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作詞・作曲・編曲: BULGE
Song Credits
Yet another familiar name! BULGE were the co-composers and arrangers of 今はレットイットビー, the opening track of the last album. This time around they got the chance to be the lyricists as well.
Title
It's quite interesting how Aya introduced this song at STB 139 in last year. On the first night (08.10.20) she simply introduced it by name but on the second night (08.10.21) she played a little game with the audience. She sung the first line of Queen's "It's A Beautiful Day" (the title is the same as the first line) but hummed the words "beautiful day". Someone got it at the second time of asking. Clearly that person knew it all along but did that thing where they didn't want to sound too big headed so he said it quietly to his friend first and then shouted it out. Aya responded with an "Oh yeah!" of real satisfaction!
On the third night (08.10.26 - she didn't sing it in the afternoon show) she simply sung the line in full. In the afternoon show of the final date (08.11.09) she talked about the album briefly before asking one of her band which song they should do and Aya eventually chose this one. Finally, for the last show that evening she introduced it together with 七回歌うといいことがある歌 and 想いあふれて before performing all three in succession. What's so interesting about that? Well maybe interesting is not really the word I'm looking for! 
I thought it was interesting anyway. I'm not going to compare Aya to Freddie Mercury though. That would be stupid! 
If there's interest I'll upload the cuts of this song but the previous ones haven't exactly burned up bandwidth so I won't bother for now.
The weather here has been pretty changeable recently. We've had all forms of precipitation (rain, hail, sleet and snow) and the snow even stuck for a day. I've lived in London and Wales in sessions over the past 6 years and it doesn't snow that much between the two locations but there's a meteorological conspiracy when it eventually does snow. When I'm at home it's guaranteed that the heavier snowfall will be in London and vice-versa! Sod's law really because I love snow and driving in heavy snow is cool. Extremely dangerous, but still cool.
There was even 'blazing' sunshine a couple of weeks ago when the air temperature was apparently -2°C although it honestly felt about 15°C in the sun. Maybe it's because spring is around the corner but this month has been full of beautiful days even though my mood to daily life has been a bit m'eh recently. Usually when people think about "beautiful days" they think of sunny days though. Here's the compulsory picture, taken on the day it snowed here (09.02.03) around 4 or 5pm. The snow looks like stars! 
Foreword
This is one of those songs that exposes how badly Japanese and English correlate. Is there even such a thing as bad correlation or is that just classed as no correlation? In any case, lots of lines have been translated as pairs and there's even a set of four! There's also some 'translation' of English but this is quite a liberal translation in general because a literal translation would have sounded really stilted!
beautiful day
誰も彼もが思いどおり
出来はしないから
Because things don't go the way everybody expects
何かを譲り作り笑い
I'm giving up something with a wry smile
気づけば一人きり
And realising I'm all on my own
行き場失くした胸の痛みは
The pain in my heart of losing my place to go
明日を臆病にするけど
Makes me scared of tomorrow but
何が正しくて何が違うのか
感じたままに生きてみたいの
I want to live by just feeling what's right and what's wrong
beautiful day 輝き出す
A beautiful day starts to shine
見えるすべてが 鮮やかに甦る
Breathes new life into everything the eye can see
同じはずの街並みが今日は
優しくて so beautiful day
The same old street is pleasant today
It's such a beautiful day
誰から見てもイイ人なんて
もうできないのに
Though we can no longer please everyone
頑張るだけじゃ足りないモノは
何処を探せばいい？
Where should we search when just our best is not enough?
見渡す街で行き交う人に
紛れて見失うときも
And in the times I lose sight between
The people who come and go in this town before me
大好きなもの 好きだと言える
To be able to say I love the things I do
私でいようと決めたから
As I've decided that I'm going to be me
beautiful day 雨上がりの
雲の切れ間 光射すあの場所へ
想い馳せた夢は明日へ
続いてる so beautiful day
The beautiful day continues to the places between the post-rain clouds where light pokes through
So do the dreams we set our hearts on to tomorrow
Such a beautiful day
beautiful day 輝き出す
A beautiful day starts to shine
見えるすべてが 鮮やかに甦る
Breathes new life into everything the eye can see
同じはずの街並みが今日は
優しくて so beautiful day
The old street is pleasant today
It's such a beautiful day
Thoughts?
