LookBack: Stereopony Music, Vol. 10

I am crossing state borders, and Stereopony is the furthest thing from my mind…

I really, really, really should have written this earlier in the week instead of being on the train to New York to see ONE OK ROCK. My mind is on beginnings, never ending stories, liars, and nearby answers, when it should be on border crossings, happy A’s, not looking back, friends’ lovers, and mousou jets, but let’s get things started.

First up on Stereopony’s second album is “Over the Border”. I am in agreement here with my counterpart, the alternation between rhythmic fast-talking and a strong chorus is an interesting touch. It starts this album strong, rather than having a stupid introduction track that you have to skip past to get to the actual songs. In that respect, I am glad they did the former here and on their previous album rather than the latter. Aimi’s message of a world without borders and that everyone needs to contribute to achieve it is something deep that I would associate more with Shiho than with Aimi, but for once out of many times, Aimi’s lyrics make sense to me and the historians need to be notified of this. ButterflySparkle also makes special note of the last line in the song in her Song of the Week Entry:

The last line on the song, “Even if it is a crooked line, as long as it keeps coming from your fingertips, it will grow freely, stronger and stronger,” is a very special line — reminding us to have faith in ourselves, in others and our dreams.

My counterpart seems to recall that Aimi wrote this song to thank all their international fans for their support, which makes sense, as Very Good Days alone has fans all over North America, Europe, and South America, with several handfuls gathered around the Pacific. All in all, it’s a good song.

Next up, we have Happy “A”. Nohana’s first attempt at writing lyrics. While Shiho thinks deep thoughts and then writes about them, Aimi in general writes about relationships as if she has been through thousands, Nohana…well, this is the girl who blurts out random things in interviews and acts like a human metronome on stage. The song has lots of energy typical of the lyricist, but when it comes to the actual lyrics, they are completely random. Talking about the fact that when you get up in the morning, that is a good sign you will have a good day, to wanting out of hardships quickly because she cannot face them, and for some reason wanting to go buy a reward for herself every time she is happy. A song that sounds looses everything because the lyrics lack cohesion. I seem to recall that I deleted this one from my playlist at one point, only to put it back later for whatever reason. But this is one song whose fate has already been decided.

“Never Look Back” just just as the name implies. It makes you forget all about “happy A” right away with its energy alone. Aimi talks about running through the song ignoring everything, and the song does the same thing, charging ahead from start to finish. Ms. Wannasalad points out that Aimi advises us to follow our own path, not the one that others have set before us.

Ms. Wannasalad is correct. “Tomodaichi no Kobito” leaves you wanting more after “Never Look Back”. Although Aimi writes plenty of songs about relationships, this one in particular talks about heartbreak. The situation is simple, the girl in the song begins her relationship with her best friends’ boyfriend by discussing fights and dates, but as time goes on, she realizes that she is falling in love with him. She wants to tell him how she feels, but she knows deep down inside that she cannot, and it tears her apart. Fortunately, for the writing of this, both Ms. Salad and I had access to the translated lyrics of the song, not just ButterflySparkle’s Song of the Week entry, so one can go from what she wrote to the translated lyrics and go, “Oh! She was singing about that!” As always, Aimi’s arrangement and vocals are what we have come to expect from her, and with lyrics that make sense to me, we can mark another one in the “win” column and notify the historians that Destonus was able to decipher yet another song by Stereopony.

Finishing off the first half of our review is “Mousou Jet”. Now, if this was the last song of the album, which it is not, “Tomodaichi” should have been here instead of before it. But where we have a whole second half of the album to discuss, this song brings us to the end of this section. The energy is there through out the song, and although I will agree with Ms. Salad that Aimi is having fun in this song, some of the things Aimi sings about doing make me think she was on a on a sugar high, channeling Nohana, or far worse. Aimi is on a jet of happiness, en route to her happy place, which reminds me of another happy energy song that we will cover on the second half of this album.

So far, so good. I liked three out of five, not counting the singles that make a repeat performance. If I recall, my album-like list goes in order of release, and is the only one that I have signed by the girls, since the CD jacket is white and I was worried that the would be unable to sign the other two because they were black in color, and completely neglected the fact that their staff would be aware of this and thus have sliver Sharpies available. There are many songs I like on this album, but Hydrangea ga Saiteru is still my favorite as a whole, despite Over the Border having two of my favorite single songs on it.

All in all a good start to this album.

About the author

Destonus is a Very Good Days member from Massachusetts. He moderates the Stereopony, Draft King, and AIMI discussions, the Music Discussion forum along with Dereko, and manages the Very Good Days Encyclopedia Project.