Hey everybody, SpiralingMinty here, and today we’re going to be reviewing the Vocaloid album, Scrap Farm by Vocaloid producer, Hiiragi Kirai. This is their 2nd full length album, which was released on January 25, 2023, 3 years after the release of their first album, Hateful. Hiiragi Kirai has been making Vocaloid songs since 2019, meaning they have released 2 full length albums in a span of 6 years.
I found out about Hiiragi Kirai during that time; I would say around 2022, after the release of their first album. I first discovered them from singers on YouTube covering their songs, with most of them being “Bocca della Verità” and “Love ka?”. This would lead to me discovering more of their work, like songs they have produced for them and other artists. Since then, I’ve been following their work as I was so intrigued by their style of music, as well as admiring their use of the Vocaloid synth, flower, which I have praised in a previous video.
I stayed alert for their new releases till eventually, they released their second album, Scrap Farm, which contains some of the singles that they have released prior, along with a few album exclusive tracks. All of that made the album consist of 19 tracks, with the total runtime being 56 minutes. Just like in their first album, they continue using flower for the songs here as well, especially since flower is the VOCALOID that they primarily use, besides a few recent exceptions. But anyways, as someone who admires Hiiragi Kirai’s work, I thought it would be nice to go over this album, track by track, and give my honest thoughts and feelings about them and this album as a whole, because I got a lot to say.
Before we get to the songs, I would like to go over the album cover first, because that’s the first thing that intrigued me about this album.
Like where do I even begin? I guess the first thing I set my sights on is this creepy looking creature that’s grinning at me and they’re holding what looks like a rake. I can’t tell if this is someone wearing a creepy helmet or a robot. I wonder if that rake is used to clean up this rusty looking basement(?) with these things hanging in the background. What the heck are these things? Seraphims? Why are they being lynched? And I got to know what’s up with these big bird statues lined up on the sides, at least that’s what I assumed at first, but I think they might be robots. They look like something out of Metroid.
Well whatever they are, one of them looks like their head is turning to the right and I think the one on the back of the cover is bending down to these scraps rounded up in front of them in these long tubs, and I assume they are feeding off from them. Looking at this all together, it reminds me of a chicken farm. Yeah, you know, those farms where the chickens are caged up and they can poke their heads out to bend down and eat the chicken feed from the feeders. I bet that was the intention. Even the art on the CD gives me more context to think that might be the case, with the eggs and the chopped up meat that I presumed are from these robot chickens.
This is a pretty creepy yet interesting looking album cover. This eyecatching and ambiguous looking illustration was provided by the artist, Ryuuseee. I wonder what they were thinking while working on this or is this what Hiiragi Kirai wanted. In any case, it’s definitely a lot more intriguing than Hateful’s album cover. I think you can see why this album is called Scrap Farm when it has an illustration like this, but does this have any correlation to the songs in this album as well? Well let’s move on from the album cover and get into what this album has in store.
スクラップファーム (Scrap Farm) Tracklist:
1. Hourglass
But I think what really gives the song its edge is flower’s vocals. The raspyness of her voice really works well with this kind of song, as well as the switch between a low and high voice, or both at the same time. The feeling I get from her voice is this haunting slightly excruciating vibe, which really makes the song more engaging. There’s also a lot of vocal layering happening throughout the song, mostly in the chorus, which really amplifies the eeriness. I also really like the echo effect on flower’s voice, because it makes it sound like it’s being performed live on a stage. Wouldn’t that be nice, flower on a live stage. Actually, no, that wouldn’t be nice, I might get a migraine, especially if she sings something from Nilfruits.
Anyways, as good as the song sounds, I also want to get into the lyrics to know what the song is about. Like most Vocaloid songs, Hiiragi Kirai’s songs can have some pretty vague and ambiguous lyrics, which makes their songs a bit challenging to fully decipher. It’s probably even harder if you don’t understand Japanese, like me. But I’ll try to decipher the songs to the best of my abilities, while using translations. Starting off with the first verse, we get this line:
“Soak that stiff mind in some black fizzy bubbles”
which got me wondering what that could mean. Well the chorus would come next and provide this line:
“Drunk Drunk Sober up from being drunk”.
Okay, so I’m guessing this song has something to do with getting drunk from alcohol, which is what the black fizzy bubbles is referencing. Another thing I noticed from the chorus is how the vocal layering is structured. One line would have vocal layering, but then the next line that follows would not, and that pattern would repeat throughout the other choruses. And the two lines would always seem to contradict each other. For example, the 1st line in the chorus would say:
“Even if we grow up, Darkness is all you see”
and then the next line would be either
”It dissolves our bodies” and “I feel like I need to escape”.
Yeah I’m fairly certain they’re talking about wanting alcohol here. I mean, people usually drink alcohol as a gateway to not feel miserable and to escape the current state that they feel towards life, which is what I think this “darkness” is referring to. This contradiction pattern would continue on with the next lines of the chorus. Here’s the line I brought up earlier:
“Drunk Drunk Sober up from being drunk”,
and the next line would be either,
“All the bad things are turned into good” and “Didn’t you just let it happen”.
So what is up with these contradicting lines? Well I think what’s going on here is this is coming from someone, who I assume is an alcoholic, that is in conflict with themselves, them and their conscience. The lines with the vocal layering are supposed to represent the conscience reminding them to face reality and that they should sober up, while the non-vocal layering lines represent what the alcoholic is actually doing, which is constantly drinking alcohol as a means to escape reality and feel like they have no care in the world. And finally, the song would wrap up by repeating the verse from the beginning of the song. It's like going back to where you started in a cycle, you end up going through it all over again…and again.
All of this goes back to the name of the song, Hourglass. At first, I thought the name was referencing how limited life is and that alcohol is a way to slowly lead to your death if you constantly keep drinking it, but then I got another idea on what it could mean. It's a bit of a stretch, but hear me out. You know how when you drink a bottle of beer, the liquid from the bottle goes down your throat and then into the stomach. Well that process kind of resembles how an hourglass works, where the sand in the top bulb goes down the narrow hole and then into the bottom bulb. And like how you flip the hourglass around to start the timer again, you drink another bottle of beer to get drunk again. So I think the name Hourglass is supposed to represent the feeling of being stuck in a constant loop of getting drunk and sobering up, like how you constantly flip an hourglass to start the timer, again and again. That, combined with the music, makes it seem like the song as a whole is about relapsing. Going back being an alcoholic is something that just slowly creeps up on you when you least expect it, and then bam, you’re back to drinking your sorrows away.
Well, I sure got a lot more than I expected from the first track. I'd say this is already off to a great start, so let’s see what else is next.
(Translated Lyrics from MV by Ms. K)
2. Love ka?
And now we move on to the next track, Love ka? Which is Japanese for “frilled shark.” Wait what?
Well actually, in Japanese, the song is called Rabuka (ラブカ), which is what translates to frilled shark, and it sounds similar to “Is it love?” in Japanese, which is also pronounced Rabuka (ラブか). So basically, the name of the song is a pun on how similar the Japanese pronunciation of “frilled shark” and “Is It Love” are, not to mention, both have the katakana form of Love (ラブ) in their spelling as well. Well I’m not calling the song “frilled shark” in this segment, so I’ll just stick to calling it Love ka.
Now that we got that out of the way, the song starts off by reeling us in (no pun intended) with a smooth sounding trumpet and piano in a slow tempo, which is a good way to subvert expectations, as the song would eventually pick up the pace after the beat drop and speed up the tempo, as well as bringing in the electronic sounds and drums. Now this is what I call electro swing. You know, despite being an electro swing song, this leans more towards traditional swing, with less reliance on electronic sounds and more towards traditional sounding instruments like the trumpet, clarinet, piano, drums, which is a pretty nice change of pace for Hiiragi, especially with how most of their songs are. But despite the praises I have for this song, there is one glaring flaw I have with it that really brings the song down for me, and it’s flower’s voice. I know I said that I liked the way Hiiragi Kirai uses flower, but this is one of the few times where I think they kinda fumbled a bit. The mixing of the song makes flower sound too loud, which overshadows the instrumental. I will say, her voice is good in adding the creepiness factor to the song, but the mixing should have been better. What sucks is that this is one of Hiiragi Kirai’s most popular songs. It even won an award in Japan’s MTV VMA in 2021.
I really wanted to like this, but I just find flower’s voice to be unpleasant to listen to, and it makes me want to listen to the cover by Ado instead, which was also released around the same time the flower version came out, which is interesting.
Well anyways, let’s see what the song is about. You know, with a name like Love ka, I think that should already be a big hint, but after going through this song, I was left with a lot of questions. No really, there are questions throughout the lyrics, starting off from the first verse.
“I get engulfed by the dark, dark deep sea's veil, l-l-l-l-l-love?”.
Okay, so this person is questioning if the veil they're engulfed in is love. I assume the veil represents being in a relationship. Though something tells me that they don’t love this relationship, because they would say this,
“an uncivilized imagination so insufficient, insufficient, and incompetent as love?”
This is also phrased as a question, which makes it seem like they’re questioning the love in this relationship or maybe in general? Well what does the chorus say?