The song starts with a very pessimistic tone for such a cheery sounding song but it sets out the idea of progression and overcoming troubles. It's not that nothing goes to plan though, just that sometimes a train gets derailed. In other words, sometimes things come up that mean you have to stop doing something and concentrate on that. The giving something up is a lot more forced than the grammar of the word (in both the original lyrics and my translation) suggests but that's where the wry smile comes in. You don't do those unless there's something's not quite right, otherwise it's just a confused smile!
In the bridge there's a confession of losing sight of a target, presumably a life goal and presumably because of the derailment in the first verse. It's never a good place to be but saying that, it's entirely possible to lose your target but not your direction so it's not necessarily all that bad. It's a bit worse than losing direction but keeping your target but then again it's not as bad as the ultimate catastrophe of losing both target and direction! Or at least that's my opinion. You might think differently with the one-or-the-other options. Back to the lyrics, losing the goal means that you're not sure how tomorrow will pan out in the grand scheme of things because you no longer have a grand scheme of things to gauge it, hence the tentativeness. That's why it'd be nice to instinctively be able to feel your way through the dark spell. Quite appropriate because I was chatting to a friend about this target and direction stuff recently. I can't say for sure whether it was the song that made be bring it up or not but coincidences are just two things coinciding. Sounds bleeding obvious but I'm pointing to the fact that things happen for a reason...
The 'same old street' of the first chorus refers more to the building façades and how it looks. The expectation is that they'd just be the same miserable line of buildings but the nice surprise is that they are pleasant today. I adjusted some of the English. There are two sentences that "so beautiful day" could have been meant to mean. Other than the one I used, it could be interpreted as "so it's a beautiful day". It doesn't fit my idea of the song really. I feel there's some emotional switch that has made this a beautiful day, a conscious endevour to turn things around and it makes the narrator notice all these things, or at least put positive spin on them. The beautiful day makes things appear the way the are, not the other way around. Even though the word 'so' does mean the same as 'such' in context, the former only works with adjectives as in "this day is so beautiful" or "it's so beautiful today" and the latter only works with adjectival nouns like "this day has such beauty" but not "so beautiful day" or "such beautiful day". With nouns phrases (adjective+noun in this case) the phrase "such a" is used instead so it becomes "such a beautiful day". It's a minor picky criticism though.
The second verse kicks off with the reality that people inevitably have to tread on others people's toes at some point. Whatever your reasons for doing things, you cannot please everyone. Even sacrificing your own happiness doesn't always work. It isn't really about pleasing people though. It's about other people's perception of you which is something you can influence but ultimately it isn't something you have much control of. If someone doesn't like you, they don't like you. So when things go that way and all you do is ineffective, where should you turn? It's a bit of a rhetorical question. Or is it?
Where would you look? Where should you look? The answer is in the bridge.
The second bridge is similar to the first but it's more metaphorical. We can assume that the thing that all the people criss-crossing the streets obscures is a symbol. Even though the image is quite vivid, it doesn't feel like it's literal. If it is then it doesn't really have much punch. I quite like the image of it though, visualising it in my head. Think of the any busy place although I think the iconic scramble crossing in central Shibuya works best. You stand on one side, your target is on the other then three, two, one... the lights turn red, the traffic stops, everyone starts to cross and you lose sight of it! But the idea is that even when things look that bleak you can find the strength to do difficult things and accept who you are and leave an you-shaped imprint on the world. It sort of answers the question from the verse as well... if your best is not good enough, try harder!
