able to feel it too with the heart that knows neither space nor time(referring to the listener loving themselves enough to think they should be able to do anything)

Bringing in the endless skies(technically it's sky where you see nothing but i've taken the liberty to change it a little, I believe the meaning is about the same). She mentions that her heart will continue to call for her boyfriend, wherever he is but because of this one feeling(love for herself), she won't give into it, stressing again that it's neither strength nor is she strong, she only feels that with her heart that knows no time or space, that she is becoming stronger and stronger and tuning into her own feelings better. (In other words, she loves herself more than you and can move on with her life rather than mooning on about being in love)

Conclusion
It's a really pretty song about just living life in my opinion, some may argue it's a love song but I really felt that it applies more to life than just in love's case. An excellent start to interpreting her songs since right from the beginning, you can feel that her songs are simplistic(particularly if you actually hear the song) yet have a depth of meaning which belies their simple exterior.

*Disclaimer: this is just how >I< felt about the song, i'm sure that many will disagree with my interpretation since I can see near the end that it also sounds like she's saying she believes that their feelings will prevail, I took it to mean that she's referring to the listener rather than whomever she loved but hey, you're free to your own opinion.*

Forgot, for those who need a link to the mp3, here is her entire first album and imo one of her more impressive works.

Heh really let this place rust didn't I?

*shrugs* Never thought I was cut out for maintaining a blog anyways.

Just felt like writing memoirs? or perhaps words I'd love to hear bout in the future. I don't know at the moment. I think i'll just stick to writing whatever I want to for now and hopefully keeping it up for a while.

I've been listening to Maaya Sakamoto again recently(I tend to discover her, move on then find her again after like a half year xD) but this was the first time I actually bothered to look up english translations of her lyrics, to sum it up in a single word is nearly impossible really, all of her lyrics are both beautiful and truthful, simple and complex, thought provoking and yet relaxing, they're full of contradictions and yet they fit and fit very well indeed.

Unlike broken love songs or songs about yearning(a dime a dozen...), each of her songs brings about a positive burst of energy that almost always says one central theme, It's not the end of the world, keep on living. Each one of her love songs(and there's a lot of them actually O.o; I didn't think she had that many xD) details a different style of looking at love, ranging from being deeply in love,first loves, recently being out of love, you name it, she's probably sung something of a similar nature at least once(and some multiple times :P). Each time she encourages herself and anyone else who listens to her songs that WE are strong enough to survive this and move on.

When she's not singing about love, she's singing about life usually and not only living with yourself but loving yourself. Even offering support for those who feel they can't love themselves(i.e No Fear). Ranging between upbeat powerful (and usually extremely cute O.o;) songs like Poketto o Kara ni Shite and Guitar hiki naritai to slower songs like Universe and Afternoon Repose, somehow though both types still manage to contain almost extreme amounts of meaning to anyone who actually takes to time to listen and think about it's meaning.

Strictly speaking, trying to condense the feelings of respect I have for this artist into one post is like trying to fit an encyclopedia in a single page. Impossible. Thus, I'll unveil what i'm planning to do for a while at least, I'll see if I have any songs I feel a bit too strongly about and lay out what I feel about it. I feel that this is the best and pretty much only way I can thank Maaya for singing all her songs.

Maybe not at the moment though, don't really feel like musing that much. ... *looks at post* okay so I lied but I should be studying instead anyway.