“A sweet love you, love you, love you?"
Okay, a “sweet love you” sounds nice. This doesn’t sound bad.
That's a bug, bug, bug? Muddied with lies and lies, I need you? A rotting love, love, love?”
Oh, well this is starting to not sound like love to me.
“Trying to understand while throwing up and crying? There's no other choice but keeping my distance from you”.
Yeah, they are definitely not experiencing love here. Well that would explain the questions. This sounds to me like a toxic relationship that they want to get away from, at least I think that’s the case. Because the line I want to go back to is the “sweet love you” line, because that’s the outlier to me. Why would that be one of the things they question in a relationship, while it’s amongst other things that are obviously negative traits, like bugs, lies, and rotting love? Not to mention, they say they want to keep a distance, so they obviously know to stay away from it. Are they questioning why a toxic relationship would have good traits as well or something? Or, could it be that they’re confusing a “sweet love you” as a negative trait? If that’s the case, I think the questions are supposed to be them either questioning their first relationship experience or questioning why the relationship isn’t like what they described. I know that might sound confusing, but the contradicting questions are leading me to those possibilities.
Besides the questions, another thing I noticed is “Love ka (ラブカ)” or should I say, “frilled shark” is mentioned many times throughout the lyrics, but the specific part I want to focus on is when it’s said in the pre-chorus.
“Is it love? Frilled shark, fr-fr-fr-frilled shark. Is it love?”
You might not be able to catch it if you’re just listening to the lyrics, but if you see the pre-chorus in writing, it shows that they’re not just saying “frilled shark” many times, they’re also saying “Is it love?” a few times as well. You might be asking how I can tell the difference if those phrases sound the same in Japanese? You know, besides using the translation. Well I can tell by how that part is written in Japanese katakana.
“ラブか？ラブカ ラララ ラブカ ラブ なのか？”
When they say “Is it love?”, they give a good indication that is the phrase they’re saying and not “frilled shark” by saying na no (なの) in-between, which in Japanese, is a way to indicate that you’re asking a question. So because of that, we’re able to tell they’re talking about love and not frilled sharks.
So what does this all mean? Well the pre-chorus comes off like they’re having a hard time telling the difference between one thing and the other. Like being confused when something happens differently than you expected, or not being able to tell that the relationship that you’re in is not a loving one. And that goes back to what the person in the song is questioning. So the reason why they keep saying “frilled shark” throughout the lyrics is because it represents their confusion. The frilled sharks are meant to be interpreted as a toxic relationship, which is why they are confused on why the frilled shark is the way it is, thinking that it’s love. They got a frilled shark and confused it for a loving relationship. So what I’m trying to say is, I think this song is about someone that has a confused perception of love, where they are not able to tell that a loving relationship and a toxic relationship are two different things, so they end up convincing themselves that the toxic relationship is what love actually is. Because of that, they’re giving up on finding love, fearing that it will just be the same thing as the toxic one.
How do I know they’re giving up on it? Well the lyrics are wrapped up with this.
“If I end up being reluctant to meet you at a reachable distance, just give up. A chalky sickness, fr-fr-fr-fr-fr-frilled shark Fr-fr-fr-fr-fr-frilled shark”
So not only do they not want to be in another relationship anymore, they have come to embrace the belief that the negative traits of a toxic relationship is what love is all about.
All of that goes back to the big hint that was right in front of us this whole time, the name of the song,
“Love ka? (ラブカ)”. which is Japanese for “frilled shark”.
So it’s not just a pun, it’s the truth. Love is actually a frilled shark. Yeah, I know this explanation seems complicated, but honestly, so is love. Either way, it’s about rejecting love all together. It really makes you wonder if being in a relationship is even worth it. But what would I know? I never had a frilled shark.
(Translated Lyrics by Hierochrome)
3. Mobius
Things start to get even better when the next track comes on. Mobius, not to be confused with Morbius…that’s still funny, right? Well anyways, this song was produced for utaite singer, Meychan, which released first on March 4, 2020 as an exclusive track for his album, "Daimeiwaku", and then the Vocaloid version would come out a few months later on November 26, 2020.
Anyways, I hope you like drums, because this song has plenty of it, starting from the beginning. A build up of banging drums that leads to some very intriguing electronic sounds, which really gets me sucked into the song’s vibe. It’s that bombastic kind of music that Hiiragi Kirai is known for, and it sounds pretty similar to the songs from the color trilogy, but with this song, it puts more emphasis on the “electro” of electro swing. So it’s mostly kinda like Bocca della Varita. Honestly, I used to think this song was alright, but eventually I grew to really like it. I do gotta say, I really like the lead up to the bridge with the guitar swell, but admittingly, when the bridge does start, it’s a bit underwhelming. It’s not as good as the bridge in Bocca della Varita, but it’s serviceable I guess. I do like the piano that plays afterwards, it’s probably the only thing that gives the song its swing in electro swing.
This is another song where Hiiragi Kirai really puts flower to good use, especially on the parts where it sounds like she’s crying for help, and the mixing here is definitely better than Love ka. This is also another one of Hiiragi Kirai’s most popular songs, and it definitely lives up to its reputation. It’s just all and all a great sounding song. Definitely one of my most favorites.
As for the meaning of the song, it might seem pretty straightforward to some of you, but I still found myself confused about certain things. What I was able to gather is it seems to be about someone who’s married to an abusive partner and instead of just leaving, they just tolerate it. So it’s another song about a toxic relationship, but this time, the way they describe it here is a lot more subtle. They make it clear they tolerate the relationship with lines like:
“I oversee anger and irritation from the twist.” and “Pretending you’re not wicked ceaselessly”.
But then they would throw you a line like:
“I don’t mind if I’m boring”
which I don’t understand why would they describe an abusive relationship as boring, unless the abuse happens so much that you’re just used to it now, and if that’s the case, that is very sad. But beside that, they also throw this at you,
“Humor is not necessary”
whatever that means. I guess they’re implying that the relationship isn’t fun, like funny or something, I don’t know. But another line that I do understand is this,
“If it annoys you, just get it over with.” Not true, not true, not true!”.
Okay, so I assume they’re telling themselves to leave the relationship if it annoys them, but they keep on trying to convince themselves that they’re not and perfectly fine staying in it. Jeez, sounds like a lot of married couples living in the far east, which makes sense considering the origins of this song, but I can’t help but feel like that’s not entirely it. The song would then go on to give me even more confusing lyrics.
“While the corrupted patient clings on, they demand”
“They won’t stop walking and get it at a low price”
“Walking in bare feet makes you cry and cry, and you’re tottering again and again, right?”.
I wonder, is this still about the abusive partner, or is there something else going on here? Well as I was looking for the translation of this song, I stumbled upon a theory by one of the translators of the one I’m using, PandaKittenhybrid.
Their theory still suggests that it’s about someone in an abusive relationship, but they also add that there’s a child involved in the mix, and the abused partner seems to be fed up with them as well. At first, I was skeptical about this theory, but looking at the lyrics more, it does seem like a plausible explanation. I mean “corrupted patient clings on”, “Walking in bare feet makes you cry and cry”, this sounds to me that they’re describing a baby here. Not to mention, the line “They won’t stop walking and get it at a low price” could be referring to the baby living in the house rent free, even though that’s not entirely true, because parents still have to buy baby stuff, which is expensive.
But besides that, their idea helped me in seeing the lyrics in a better perspective, as well as figuring out the context from these lines,
“The price for tying the knot which cannot be abandoned is that “I can’t move from here,” which I put away, tight, tight, tight!”.
I think they’re saying that they are tolerating their unhappy marriage for the sake of the baby. But it might not stay that way for long, because this line seems to imply that the relationship has an ending,
“I’m annoyed so I’ll just get it over with. Bye, bye, bye.”
I’m not exactly sure what happened because the lyrics after this are still vague, but I get the feeling that the abused partner eventually snapped. Now as for the reason why the song is called Mobius. Well the word comes from the concept, the Mobius Strip, which is a one sided surface that is connected together to make it go around like it’s in a constant loop [1].
So going by what we know, the name Mobius, is meant to describe the relationship that the person is going through. A one sided relationship where they constantly go through the same routine and it always repeats because they never get out of it, at least, not yet. Well, you can see why most couples these days don’t want kids.
4. Greeding
The next track is called Greeding, which is the first album exclusive track on this list, well it was, until eventually an official music video was released months later on August 4, 2023. But let’s just pretend it still is an album exclusive.
Well anyways, I really like how this one sounds. It sounds a lot more triumphant and dramatic compared to the previous tracks, like I can imagine something like this play in an orchestra. Hiiragi Kirai’s style of music usually leans more towards electro swing and rock, but this one sounds a lot more symphonic. I hear an electric guitar, but I also hear a xylophone and flute playing in this song, which really gives the song more of that symphonic flair. Also, the harpsichord that plays throughout the song is very nice and makes it sound like something that could play in like a Renaissance era setting or something like that. The way it’s played gives the song this sinister tone, like the feeling that potential danger is around the corner. I also love when it goes crazy on the bridge, though it sounds rather faint.