The second chorus is has as many symbols of hope as it's possible to fit in such a short space. The end of rain when things "brighten up" is the first one. The second paints a vivid picture where there are thick clouds with holes here and there where great columns of yellow streak through. It's one of the great natural sights but unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to snap that. I live in a valley so it's not the ideal place to see it anyway. In this case, light traditionally symbolises hope in literature and the image of it piercing through the veil of cloud is pretty self explanatory. Finally, there's 'tomorrow' which is the ultimate symbol of hope because it's the unknown where anything can happen (and where the dreams we set are heart on lie). This tomorrow is different from the one in the first bridge because of the attitude. Face something with anticipation and it will probably turn out to be a great experience. Face it with anxiety and it will probably swallow you whole.
A simple song and fairly short as well. Nice message, nicely wrapped and nicely presented. Personally, I think I've unwrapped it and displayed it nicely as well.
I'm quite satisfied with this entry. It doesn't happen often! 
Here's another beautiful day looking over Central Park New York from the top of the Rockefeller Center (08.10.17) to celebrate!
Singing Style
Not a tremendous amount to say about the singing this time around. The melody brings out the emotion as much as Aya's singing. The verses are a little subdued although I felt a hint of anguish in her voice. I could just be imagining that to fit my impression of the verses though. The singing in the bridges sort of goes up and down a scale of resoluteness if that makes any sense. It's like indecision to do something with a "should I?/shouldn't I?" hesitation. Following the lyrics there's a one step forward, one step back sort of feel to it which builds up to more steps forward, culminating in bright and optimistic choruses, echoing the meaning. Hmm, this section was literally going to be just that first sentence!
Musical Style
The little intro piece reminds me of something but I can't quite work out what it is! Maybe the sound of it is similar to メロディーズ? Or maybe it's because the series of notes resembles the opening of 今はレットイットビー slightly? I don't know. It's something familar yet the thought always dissipates when the guitar and drums join in, just when it feels like I've got it. Not that it's terribly important anyway!
You're probably tired of the word by now but I have no choice... jazz! Just how wide a category is jazz anyway? What do I know about jazz? To be honest a lot less than I let on! I know there's a lot more to it than Huggy Bear 70s style music from Starsky and Hutch though.
Fusion is probably a good word to use for Aya's jazz. Jazz-pop maybe? A step closer to jazz than jazzy pop. There's one thing in this song that screams the genre though and that's the distinctive guitar sound, otherwise known as... a jazz guitar. One of the performances with a jazz guitar that sticks in my mind is 100回のKISS from 夢・音楽館. What?! Did I actually bother to find the link in Mattthecat's archive? I believe I did! There's a 1080i version on the tracker uploaded by hurtwou. I could seed that, but I'm probably not going to... 
The most annoying thing about the jazz guitar? The solo near the end reminds me of something else I can't quite place! 
I'm thinking back to Queen and maybe Brain May's solo during Killer Queen but again I'm not sure. Great sound anyway.
Romaji (aka Rain On My Parade)
dare mo kare mo ga omoidoori
deki wa shinai kara
nani ka wo yuzuritsukuriwarai
kizukeba hitorikiri
yukiba nakushita mune no itami wa
ashita wo okubyou ni suru kedo
nani ga tadashikute nani ga chigau no ka
kanjita mama ni ikitemitai no
byu-tifuru dei kagayakidasu
mieru subete ga azayaka ni yomigaeru
onaji hazu no machinami ga kyou wa
yasashikute sou byu-tifuru dei
dare kara mite mo ii hito nante
mou dekinai no ni
ganbaru dake ja tarinai mono wa
doko wo sagaseba ii
miwatasu machi de yukikau hito ni
magirete miushinau toki mo
daisuki na mono suki da to ieru
watashi de iyou to kimeta kara
byu-tifuru dei ameagari no
kumo no kirema hirari sasu ano basho e
omoi haseta yume wa ashita e
tuzuiteru sou byu-tifuru dei
byu-tifuru dei kagayakidasu
mieru subete ga azayaka ni yomigaeru
onaji hazu no machinami ga kyou wa
yasashikute sou byu-tifuru dei
← Back to the main page
This song shared a page with the previous on in the booklet so the scan is at the bottom of that entry.
