I made an entry about Casiopea's "Take Me" a long time ago. Well, here's another one from the Japanese Jazz Fusion band. "Smile Again" for me is a complimentary song for "Take Me." If the latter is a tearjerker, "Smile..." makes you smile again (like the title says) and bring back sanity to you.
This is not your ordinary happy song, with happy melodic lines, major chords here and there, and musically anything that can be attributed to happiness. Actually, the song has a persuasive tone, a haunting melody, but when played after "Take Me," will make you smile.
It's not only because Smile Again is a happy song. If you play these two side by side, you can see that there's a striking similarity. They seem to have a single theme. Take Me, like what I've said in the previous entry, is about pleading someone to love him but failed. Smile Again, on the other hand, is just like saying, "hey, it's alright. life goes on."
And by the way, I might forget to mention that they both ended with a question mark.
Smile Again is included in the album, "Cross Point" released in 1981, with Issei Noro on guitars, Minoru Mukaiya on keyboards, Tetsuo Sakurai on bass, and Akira Jimbo on drums.
Showing posts with label Casiopea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Casiopea. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Reflection on Casiopea's Take Me
You might think that this is a review of Casiopea's Take Me, or some sort. I just feel for the song. Here's the video for reference:
The first movement is a short piano introduction. The flow of the tunes is melancholic, and if you have a video of this, you can feel the melancholy by just looking at the face of Minoru Mukaiya... just kidding.
Enter the second movement. Enter Tetsuo Sakurai, Issei Noro and Akira Jimbo. The band comes to play with Mukaiya. Mukaiya still holds the melody here. The tune is now asking, seems like someone is saying, please listen to me, please answer my question.
Next is the third movement. The melody gives the impression of persuasion, although a little heavy and a hint of force can be sensed. Given this, my impression was the answer to the second movement's question seems to be negative. Then there's the repeatition of the second movement.
The fourth movement is just a rehash of the second movement. This time, Mukaiya takes the backseat and Issei Noro gives a guitar interpretation of what the piano was saying. The third movement is played with a tweak at the end to serve as transition and in preparation for the fifth movement.
The fifth movement has the heaviest part of the song. Aside from persuasion, you can feel the desperation of this part since the someone still answered negatively. There's force, the melancholy is at highest, complementing the transitive third movement. But right after the movement, the second movement is repeated with piano adlibs. Akira Jimbo and Tetsuo Sakurai play their parts lightly but still persuasive.
The final movement is another variation of the second movement. This sounds exactly like the second movement, giving the song a question mark as ending. Just like saying, "What now?"
Video from Youtube.com
The first movement is a short piano introduction. The flow of the tunes is melancholic, and if you have a video of this, you can feel the melancholy by just looking at the face of Minoru Mukaiya... just kidding.
Enter the second movement. Enter Tetsuo Sakurai, Issei Noro and Akira Jimbo. The band comes to play with Mukaiya. Mukaiya still holds the melody here. The tune is now asking, seems like someone is saying, please listen to me, please answer my question.
Next is the third movement. The melody gives the impression of persuasion, although a little heavy and a hint of force can be sensed. Given this, my impression was the answer to the second movement's question seems to be negative. Then there's the repeatition of the second movement.
The fourth movement is just a rehash of the second movement. This time, Mukaiya takes the backseat and Issei Noro gives a guitar interpretation of what the piano was saying. The third movement is played with a tweak at the end to serve as transition and in preparation for the fifth movement.
The fifth movement has the heaviest part of the song. Aside from persuasion, you can feel the desperation of this part since the someone still answered negatively. There's force, the melancholy is at highest, complementing the transitive third movement. But right after the movement, the second movement is repeated with piano adlibs. Akira Jimbo and Tetsuo Sakurai play their parts lightly but still persuasive.
The final movement is another variation of the second movement. This sounds exactly like the second movement, giving the song a question mark as ending. Just like saying, "What now?"
Video from Youtube.com
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