Actually, that's one complaint I have with this song; the mixing isn't the best. Either some instruments aren't as loud as I want it or the instrumental sounds louder than the vocals, which is a bit off-putting to me. It's funny because I always complain that flower sounds loud in a lot of Vocaloid songs, but this is one of the few times where I wish it was loud, because the vocals sound soft here. Thankfully, I’m not too hung up on that, so I still think it’s a good album exclusive track and a great song in general, this is definitely another one of my most favorites.
Now as for what the song is about, I was stumped at first, because for starters, the name, “Greeding”, is not a word. Greedy is, but not greeding. People don’t usually say Greeding. Perhaps there’s a deeper meaning as to why the song is called that. I could just go for the obvious and say this song is about greed, but perhaps there is more to it than that, so I looked into the lyrics more carefully. Starting off the first verse is
“You ate a bad bud, didn't you? But it looks so delicious, so I can't help it.”.
I guess this is describing something that is bad and irresistible that consuming it could lead to you becoming worse, like a bud growing into a poisonous plant. In this case, the bud can represent doing something for the first time, which leads to it becoming a habit, till eventually, it becomes a natural part of you. It's like murdering someone leads to becoming a psychopath, taking drugs leads to becoming an addict, or the taste of wealth leads to becoming greedy. There’s also this line,
“Even if you say it’s for the future, from now on, the bottom is already tainted by ding-ding greeding, so stay away.”
It comes off like doing this for the greater good doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a bad thing, and eventually you’ll never want to stop doing it, so you should have never succumbed to this bud in the first place.
Now sometimes, people just can’t help themselves, especially when it comes to the kind of situation that they’re in. The lyrics even go on to describe what this person is feeling about their situation.
“I've had enough fill of this netherworld.”
At first, I assumed they were talking about hell or something, but I think they’re actually describing the poor environment they live in that’s keeping them down in the dumps. So it actually is hell then.
Now I want to go back to why it’s called Greeding instead of like Greedy. Well Greedy is an adjective, which means a word to describe someone or something. And the thing about Greeding is that it ends with an -ing, and usually words that end in -ing are verbs, words meant for describing actions. So the song means more than just describing someone that’s becoming greedy, it’s describing the actions that are done out of greed. So it’s about the greedy actions that someone is doing that would lead to them becoming greedy, if that makes sense. I mean even the way “greeding” is used in the lyrics makes it seem like it’s being used as a verb while also describing how the action affects them as they keep doing it.
“A deep craving for greeding”
“Unsated greeding.”
“I’ll be completely tainted in greeding!”
So after figuring out all that, the conclusion that I came up with is, the song is about someone’s progression of slowly succumbing to greed, and the song makes it pretty clear that they consider being greedy a sin and sometimes human beings can’t help but commit sins like that. Because of how irresistible it can be, doing those actions prevents us from being a better person, even if it does make your situation better. If this is what the song is trying to convey, then that sure is a pretty cynical message. It isn’t sad, insane, or scary, it’s just giving us the hard truth of reality…oh well, at least the song is catchy. I sure hope this song doesn’t become an addiction.
(Translation by Forgetmenaut, Violet, and Hiraethie)
5. Galleria ⭐
Now the next song is called Galleria. The song starts off with this haunting horror-like build up in the beginning, which has already got me intrigued, until it shortly shifts to an electric guitar playing, along with beats and clapping, which is something I didn’t expect, but man, does it leave a good first impression. The song just started and I am already immersed by what I’m listening to. I noticed that as the song progresses, the more the sounds and vibe slowly shifts from simple and mellow to becoming more triumphant and theatrical, especially when the chorus starts. It catches you off guard because it feels like it’s a different song for a moment, but it’s the kind of thing that really kept me engaged while listening.
When it gets to the bridge, that’s when the vibe starts getting very different. It starts off how it usually sounds, but then it shifts to sounding like it’s embracing the horror-like beginning of the song more, but there’s also an emotional mix of fear and misery, and when it’s followed by the last chorus, it feels like everything in the song is coming together. This is the moment in the song that really stands out to me, because I freaking love it.
Another thing I want to point out is how the song wraps up. It sounds like the beginning with the guitar, but the beat isn’t as energetic and there’s no clapping sounds. Like the life and energy of the song was just sucked out, now it feels hollow and gloomy, and then the song ends. Wow, what a way to end a song like this.
I didn’t even get to the vocals yet. This is probably flower at her best. The tuning that Hiiragi Kirai did here just gives her voice so much emotion. I can really feel the dread, despair, and sadness coming from her voice.
If you couldn’t tell by now, this is my favorite song on this album. It exceeds many of my expectations that I have for a song by Hiiragi Kirai. As the vibe keeps shifting, it just keeps getting better and better. It’s like a good mix of both rock and electro swing. The fact I don’t see that many people talk about this song that much makes me consider it an underrated gem. If there’s one thing I have to nitpick, the mixing could use a bit of work, but I’m willing to excuse that, because everything else just sounds so great. The tuning is great, the instrumental is spectacular, and I find the narrative in the song to be engaging. It just has everything that makes Hiiragi Kirai’s songs sound so good, all compact into this one song.
Speaking of the narrative, let’s get into that. The meaning of the song is pretty simple and straightforward. It’s about someone who had a lot of high expectations for where they wanted their relationship with their partner to go, but it just didn’t work out and it all came crumbling down. Pretty simple stuff, it goes back to the theme I’ve been seeing often from the previous tracks, which is love. Though if you pay close attention to the lyrics, you can really see how deep and tragic their situation is. I’m pretty sure you can tell if you watched the music video already, but I want to judge the song by itself. In the second verse, it mentions this,
“Since you've stopped your breath, my darling, You can't even give me an apology anymore”.
Well it seems pretty clear to me that their partner has passed on, which is why the relationship ended up crumbling down. And if that wasn’t enough, they make it more clear with how the chorus is during the bridge. Instead of,
“Even if I have nothing left and couldn't do anything, are you still going to corrupt my tower of fantasy? The room where you were supposed to connect our future, like a galleria.”
the new variation now says
“Since I have nothing left and can't do anything, I can only hold my breath in the tower of fantasy. Now I have lost it all, like nothing is left in our galleria”.
Besides knowing that this Galleria is a representation of the couple’s future together, they’re really setting the record straight that this plan will never be salvaged and that the dream is dead, which really hits the mark on the tragedy. And to add more salt to the wound, they have the unchanged chorus play again at the end to finish off the song, like it’s giving you a glimpse of them having so much hope back then, only to know where their lives will really lead them to; a broken down galleria.
Can you imagine setting up so much for yourself and your life partner, only for all of that to come crumbling down? Whether it’s life getting in the way, your beloved moving on, or you end up murdering them, it all just seems so devastating that I can’t imagine moving on from that. Oh well, at least it makes for a great song.
6. Troy
Now this next track is an interesting one. It’s another album exclusive and it’s called Troy, and I’m pretty sure they’re not talking about the one from High School Musical.
The beginning of the song already caught my attention because it kinda sounds like hearing club music from a distance. And when the clarinet comes in, that’s when the song starts to get really good. It’s another electro swing song, but unlike Hiiragi Kirai’s other songs, it’s less bombastic and more chill, while still having rhythm to it. I really like the sound of the tuba, and I like it even more when it becomes more present in the second verse. The vibe of the song sounds like when you’re getting down to business, if that makes sense. After hearing it more and more, I can’t help but hear the background and be reminded of the sound of a horse galloping, it sounds similar to that but techno.
Now as for why it’s called Troy. I think it’s referring to the City of Troy, which was an ancient city that was conquered by the Greeks. One of the key events to make that happen was the Trojan Horse, which was a big wooden horse that the Greeks hid in to trick the Trojans, the inhabitants of Troy, to bring them into the city unknowingly, making them think it was an offering to the Gods [2]. And well let’s just say, that was the biggest and stupidest mistake of their lives.
Knowing this, this makes me think the techno horse running sounds was a deliberate choice for the song. Very creative input there, Hiiragi.
Knowing what the name of the song is referring to, it made me more curious on what the song is about. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a proper translation of the lyrics to this song anywhere, so the best I can do is use DeepL, so please excuse the possible inaccuracies. I’ll also be doing this for other tracks without proper translations.
Anyways, I think the song might be about constantly getting easily tricked or always underestimating things, or if we go by the constant themes I’ve been getting from this album so far, it’s likely about constantly being lied to or gaslit in a toxic relationship. It even says
“Daily actions lead to Troy”
in the song, which tells me this is a common occurrence, which definitely adds to the tragedy. And the person in the song definitely has some self-awareness of the situation that they are in, and talks about how they don’t like being easily tricked.
“Thoughts Thoughts get twisted too, The place you always cared about”
“By the time you notice, Too late Too late”
“Self-judgment, even if it doesn't hit the mark”
“I hate being slow”.
I guess this really shows how complicated a relationship can be and how the pleasure of the good things can really cloud your judgement of what’s really happening. If that’s not the case, I assume it’s just being tricked daily in general, like falling for a scam, or getting betrayed by your friend.