Song Credits
Yet another familiar name! BULGE were the co-composers and arrangers of 今はレットイットビー, the opening track of the last album. This time around they got the chance to be the lyricists as well.
Title
It's quite interesting how Aya introduced this song at STB 139 in last year. On the first night (08.10.20) she simply introduced it by name but on the second night (08.10.21) she played a little game with the audience. She sung the first line of Queen's "It's A Beautiful Day" (the title is the same as the first line) but hummed the words "beautiful day". Someone got it at the second time of asking. Clearly that person knew it all along but did that thing where they didn't want to sound too big headed so he said it quietly to his friend first and then shouted it out. Aya responded with an "Oh yeah!" of real satisfaction!
On the third night (08.10.26 - she didn't sing it in the afternoon show) she simply sung the line in full. In the afternoon show of the final date (08.11.09) she talked about the album briefly before asking one of her band which song they should do and Aya eventually chose this one. Finally, for the last show that evening she introduced it together with 七回歌うといいことがある歌 and 想いあふれて before performing all three in succession. What's so interesting about that? Well maybe interesting is not really the word I'm looking for! I thought it was interesting anyway. I'm not going to compare Aya to Freddie Mercury though. That would be stupid! If there's interest I'll upload the cuts of this song but the previous ones haven't exactly burned up bandwidth so I won't bother for now.The weather here has been pretty changeable recently. We've had all forms of precipitation (rain, hail, sleet and snow) and the snow even stuck for a day. I've lived in London and Wales in sessions over the past 6 years and it doesn't snow that much between the two locations but there's a meteorological conspiracy when it eventually does snow. When I'm at home it's guaranteed that the heavier snowfall will be in London and vice-versa! Sod's law really because I love snow and driving in heavy snow is cool. Extremely dangerous, but still cool.
There was even 'blazing' sunshine a couple of weeks ago when the air temperature was apparently -2°C although it honestly felt about 15°C in the sun. Maybe it's because spring is around the corner but this month has been full of beautiful days even though my mood to daily life has been a bit m'eh recently. Usually when people think about "beautiful days" they think of sunny days though. Here's the compulsory picture, taken on the day it snowed here (09.02.03) around 4 or 5pm. The snow looks like stars! 
Foreword
This is one of those songs that exposes how badly Japanese and English correlate. Is there even such a thing as bad correlation or is that just classed as no correlation? In any case, lots of lines have been translated as pairs and there's even a set of four! There's also some 'translation' of English but this is quite a liberal translation in general because a literal translation would have sounded really stilted!
beautiful day
誰も彼もが思いどおり
出来はしないから
Because things don't go the way everybody expects
何かを譲り作り笑い
I'm giving up something with a wry smile
気づけば一人きり
And realising I'm all on my own
行き場失くした胸の痛みは
The pain in my heart of losing my place to go
明日を臆病にするけど
Makes me scared of tomorrow but
何が正しくて何が違うのか
感じたままに生きてみたいの
I want to live by just feeling what's right and what's wrong
beautiful day 輝き出す
A beautiful day starts to shine
見えるすべてが 鮮やかに甦る
Breathes new life into everything the eye can see
同じはずの街並みが今日は
優しくて so beautiful day
The same old street is pleasant today
It's such a beautiful day
誰から見てもイイ人なんて
もうできないのに
Though we can no longer please everyone
頑張るだけじゃ足りないモノは
何処を探せばいい？
Where should we search when just our best is not enough?
見渡す街で行き交う人に
紛れて見失うときも
And in the times I lose sight between
The people who come and go in this town before me
大好きなもの 好きだと言える
To be able to say I love the things I do
私でいようと決めたから
As I've decided that I'm going to be me
beautiful day 雨上がりの
雲の切れ間 光射すあの場所へ
想い馳せた夢は明日へ
続いてる so beautiful day
The beautiful day continues to the places between the post-rain clouds where light pokes through
So do the dreams we set our hearts on to tomorrow
Such a beautiful day
beautiful day 輝き出す
A beautiful day starts to shine
見えるすべてが 鮮やかに甦る
Breathes new life into everything the eye can see
同じはずの街並みが今日は
優しくて so beautiful day
The old street is pleasant today
It's such a beautiful day
Thoughts?
