Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

My Little Lover -- ALICE




This is another one of my favourite songs by the band My Little Lover, "Alice". Released in April 1996 as its 4th single, this was another huge hit on the heels of the success of "Hello, Again". Whereas "Hello, Again" sounded a bit more like a ballad, "Alice" was more uptempo and made even more buoyant thanks to AKKO's voice. The lead vocal for My Little Lover was responsible for the lyrics along with Takeshi Kobayashi(小林武史)who also composed it. It was AKKO's first try at writing lyrics for the band.

Listening to it again once again brought back some of those memories from my early days teaching English in Asakusa. There's nothing like a breezy pop song to jog some of those engrams into a positive state, and I think that's what My Little Lover was all about....just keep the fans and listeners in a happy state. There was just one thing about "Alice" that I'd been wondering about. And it's that little garbled phrase she puts out at the intro. Well, it turns out that it was her saying "Watashi ga mori no naka wo susunde ikuto, tokei wa hantai ni mawatteita" (私が森の中を進んでいくと、時計は反対に回っていた...When I went further into the forest, my wristwatch was going backwards) backwards. I kinda wondered if the band had been thinking about the Alice from "Alice In Wonderland" fame when they created the song.

"Alice" peaked at No. 2 and became the 17th-ranked song for 1996, breaking the million barrier. It is also a track on My Little Lover's 3rd album, "New Adventure" which was released in September 1998. It hit No. 1 on the charts.



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