Admittingly, as simple as the song is, composition and lyrical wise, I still really like it, it’s so catchy. This might be one of the favorite album exclusive tracks in this album. This is definitely going in my most favorites.
(Translation by DeepL)
7. Hide & Hide
Hide & Hide is a song that was made as part of a tie-in for the shonen manga series, GABULI, where they got a bunch of Vocaloid artists to make songs based on certain parts of the story. I never read the manga, so don’t expect me to be an expert here.
Anyways, for this specific song, it’s focused on the backstory of a character named Tough. A music video was released alongside the song to help visualize his backstory. I don’t usually talk about the music video when I review a song, because I want to focus specifically on the music, not to mention, when you listen to the album on its own, there’s no music video attached to it. But I’ll make an exception for this one since I think it’ll help in giving context for this song. So in the music video, this kid here, who I presume to be Tough,
is in an illegal gambling ring, and after trying to steal some money, gets caught and is about to be attacked by this big guy, until this guy with the goggles,
who I'll be referring to as Goggle-niki, comes in and saves him. After that, Tough decides to tag along with Goggle-niki, and while their relationship starts off a bit rough, they end up getting along pretty nicely. But unfortunately, after being informed by the big guy from earlier, bad guys, from some big organization, are out to find Goggle-niki and kill him. When they find him, Goggle-niki tells Tough to go hide in an air vent while he takes care of the bad guys, and as Tough watches it happen through the air vent, he can’t help but be reminded of the time where he hid in a closet while someone, who I presume is his father, protected him from danger and ended up getting shot, and unfortunately, that is the same fate that happens to Goggle-niki as well. So now Tough is back to being alone and hiding. And if you pay attention to the beginning and end frame shot, it looks like he wants vengeance.
Now we can just say that the song is about Tough and the experience that he went through, but I feel like there’s more to this song than that. The name of the song is pretty self-explanatory, it’s about hiding, but hiding from what exactly, and I wonder if it’s just about hiding. During the song, I got confused by this line,
“The sun and moon have passed us by over and over. Does that seem fair to you?”
I mean, isn’t that what the sun and moon do, why are you so bothered about their intended purpose? This line gets said 2 times throughout the song, so there’s surely some significance to it. Well judging by the music video, Tough is homeless, since he’s stealing money from a gambling ring and the song describes him as
“A lone boy”.
And then we have this line,
“Squash them so they can’t even dream, Squash them from the outside in, And just like that, I’m all by myself again”
which I assume is subtly describing how the lower class are always treated like trash, which prevents them from achieving their dreams, and Tough is part of the lower class. So the idea that I’m getting at here is, the sun and moon are meant to describe the higher class, and Tough doesn’t think it’s fair that they get special treatment and are always walking over him and the lower class in general. And I feel like that doesn’t just apply to only Tough here, I’m sure this is something a lot of people feel. So I think the song is about being forced to hide because of the people that are above, but that’s not all.
Another thing I want to add is, I feel like the song is also about having to deal with the grief of having to be separated from the people you care about, due to being forced to hide. I get that implication from lines like this,
“Right now Hide Hide & Hide, We hide and get separated”
and
“Wait for me, please don't go”.
Putting everything that we know together, the whole song is about Tough being forced to always hide from danger and be separated by their loved ones because the powerful people above him are always getting in the way, forcing him into this poor position, and ruining their every chance of ever getting out. Well now I understand why his name is Tough, because their life sure is.
Well besides that, I find this song to be alright. I’m more surprised that this song is even on this album, since it was purposefully made for a manga series, so it might feel out of place for people that are not familiar with GABULI. Well perhaps having the song in there would help get more of them interested in the manga. It’s actually still going, though it’s currently on hiatus and hasn’t updated in over 3 years and counting.
But anyways, this song is probably Hiiragi Kirai at their most experimental, and while I appreciate the effort put into this song, it's not one of their best works. While I like that there's a story to it, and the vocal parts aren’t too bad, the song is kinda just all over the place, composition wise. I’m not the biggest fan of that muffled drum beat in most parts of the song, like in the beginning and end of the song. I’ll admit, the piano parts and the drumming are pretty fun and the saving grace in this song, but it still feels hammered in. I'm not sure if it's due to the restrictions of following the backstory, but I feel like Hiiragi tried a bit too hard in adding their flair when experimenting for this one. Sounds like someone messing with their audio workstation, while also trying to recreate the Benny Hill theme by memory, but instead, they just made a mess.
(Translation from Vocaloid Lyrics Wiki)
8. Lucky Brute
Now let’s move on to the next track. Lucky Brute is a song that Hiiragi Kirai produced for the popular J-pop and utaite singer, Ado. The one in the album is the Vocaloid version, which is another one of the exclusive tracks in Scrap Farm.
From what I've seen, this is one of Ado’s least popular songs in her discography, with it currently sitting around 5 million views as I’m making this review. Personally, I actually really like this song. I'm honestly pretty impressed with the production quality here, it just sounds so high quality. I’d say what makes this song stand out to me is how unique it sounds. As for which version I prefer more, it's the Ado version. While the tuning of flower is great here, I'll always be impressed with Ado’s vocal skills and the way she articulates her singing in this song to really amplify the vibe it’s supposed to present. This song was definitely made for her.
Anyway, as for what the song is about, this was pretty hard to decipher, as I couldn’t understand what most of the lyrics were talking about.
“How dreadfully dull, this dribbling blue, blue!”
What is that, are they talking about tears or something? That’s a weird way to describe tears.
“Even if it means nothing, I’m girly, girly.”
Okay, so I guess the person we’re following is a girl then.
“Then what does “ta-la ta-li ta-li ta-lu ta-le” signal?”
What? Is this what the patriots are calling themselves now? Is this a rhythmic pattern? What is it supposed to mean? Is it their heartbeat? Yeah, I’m a bit stumped here.
Well despite the confusing lyrics, my best guess for this song is that its about someone being encouraged to become more violent, while also trying to resist that urge.
“Hey, Mister, Going crazy and getting angry? H-h-hardly.”
“Howling so brutally? Like hell, hell, hell. I don’t wanna do that kinda thing.”
And as the song goes on, this mister is still being pestered to become violent by this other person, who I assume is either their inner demons or this girly that was mentioned earlier, and even going as far as to give them words of encouragement on how they should do it.
“Slit throats in order to kill, in order to live, Until it slides into the revolting”
“Growing reluctant, you’ve gotta land your hits accordingly and leave ‘em in shambles.”
And as for why it’s called Lucky Brute, I guess the mister is the brute and getting these words of encouragement on how to be violent makes them lucky.
(Translation by MeaningfulUsername)
9. Flower Bed
Now this next track sure sounds different than usual. With Flower Bed, Hiiragi Kirai decided to lean more towards rock than the usual electro swing, and honestly, I love it. I really love it and I find it to be another underrated gem, especially with how little views the music video has compared to their other videos, especially with how well flower works in rock songs. There’s also a vocal version that was released alongside the Vocaloid version, which is sung by utaite singer, Saira (犀羅).
Now the downsides that I have with this song is that I wish it was longer and the lyrics are a lot more vague this time, so there is not a lot for me to work off of to figure out what this song is supposed to be about, but I’ll try my best to decipher it. At first, I assumed the song was about losing your virginity and getting someone pregnant, which is why the song is called Flower Bed, because it's like planting a seed in a bed of soil. But after looking more deeply at the lyrics, I think the Flower Bed is supposed to represent a relationship, more specifically, an unstable one.
Really, another one? Why are there so many songs about bad relationships, Hiiragi?
Whatever.
Anyways, the song follows someone that is in love with their partner. They say things like
“There is no way that I'll mention anyone other than you”
which is a weird thing to clarify, but whatever, and
“The pain in my chest proves that This feeling is not a lie”.
But for some reason, they also say lines that make it seem like they hate this feeling towards their partner.
“Look into each other, look into each other Until I, until I, get sick of it. I hate it hate it hate it so much”.
So I don’t understand, they’re in love with this person, but they’re also sick of them? What is this guy? Bipolar? They also say
“I’m not, still not, used to such things yet”
so I assume that they can’t really handle love or being in a relationship that well. They even say
“Let’s end it now, let’s end it now Before you, before you, start rotting away”
which makes me think they want to end the relationship despite loving their partner. But the thing that really gets to me is the “rotting away” part. What do they mean by that? Are they worried that their partner might get negatively impacted by their toxic traits if this relationship continues? Because that’s what I think it’s implying, especially since before this, they said
“You saved me, yet I’m still taken by the darkness within”.
Okay, so that must mean they're aware of how toxic they are. So what I’m getting at here is the song is about a person who is going through a dilemma where they think they don’t deserve love because they’re aware of how toxic they are, and they don’t want that to affect their partner, so they want to end the relationship as soon as possible.
Going back to the name, I think Flower Bed is meant to represent how a relationship grows and eventually starts becoming unstable, like flowers growing in a flower bed and eventually shriveling up and rotting. The first line of the song already ties in with the name,
“Around us, the lamp makes everything so dazzling”.