The song starts with a very pessimistic tone for such a cheery sounding song but it sets out the idea of progression and overcoming troubles. It's not that nothing goes to plan though, just that sometimes a train gets derailed. In other words, sometimes things come up that mean you have to stop doing something and concentrate on that. The giving something up is a lot more forced than the grammar of the word (in both the original lyrics and my translation) suggests but that's where the wry smile comes in. You don't do those unless there's something's not quite right, otherwise it's just a confused smile!
In the bridge there's a confession of losing sight of a target, presumably a life goal and presumably because of the derailment in the first verse. It's never a good place to be but saying that, it's entirely possible to lose your target but not your direction so it's not necessarily all that bad. It's a bit worse than losing direction but keeping your target but then again it's not as bad as the ultimate catastrophe of losing both target and direction! Or at least that's my opinion. You might think differently with the one-or-the-other options. Back to the lyrics, losing the goal means that you're not sure how tomorrow will pan out in the grand scheme of things because you no longer have a grand scheme of things to gauge it, hence the tentativeness. That's why it'd be nice to instinctively be able to feel your way through the dark spell. Quite appropriate because I was chatting to a friend about this target and direction stuff recently. I can't say for sure whether it was the song that made be bring it up or not but coincidences are just two things coinciding. Sounds bleeding obvious but I'm pointing to the fact that things happen for a reason...
The 'same old street' of the first chorus refers more to the building façades and how it looks. The expectation is that they'd just be the same miserable line of buildings but the nice surprise is that they are pleasant today. I adjusted some of the English. There are two sentences that "so beautiful day" could have been meant to mean. Other than the one I used, it could be interpreted as "so it's a beautiful day". It doesn't fit my idea of the song really. I feel there's some emotional switch that has made this a beautiful day, a conscious endevour to turn things around and it makes the narrator notice all these things, or at least put positive spin on them. The beautiful day makes things appear the way the are, not the other way around. Even though the word 'so' does mean the same as 'such' in context, the former only works with adjectives as in "this day is so beautiful" or "it's so beautiful today" and the latter only works with adjectival nouns like "this day has such beauty" but not "so beautiful day" or "such beautiful day". With nouns phrases (adjective+noun in this case) the phrase "such a" is used instead so it becomes "such a beautiful day". It's a minor picky criticism though.
The second verse kicks off with the reality that people inevitably have to tread on others people's toes at some point. Whatever your reasons for doing things, you cannot please everyone. Even sacrificing your own happiness doesn't always work. It isn't really about pleasing people though. It's about other people's perception of you which is something you can influence but ultimately it isn't something you have much control of. If someone doesn't like you, they don't like you. So when things go that way and all you do is ineffective, where should you turn? It's a bit of a rhetorical question. Or is it?
Where would you look? Where should you look? The answer is in the bridge.The second bridge is similar to the first but it's more metaphorical. We can assume that the thing that all the people criss-crossing the streets obscures is a symbol. Even though the image is quite vivid, it doesn't feel like it's literal. If it is then it doesn't really have much punch. I quite like the image of it though, visualising it in my head. Think of the any busy place although I think the iconic scramble crossing in central Shibuya works best. You stand on one side, your target is on the other then three, two, one... the lights turn red, the traffic stops, everyone starts to cross and you lose sight of it! But the idea is that even when things look that bleak you can find the strength to do difficult things and accept who you are and leave an you-shaped imprint on the world. It sort of answers the question from the verse as well... if your best is not good enough, try harder!