We can assume the lamp is referring to sunlight, which is one of the things to help flowers grow. So when a flower doesn’t get enough sunlight, they end up dying. To connect it back to relationships, the lamp makes the relationship appear as happy and “dazzling", but without the lamp, the relationship loses its momentum in being stable, and like a flower without its sunlight, it will eventually turn rotten.
10. True Therapy
Now True Therapy is something that I think a lot of people need…oh, and I guess it’s the name of this song as well.
This is another form of a rock song, but that's not the only noteworthy thing about it. This song just has many things to it that really left an impact on me. I love the use of phone button sounds for the melody of this song, which really gives the song memorability. I find it to be a creative choice and it has already got my attention on this song, though that’s probably because the button sounds are a bit too loud, which kinda give me a bit of a migraine the more I listen to it, and it also kinda overshadows most of the instrumental. But I guess it does help in amplifying the vibe the song is conveying, like hearing noises in a dark empty room.
Another thing I like is how the song gradually sounds more intense as it goes on, kinda like Galleria. The humming in the background gradually becomes louder, which slowly builds up the intensity of the song’s vibe, which gives me this feeling of uneasiness, and yet I still like it. And another thing I want to praise is how much flower is utilized and incorporated into this song. I like her singing along with the melody and the vocal layering in this song, as well as also providing background vocals later in the song. I think it really amplifies the eerie nature of the song and really shows how skilled Hiiragi Kirai is when using flower and vocal synths in general.
Trying to figure out what this song is about was kind of hard, especially with most of the lyrics being just
“tu-tu-tu-true”
and I will admit, it’s a catchy tune, but it’s not exactly helping me here. You know, flower says tu-tu-tu-true so many times in this song, that I wonder if it even has any meaning anymore. Well let’s just disregard that and see more of the other lyrics.
Despite mostly being confused, I was able to come to a certain conclusion by the bits and pieces I was able to figure out. Now most people have already caught on that the song has something to do with phone addiction or just being obsessed with using the internet in general. While I can definitely see that, I think there’s more to it. I think it’s also about the certain side effects that come from becoming too attached to the internet, like constantly falling for lies on the internet and believing they’re true or pretending they’re true, spreading those lies even further, or being so stuck in your own bubble that you forget about the world outside of the internet.
I also noticed a pattern in the lyrics where whenever a line is said again, it is slightly modified a bit, which I think is supposed to imply that certain circumstances in this situation have gradually changed. For example, in the first verse, it starts with the line,
“Truth, Dark secrets. Only a trace can be spotted”
but when the line comes in again in the second verse, it instead says
“not even one trace can be spotted”.
Which I think is implying that trying to find what is true is hard, and gets harder as time passes.
Another example I want to point out is in the chorus. In the chorus, it has the line
“Expose everything! Follow where that mindset takes you”
and that line is maintained when the chorus comes the second time, but when it comes a third time, it instead says
“Make it come true, follow where this wish drives you”.
What makes this significant is, I think it adds more context as to what this person’s intention is. When it says “Expose everything”, I think it’s supposed to mean, share everything that you find on the internet to other people, like fake articles, rumors, gossip, ragebait, etc. People are keen to share things that they want other people to know about, and with how easy it is to share online, stuff like misinformation are able to spread rapidly to many people. And the more people that know about it and believe it, the more the public just accepts it as the truth.
One last thing I want to point out about the chorus is the last line:
“You’re just gonna stay unaware of anything until the final moment”.
This could either mean staying unaware about the outside world due to being chronologically online or believing in the lies that you find on the internet so much that it comes to the point where that’s all you will ever believe in. Honestly, it could be both, but I’m leaning more towards the ladder as it fits into what I think the song is about. This line also changes in the third chorus, so instead of saying
“until the final moment”
at the end, it now says
“That's what it’s supposed to be”.
It’s like they’re self aware. What I’m implying here is that this whole time, this person has been purposefully spreading misinformation to make other people think it is true. It doesn’t matter whether that information is true or not, because as long as gullible people keep eating it up, that is what is going to help it become more true, and that is the “wish” that they want. And if you doubt that this person is doing this on purpose? Well the last line of the chorus appears again at the end of the song, but now it says
“You pretend to be unaware of anything until the final moment”.
Why does this person do this? There are some people out there that find joy in spreading false narratives on the internet, they consider it as therapeutic to them, and that is why the song is called True Therapy.
(Translation from MV by Ms. K)
11. Steal
Steal is a song that Hiiragi Kirai made to be used by KADOKAWA DREAMS, which is a dance team that participates at a professional dance league called D.League. I assumed they used this song during one of their dance performances.
You know, of all the artists they decided to get to produce a song for choreographed dancing, choosing the one that’s known for sinister and cynical songs is definitely a choice. But surprisingly, what they got was a song that is a lot more uplifting than expected, well at least compared to the rest of Hiiragi Kirai's discography.
From what we previously covered from this album, this track feels like an outlier, or is it? Well after looking through the lyrics, the song doesn’t seem that cynical compared to what I already covered. In fact, there are parts in it that make it stand out to me as an uplifting song.
“If you give up from the start, you lose”
“Raise your voice, So misery doesn't seep through”
“For now, It's still a closed door, But someday, I'll get out”.
Not gonna lie, I’m surprised. After going through so many cynical songs, getting anything that sounds remotely like words of encouragement makes me wonder if Hiiragi Kirai even wrote this. Perhaps they actually wanted to produce an uplifting song for once or the executive producer, Keita Tanaka, forced their hands on this song. Though I can imagine that they thought making a dance group dance to a sad song would probably not be appropriate. Either way, while the different approach is appreciated, this uplifting vibe combined with Hiiragi Kirai’s unique tuning of flower still gives the song this unsettling feeling that something isn’t right here.
Also, the thing that really confuses me is this song was made specifically for KADOKAWA DREAMS to dance to, but when I listen to it, I can’t imagine actually choreographing dances for this song. I mean I give the dance team credit for somehow making it work, even though this is a lot of movement for a rather mellow song, but yeah, I can’t really see myself dancing to this song. It kinda sounds more like a slightly chipper marching band song.
What makes me more disappointed is, I think Hiiragi Kirai is capable of making a good dance song, but for some reason, when given the opportunity to, this is the best they can give. Like where’s the energy that I heard from songs like Love Ka? Or Lucky Brute, because those songs would work better for dance choreography than this song. Overall, the song is alright, but there’s just other songs I would prefer to listen to over this one.
(Translation by DeepL)
12. Metron
After an uplifting dance song, we come back to our regular programming with another album exclusive track, Metron. With this song, I can’t help but kinda get a country vibe from it, which is a genre that I didn’t expect Hiiragi Kirai to dip their toe into. Well this album is called Scrap “Farm”, so I guess it’s fitting to have a country sounding track in it.
Honestly, this one took a few listens to grab me and reel me in, especially since, like with Steal, this also sticks out like a sore thumb. It sounds a lot more like a ballad, which is something I didn’t expect from Hiiragi Kirai. I guess after so many bombastic tracks, it’s nice to take a break from that and have a track that’s calm and melotoned to soothe to, but flower’s voice is not what I would call soothing. Well besides that, I think this is an alright song. I can imagine Johnny Cash making a cover of this song, if he was able to sing in Japanese…oh, and was alive as well.
While I would rather listen to other tracks over this, this isn’t bad and I wouldn’t mind if this played randomly in a shuffle. I really like the guitar in this song. I also like the guitar riff that’s in the middle of the song, that’s honestly one of the highlights to me. Hiiragi Kirai, once again, showing their interest in rock.
Now as for what the song is about, I want to first know what a Metron is. Well from what I read, it’s a repeating section of 3 to 6 syllables of a poetic verse. The word was used by Greeks back in the Ancient times; they used it to describe a measure of something [3]. So this would make this the second song in this album to reference something from Ancient Greek history. First was Troy, now Metron. I wonder if there’s some correlation here, or maybe Hiiragi Kirai is just a big fan of Ancient Greece, I don’t know.
As for what the song is about, well it seems to be straightforward and also vague at the same time. From what I can gather, it's about someone trying to find an answer to a situation and they seem to be figuring it out with someone else, who is insistent that the situation can’t be solved. What is the situation? I don’t know, they don’t explicitly say. There are also mentions of jealousy and being forgetful, which knowing that, it honestly just makes me more confused about this song. The best guess I can come up with is the situation in question is someone trying to get back together with their ex-partner, but the ex-partner has moved on and found someone else.
So when the song says
“I envy you who can do it”
they are either saying this towards their ex that moved on or their new partner. As for why this song constantly repeats the line,
“Forget, forget, forget, I forget so quickly”
I assume the person trying to rekindle with their ex is wondering why they broke up in the first place, because this person is either ignorant or they have forgotten what love feels like.
But how does all this correlate to the song’s name, Metron. Umm. Well since the word means a measure of something, I’m just going to take a shot in the dark here and say that the name is supposed to represent the amount of progress that the ignorant partner has made when it comes to moving on, or it’s supposed to represent how long the rate is for ever figuring out the answer to your situation, which is very little. I don’t know, that’s the best I can come up with.
(Translation by DeepL)
13. Vita
Alright, now it’s starting to sound like we’re picking up the pace here, because the next track is Vita. This song was produced for utaite singer, Gero, with his version coming out like a week later after the Vocaloid version, which is a strange order of release, but whatever.
I think this song is fantastic. This is another song where Hiiragi Kirai is at their best. This is another song that sounds on par with the color trilogy, with its bombastic arrangement and fast tempo, but I would say this is more on par with Bocca della Varita, as both songs are comprised mostly of electronic sounds without the swing. But wouldn't it be shocking if I said that I like Vita more than Bocca dela Varita? Now don’t get me wrong, I think Bocca della Varita is a great song and I consider it to be Hiiragi Kirai’s magnum opus, but Vita is like the finalized retake that wanted to outdo its predecessor, and they sure delivered.
So what is this song all about? Well at first, I thought the meaning was metaphorical, that it was about someone who is sick and tired of how terrible their life is, and believes that a devil possessing them is behind all of their suffering. Basically, I first thought this person is just desperate to have a better life, but as I kept looking over the lyrics, I started to realize that might not be it. In the first verse, one of the lines that stood out to me was
“I'm living life to the fullest.I'm dying as best I can.”
which got me confused, because that contradicts the lines that came before; the ones about living life to the fullest and not wanting to deal with pain and suffering, but as the song kept going, I would encounter more lines like this.
“Driving around, I look for a completely black Life STOP line.”
“I wish everything to stop. Leave me alone. I scream with such wishes.”
“Find the time to die. Find it.”
Okay, so what I’m getting at is, they want to die, but they are also trying to find the right time to. There is also this line in the chorus,
“I wish I could stop breathing at an Extreme, reem, reeem diminuendo. Don't be in pain, be at peace.”
Okay, silly wordplay aside, what they are talking about is that they don’t want to be breathing so extreme-reem-reemly slow. If you must know, Diminuenudo is an Italian word, and it means a decrease in loudness, volume, or intensity, and this word is usually used in a context of music, but in the context of the song, they’re talking about the intensity of their breathing. So do they want to breathe at a fast pace instead or do they not want to keep breathing at all? Because I don’t know anybody that would want to experience an anxiety attack.
Well we also get these lines,
“Please end it all with an Extreme, reem, reeem diminuendo.”
and
“Extreme, reem, diminuendo gets me wet and tightened to my undecorated last moment.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure they are describing death. So that’s it then, this is a song about being suicidal, or so I thought, but the end of the song had to through in these lines at me.
“But I don't wanna be dead.”
“I want someone to replace me just then. After that, I don't know, so, please”.
Okay, this person can’t seem to make up their mind. So not only do they not want to be dead, they also want someone to replace them at the moment they do die? So what, like a body swap at the last minute or having someone else in your shoes? Do you actually want a devil to possess you? Is that why you keep saying “Dear my Diablo” like 2 times in this song? Perhaps they want to take their suffering and just give it to someone else. It honestly feels like this person is going through a tough time right now, and that helps me to envision just how bad their life is. They might say out loud that they want to die, but they actually don’t mean that, they’re just tired.
Life can be a struggle to deal with. It just keeps getting worse and worse and sometimes you wish it could just be toned down, flat out end, or you can just throw all that pain away. You get this feeling that death might be a better feeling to have, but you also still want to live because it would be better to keep going, but you are also scared that you might go down the wrong path, so you end up becoming conflicted, and that is what the person in the song is going and why they keep saying,
“I don't wanna be possessed by a demon”.
Yeah, this song is complicated, but then again, so is life. And you know what life is, in Latin? Vita.
14. Disease
Disease is a song that was previously made in 2020 as part of a Vocaloid compilation album organized by Vocaloid producer, bal, called “Schéma -Resonance-”, where each track was produced by a different producer, themselves included. It was the 4th track for that album, and it’s included in this album as the 14th track.
When I first got to this song, I found the way it started to be a bit offputting and I thought I wasn’t going to vibe with this one, but the song ended up growing on me and I honestly really like it now. It sounds so eerie and haunting, while also being quite mesmerizing, especially when the chorus comes in with the
“ Wo-oh-oh-oh”.
I really like that part and I can’t help but get that part stuck in my head. It’s like that part just keeps haunting me.
Now as for the lyrics, it's a lot more straightforward this time, perhaps too straightforward, but after having a hard time trying to decipher many of the previous tracks, I shouldn’t complain too much. If only this song wasn’t such a downer. It seems to be about someone that has self-hatred for themselves because of supposedly bad actions they have done and feels extreme regret about it. They would constantly say things like
“Please forgive me”
and
“Please pardon me”
throughout the song, and they also say
“Give me a name for my disease”
suggesting that something might be wrong with them and they’re confused as to how it turned out this way. Even the beginning and the end of the song has the line,
“I'm just scrap someone thought was good”
suggesting that they weren’t always like this. Speaking of scrap, I can’t help but feel like this is the song that inspired the name and concept for this album. Because of the mentions of “scrap” in this song, it makes me wonder if there’s some correlation here. Some other lines that I think are noteworthy are,
“Misaligned scraps, picked-over junk”
and
“A graveyard of all manner of things, crammed into this stifling daily life”.
Well, if the translation is correct, it looks like we got an explanation as to what a Scrap Farm is. It’s life.
So far, this seems to be the only song that has some sort of connection to the name of the album, and it’s a song that was made back in 2020, while this album came out in 2023. Did Hiiragi Kirai have this album planned for a long time? If so, that is interesting. But anyways, they’re basically calling themselves scrap metal with a sickness, but you know what you can do with a scrap? You can fix it up into something new. The idea that this person wants forgiveness tells me that they want to change for the better, and that’s usually the first step to improving yourself, knowing what you’re doing is wrong. But the sad thing is, not everyone is willing to do that. That’s why there’s so many scraps in the world, because they’re not willing to be fixed or no one wants to fix them.
But what does that have to do with the name, Disease? Well you got to think for a moment, do people become who they are because of contracting a disease or they always had that disease since birth? Are monsters created or born?
(Translation by DeepL)
15. Sakusakuri
After such a sorrow sounding song, we get rudely interrupted by the next track, Sakusakuri. This is a song Hiiragi Kirai produced for the Japanese male idol group, AlbaNox.
This is again, another Vocaloid version made as an album exclusive track. This song is good but I wouldn't say it's one of Hiiragi Kirai’s best. At the very least, it sounds better than Hide & Hide. This song feels like what Hide & Hide wanted to be, but it just wasn't executed very well. This song sounds more enjoyable and condense, while also being very fast paced, which captures this feeling of staying alert.
I do have to admit though, when I first started listening to this track, I couldn't help but be reminded of a previous song that Hiiragi Kirai produced, All Fools by KANKAN. Both of these songs sound a bit similar, especially the beginning parts of the songs.
Really the big difference is that in All Fools, they locked the fuck in, while in Sakusakuri, it’s like the lackluster imitation. I feel like there might have been some limitations to how this song came to be, probably due to the fact that it was made for a 7 member idol group, so maybe that was what held back Hiiragi Kirai’s full potential for this song.
I guess another big difference between the songs are their meanings. Getting back to Sakusakuri, this song was kinda difficult to decipher, especially the name itself. Sakusakuri (サクサクリ). It seems to be one of those unique Japanese words that for some reason can’t be properly translated to English. The best guesses that I got were “Crisp and Crisp” and “Crispy Sacrifice”. Well, take your pick.
Whatever the name is, I probably won’t need it anyways to get an idea of what this song is about. With the song, my best guess is it’s about how it seems to be easier to be sad and depressed than it is trying to be joyful and happy.
“Breaking free from the circle of sulking, Sacrifice after sacrifice, sinking lower and lower”
“If I cannot leave, I can't escape, then I'll just live carrying this feverish illness In an unending melancholy”
“If you can't see the light deep in my eyes, then I want to cherish what's swollen and soft With a sensation I can't shut off”
“Let me sleep with my mind as it is now In the never-ending cauldron of melancholy”.
What I’m speculating is kind of a stretch, but what I’m getting here is, despite how hard you try to achieve your dreams and gain some sort of fulfillment, you still come back to being depressed and sad, because that is something that has always been with you, so it’s a feeling that seems effortless to achieve. The person in the song also keeps referring to themselves as a
“cheap snack”
which I can only guess is them calling themselves a person that is easily obtainable, effortless, and not special or significant in any way. Basically, they think they’re just any regular person, and that is what is making them so sad. As for how the whole "sacrifice" thing comes into play, I guess it’s just another way of saying, you are giving up your hopes and dreams, because that seems to be what the person in the song is singing about.
(Translation by DeepL)
16. Faraway
The next track, Faraway, is a song that was made as a tie-in for the horror-drama series, Maimaimaigoen, which is a Sanrio property, the people behind Hello Kitty. Besides the Vocaloid songs, I haven't consumed anything from that series, so don’t expect me to be knowledgeable about it.