The second chorus is has as many symbols of hope as it's possible to fit in such a short space. The end of rain when things "brighten up" is the first one. The second paints a vivid picture where there are thick clouds with holes here and there where great columns of yellow streak through. It's one of the great natural sights but unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to snap that. I live in a valley so it's not the ideal place to see it anyway. In this case, light traditionally symbolises hope in literature and the image of it piercing through the veil of cloud is pretty self explanatory. Finally, there's 'tomorrow' which is the ultimate symbol of hope because it's the unknown where anything can happen (and where the dreams we set are heart on lie). This tomorrow is different from the one in the first bridge because of the attitude. Face something with anticipation and it will probably turn out to be a great experience. Face it with anxiety and it will probably swallow you whole.
A simple song and fairly short as well. Nice message, nicely wrapped and nicely presented. Personally, I think I've unwrapped it and displayed it nicely as well.
I'm quite satisfied with this entry. It doesn't happen often! Here's another beautiful day looking over Central Park New York from the top of the Rockefeller Center (08.10.17) to celebrate!Singing Style
Not a tremendous amount to say about the singing this time around. The melody brings out the emotion as much as Aya's singing. The verses are a little subdued although I felt a hint of anguish in her voice. I could just be imagining that to fit my impression of the verses though. The singing in the bridges sort of goes up and down a scale of resoluteness if that makes any sense. It's like indecision to do something with a "should I?/shouldn't I?" hesitation. Following the lyrics there's a one step forward, one step back sort of feel to it which builds up to more steps forward, culminating in bright and optimistic choruses, echoing the meaning. Hmm, this section was literally going to be just that first sentence!
Musical Style
The little intro piece reminds me of something but I can't quite work out what it is! Maybe the sound of it is similar to メロディーズ? Or maybe it's because the series of notes resembles the opening of 今はレットイットビー slightly? I don't know. It's something familar yet the thought always dissipates when the guitar and drums join in, just when it feels like I've got it. Not that it's terribly important anyway!
You're probably tired of the word by now but I have no choice... jazz! Just how wide a category is jazz anyway? What do I know about jazz? To be honest a lot less than I let on! I know there's a lot more to it than Huggy Bear 70s style music from Starsky and Hutch though.
Fusion is probably a good word to use for Aya's jazz. Jazz-pop maybe? A step closer to jazz than jazzy pop. There's one thing in this song that screams the genre though and that's the distinctive guitar sound, otherwise known as... a jazz guitar. One of the performances with a jazz guitar that sticks in my mind is 100回のKISS from 夢・音楽館. What?! Did I actually bother to find the link in Mattthecat's archive? I believe I did! There's a 1080i version on the tracker uploaded by hurtwou. I could seed that, but I'm probably not going to... The most annoying thing about the jazz guitar? The solo near the end reminds me of something else I can't quite place! I'm thinking back to Queen and maybe Brain May's solo during Killer Queen but again I'm not sure. Great sound anyway.Romaji (aka Rain On My Parade)
dare mo kare mo ga omoidoori
deki wa shinai kara
nani ka wo yuzuritsukuriwarai
kizukeba hitorikiri
yukiba nakushita mune no itami wa
ashita wo okubyou ni suru kedo
nani ga tadashikute nani ga chigau no ka
kanjita mama ni ikitemitai no
byu-tifuru dei kagayakidasu
mieru subete ga azayaka ni yomigaeru
onaji hazu no machinami ga kyou wa
yasashikute sou byu-tifuru dei
dare kara mite mo ii hito nante
mou dekinai no ni
ganbaru dake ja tarinai mono wa
doko wo sagaseba ii
miwatasu machi de yukikau hito ni
magirete miushinau toki mo
daisuki na mono suki da to ieru
watashi de iyou to kimeta kara
byu-tifuru dei ameagari no
kumo no kirema hirari sasu ano basho e
omoi haseta yume wa ashita e
tuzuiteru sou byu-tifuru dei
byu-tifuru dei kagayakidasu
mieru subete ga azayaka ni yomigaeru
onaji hazu no machinami ga kyou wa
yasashikute sou byu-tifuru dei
← Back to the main page
This song shared a page with the previous on in the booklet so the scan is at the bottom of that entry.