The song is about a character named Kanata, and his stuffed animal, Hinata, that he likes to think is real and talking to him. So it’s kinda like Calvin and Hobbes, but dark. I think Robot Chicken beat you to that.
Anyway, about the song, I was mixed on it at first, but as I listened to it more and more, I started to enjoy it more, and found myself more intrigued by it. The song kinda has a feeling that it takes place in a wild but also abnormal amusement park, which I guess was the intention, considering the series does take place in an abandoned amusement park.
Out of all the songs that I’ve covered so far, this one is probably the one I find to be the most disturbing in this album. The melody throughout the instrumental sounds like it’s purposefully going off key, but it doesn’t sound too off-putting either. Like it still flows well with the rest of the song, but I wouldn’t call it a catchy tune. Overall, I just think it’s weird. I just have a bad feeling about it.
What's even more disturbing is I'm not even entirely sure what the song is about. At first, I assumed it's about someone that never wants to be separated from their lover or…stuffed animal, but as the song goes on, a lot of the lyrics kinda contradict that theory. It would go from
“The two of us will be whispering the entire time, Creepy things, As long as we maintain eye contact”
to something like
“I don't have the time to be worrying about you”
and then it jumps back to
“Don't get carried away! My precious! I'm sick of your selfish whims”
and then back to
“Things such as bluffing, teasing, etc. Are just so outrageous! Just stop already!”
These seem like the kind of things you would say to a partner or a friend. From what I know on a surface level, the character, “Kanata”, likes to tease and pull pranks on people, and has a hard time trusting others besides his stuffed animal. So if it’s not about not wanting to be separated from your lover, my next best guess is that it’s about someone that does mischievous things to people, and then it eventually comes to a point where they go too far and it’s unforgivable. I assume that for lines like
“Don't get carried away! My precious! I'm sick of your selfish whims”
and
“Things such as bluffing, teasing, etc. Are just so outrageous! Just stop already!”
they aren’t saying this to someone else, they are saying it towards themselves, as well as
“I thought that apologizing for everything I've done would save me now!”
which all sounds like regret to me. Perhaps Kanata’s teasing and pranks got to a point where it crossed a line for some people, and now he feels regret about that, and perhaps that’s why he only considers Hinata as his only friend.
And as for the name, Faraway, it’s a reference to the fact that when translated into Japanese, like this “彼方”, the pronunciation sounds like Kanata, which I gotta say, that’s pretty clever. But I can’t help but feel like there’s also a double meaning here. I can only assume that “Faraway” is just another way of calling something a fantasy or an unreachable goal, like believing that your stuffed animal is actually talking to you or believing that you can be forgiven for your actions.
I think this song might make more sense to me if I actually looked into Maimaimaigoen some more, but as of now, this is what my judgement is, from an outside perspective.
17. Seek!
The next track is another album exclusive, and it’s simply called “Seek!” Not gonna lie, at first I thought this was a sequel to the other song we covered, Hide & Hide, get it? Cause Hide & Seek! Maybe it’s just a coincidence.
Well anyways, this song is…well let’s first get to what I do like. Flower sounds good…that’s about it. Forgive me if I start to sound heated from here, but there is so much wrong with this song. Besides the fact it’s another short song, I don’t like the way the guitar sounds here. At the beginning, it sounds monotone, and then suddenly, it gets loud after the chorus, and then it shortly goes back to being monotone again. Why is the guitar so inconsistent here? The softness mixed with the hardness just doesn't work. It’s like the song is about to go in a different direction and then just randomly goes back to where it started. It’s like it’s building up to something, and then it just holds itself back for some reason. Another thing I don’t like is that this song sounds rather cheap. It feels like such a downgrade compared to songs like Flower Bed, Lucky Brute, and Vita. Did Hiiragi Kirai even try here? It feels like a poorly made interlude for the album, especially with it being short. I did say I wanted Hiiragi Kirai to do more rock songs, but not like this? Flower Bed is a rock song, but that still sounded good. This song doesn’t sound congruent, like it doesn’t know what it wants to be, so what we’re left with is an underwhelming mess.
Well perhaps the lyrics might make up for that. The verse starts with,
“I searched for the recommended place. A heart that doesn't seek the bizarre”.
Okay, so I’m guessing they’re searching for a simple life that’s uneventful, assuming that a heart means a life.
“Delicate, I don't understand. Because no one teaches me”.
But I guess no one was there to really help them in preparing for the real world and achieve a simple life. I know that feeling. So what are they gonna do?
“Now seek seek hack hack hack. Sniffle sniffle post-death hack.”
...what? What the heck is a post-death hack? And why are they crying about it? At least, that’s what the translation is giving me. Is it like a computer hack? Are they talking about horcruxes, or remnant, or cooking meth? Is this one of those Japanese songs that only had the Japanese language in mind? Because it just sounds weird when translated to English. The rest of the chorus doesn’t help me either.
“Laughing at what I cried over”.
So are they talking about bad memories they cried over? How is that relevant to this “post-death hack”?
“My hands couldn't uncover it”.
So it’s something that can’t be found then? Is it reincarnation? Inheritance? Ghost hacking? A top position at a company? Give me something instead of being so vague.
The second verse better have something I can understand.
“I searched for the top spot.”
“Even that falls into a trap”.
Okay, they're back to searching now, but they went from a recommended place to a top spot. What's up with that? And what makes it a trap?
“A quick hack, fall into a trap. Because then you can be average”.
Okay, so whatever this “hack” is, it quickly leads them towards a trap of becoming an average person. Wait, so are they still talking about a post-death hack? Or are they talking about something else?
The second verse would go on and continue with this,
“People want to put on a good front, don't they? Even if it's just a quick fix. I don't need that stupid pride. Later it mixes, explodes, makes me sick”.
Are they still talking about the quick hack? Because to me, it sounds like they’re describing what the average person does. Always trying to appear “normal”, being a people pleaser, not showing your true self. You know, like masking. You usually do that to make other people think there's nothing wrong with you on the outside.
Anyways, the verse ends off with this line.
“On nights when tears fall, I say goodbye to my pillow”.
I assume they're saying that they’ll never get a chance to go to sleep on their own bed ever again, either due to insomnia or being overworked. They could also be talking about the exhaustion from all the masking they do a lot. Not gonna lie, this is one of the parts I do like in the lyrics, that and the “heart that doesn't seek the bizarre” line, because of how subtle and nuanced it is. I just wish it was in a better song. Not to mention, in a better verse, because the lines prior to this aren't so great at being subtle. I mean come on, “Later it mixes, explodes, makes me sick”. Like are you even trying? It probably sounds better in Japanese, but in English, it’s coming off a bit too blatant. Might as well write a song called “I'm So Sad, So Very, Very, Sad”. Also again, nothing about it gives me a clue on what a post-death hack is, but I guess there's some explanation for the crying.
After that, we get the chorus again, but some lines are replaced with
“Cursing what won't burn”
and
“Guide me with a clear answer”.
I’m guessing they went from laughing at bad memories to wanting to curse them. So the hack they are seeking for is wanting to erase bad memories then? How does that correlate with everything else in the song?
The rest of the song would then go on to repeat the first verse and the two choruses again, kinda like Hourglass. Actually no, it's nothing like that, because that song still gave me a clear picture on what it was trying to convey, but this song, it barely expands on what it is conveying, and when it does, it's either too vague, too on the nose, or it doesn't really add more to the idea. Leaving you sitting there wondering, what exactly did you listen to?
Well if you couldn't tell already, even the lyrics aren't helping in changing my mind on this song. Even if it’s because of the translator for making it sloppy, I still managed to understand the decent translations I got for other songs like Disease and Metron, so it feels like this is all the song has to offer me. It barely gives you enough to paint a good picture to really grasp what it’s talking about. They just throw bits and pieces to you, expecting you to be able to put it all together. Granted, you can say the same for most of Hiiragi Kirai’s other songs, but they still had some leads to go by to connect the dots and reach towards some conclusions.What I got from this song was, Life is hard, I wish it was easier, but I’m still uncertain if that's really it, and even if it is, why couldn’t that be expressed more congruently? The song just keeps throwing many curveballs, which takes your mind towards many different directions, when they should build up in one direction. Most of the subtext doesn’t really add more to the supposed narrative, and they could have honestly just been made in their own separate songs. This song feels like a venting freestyle, but they’re just saying a bunch of random buzzwords.
...or maybe the song is intended to be that way.
Maybe this song is supposed to be like a vent piece. Usually when you vent, your emotions are so out of control that you can’t think straight, so you can’t properly get your thoughts out and keep it together. Maybe this song is supposed to represent someone that has snapped and is just blabbing out whatever out of anger and sadness, which is why it sounds so unorganized and all over the place. The song is meant to capture what it feels like to have a midlife crisis...or maybe the song just sucks.
Maybe it makes more sense in Japanese, but I’m not holding my breath on that, because as of now, this is another one of my least favorite songs on this album. It’s like it’s trying to be something but it keeps holding itself back for some reason, and it kinda bothers me. I am willing to excuse the fact that the lyrics aren’t that great, but since the instrumental sounds cheaply made, it makes the song as a whole seem like a rushed job. This sounds like a demo that has yet to be finished. So far, this is the only track that I find to be the weakest, but at least this is just an album exclusive. I'd skip this one and seek a better song.
(Translation by DeepL)
18. Eureka
Eureka is perhaps the jazziest song that Hiiragi Kirai has made, and surprisingly, the most normal sounding song in this album. No fear inducing or conflicting vibes here. This is something I can actually tap my feet to in a calm manner, well for the most part. Instead, this song just makes you feel like you're anxious and on edge, which I guess is still considered a feeling of fear. Either way, I like this song, and I love the clarinet in this one as well. I do wish the song was longer through, because I feel like there was more to offer here.
The lyrics in this are pretty interesting. In the song, it seems like someone is having a conversation with someone that they consider “wise and logical”, and they seem to have a hard time connecting with them, as well as questioning their problematic behavior, like
“It's not good to keep doing that, To turn as cold as ice and close yourself off.”
But when the chorus comes in, they start pleading to them, like,
“Please let me be a kind person”, “teach me, everything, everything that I don't know!”
“Please let me realize how foolish I’ve been until now”
which got me wondering like, what’s with the conflicting dilemma here. Why did they make it about them now? Why would you ask for advice from someone like that? Why are you so reliant on this other person in teaching you how to behave? Who are they?
Your parent?
Doctor?
Or…yourself? Actually, that would make a lot of sense.
There’s a lot of back and forth throughout the lyrics, like this person is talking to their self-conscience. On one side, the person is concerned about wanting to be a good person and being less foolish, while on the logical side, that person is wise and logical, and they also seem to be concerned about being right, which is what I’m getting from the last line of the chorus,
“If you do that, that would make you right, right?”.
So it’s kinda like that song by Bo Burnham, “Left Brain, Right Brain”, where two sides of himself, one logical, the other emotional, are arguing with each other.
The only difference is, Eureka is less corny and more depressing, as well as being more ambiguous. While Bo Burnham’s song is left on a high note, Eureka kinda leaves me wondering if there was even a resolution. The second chorus ends with this line,
“From here on, it'll get complicated, right?”
And after that, the bridge of the song comes, which at first sounds similar to the chorus, but we soon learn how different it is. Here, the lyrics are
“Please let me be a righteous person. Why are only the things that I’ve left behind Being exposed and corrected? Anything but that! Tell me!”
What I’m getting here is that their past sins are coming back to haunt them, which could explain why they are so worked up about wanting to be a good person, especially since the chorus plays after that, like this dilemma is just an ongoing cycle for them and I’m not sure if it will ever reach a conclusion, because there’s no sign of a solution anywhere in this song, at least from what I’m seeing. Also, the person was just talking about how hard life is in the second verse, so it feels like this is just adding more to the pile.
So basically, despite getting the answers that they want, it’s not making it easier for them. So I guess the reason why the song is called Eureka is because that is what this person is still trying to achieve.
19. Akashic
And finally, we’re on the last track and last album exclusive track, Akashic. Well I’m not surprised that it sounds a bit spooky, but I also get a bit of a whimsical vibe from this song. It kinda sounds like something out of Harry Potter or something like that.
The echolike effect in flower’s voice is also in this song, just like in the first track, Hourglass. It, again, makes it sound like it’s being performed on a live stage.
I do have a few gripes with this song though. Um, how do I say this? It sounds unfinished. It sounds like a demo that needed more time cooking in the oven before being released, not to mention, it’s another short song. I feel like the song had a lot of potential, especially around the end of the song, where it sounded like it was building up to something grand with all the drums and background vocals, only to cut itself short. You know, I really hate it when that happens. I do like the vibe that the song is going for, but it just needed more time to be worked on, but it probably won’t, because I’m not sure if Hiiragi Kirai is the kind of artist to go back to their past work and rework it. As of now, I think this song is good, but isn’t a good reflection on what I like about Hiiragi Kirai. And to make it the last track of the album makes it seem like it’s ending on an underwhelming note.
Now one question I have is, what the heck is an Akashic? Well from what I read, the word comes from the concept, Akashic Records, which are “a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future, regarding not just humans, but all entities and life forms' [4]. So it’s basically a collection of information regarding the lives, ideas, and events that have ever existed and yet to exist, and that also includes animals and aliens I guess. And this concept is some sort of occultist belief.
So is Hiiragi Kirai trying to make me join their cult or something? Has this album been preaching to me this whole time? Oh god.
Um, anyways, back to the song. I guess it’s about someone that has the Akashic Records. Either that or they’re just crazy. But anyways, they say that they know everything, even things that haven’t been seen yet, but besides that, there are also mentions about being separated from someone. In the first verse, it starts with
“Where are you going? Don't ask me. I'll let you guess. It scares me, don't tell me Just kidding”.
And then it ends with
“We'll be separated, But you don't have to say it, it's okay, The scenery growing dark I'll just accept it, yeah”
Something tells me this is more than just getting separated from someone, I think this is about this person’s life coming to an end. I mean the second verse has this line,
“Even after everything ends, Let's talk, how, how”.
Not to mention, the way the song ends,
“Where are you going? Don't ask me. I'll let you guess-”
It was going to repeat the first chorus, but then it just cuts off. Like someone suddenly passing away. And if we go back to the fact that this song is about the Akashic Record, and knowing about its connections to the occult, I assume this person believes that the afterlife is becoming a part of the Akashic Records, and getting to know everything that it has in store. You know how I said that this song feels like it’s ending the album on an underwhelming note, well maybe that’s what it feels like to pass away.
(Translation by DeepL)
FINAL THOUGHTS:
And that was Scrap Farm. An album that I’d say really showcases Hiiragi Kirai’s growth as a Vocaloid producer by creating many great songs, and providing them with great tuning to make flower almost sound alive, making her feel like an integral part of the music, and keeping the song memorable as well, not to mention being more tolerable to listen to compared to other producers that use flower. Another thing I want to highlight about the album was the fair amount of variety. Hiiragi is mostly known for electro swing, and when it came to this album, there was still a good amount of that in here, but they also diverged from it many times and have showed their interest and capability of tackling other music genres like rock, symphony, EDM, country, etc. I think this helps in demonstrating their growth as an artist as it shows they are open to going further by developing their style, as well as experimenting and innovating upon their craft, so that they always keep their music interesting. I especially liked their directions towards rock, with songs like Galleria and Flower Bed, and I would love to see more of that or even something better. I do still enjoy the style that they’re known for, but sometimes it’s good to experiment once in a while, to keep things fresh and exciting. I’d say the songs that had best results from going the extra mile are Galleria, Lucky Brute, True Therapy, and Vita.But of course, being experimental doesn’t always lead to good results, like with Hide & Hide, Steal, and Seek for example. Getting to songs like that did make it feel like the album was shifting in tone and quality in a way that was very noticeable and kind of bothersome. I definitely started noticing it around the second half of the album. I really enjoyed the first few tracks of the album, but I wasn't able to maintain that enjoyment listening to tracks after Disease. There was a mix of okay songs, like Sakusakuri and Akashic, and bad songs like Seek, which made the last half feel off-putting. Even non-exclusive tracks like Faraway and Eureka, while good, still felt out of place here. Not to mention, some songs were too short to my liking. Made it seem like they weren’t finished yet, as I wasn't fully satisfied listening to most of them. I wish Hiiragi Kirai took more time to make them a bit longer. It just felt like things were rushed here, like some tracks were made to fill a quota so that the album can actually sell. If I’m going to be honest, the album should have ended with Disease being the last track. While it's technically not an album exclusive, I just think it’s a better track to wrap up everything, especially a lot better than the cultist-like song that was Akashic. Not to mention, it even gave an explanation as to what the album title meant. And you know, 14 tracks is a good amount for an album and I would have felt satisfied with that, but because it kept going and how it decided to wrap things up, it made me more annoyed with the quality and the flaws I had towards the album. I didn't really gain more from listening to the last few tracks, and I could honestly take them or leave them in this album. But overall, I did still enjoy most of the approaches that Hiiragi Kirai went for in this album.
While I do like the first half of the album music-wise, lyrically-wise? Not so much. Many of the songs in the first half seem to have overlap when it comes to their themes, with most of them being about bad relationships, and it got to a point where it was getting repetitive. It felt like a one trick pony that Hiiragi Kirai kept using when it came to making most of these songs. Because of the many bad relationship songs in this album, it came off like they were projecting their depreciation towards relationships too much. I’m not sure if that was their intention, but it came off like that, and it did kind of irritate me. Now I'm not saying you can't write songs about bad relationships, but do it while adding more to it, to mix it up more, have each song stand out on their own, and give people different insights about relationships that people don't usually think about. I guess you can say they did that with songs like Love Ka and Flower Bed, but I wanted more than that. I wanted them to show variety with their lyrics, the same way they did when arranging their music. There were some exceptions, like Hourglass and Greeding, but for the most part, it was just songs about relationship issues, and I was getting a bit tired of that.
Thankfully, the second half of the album is where the album truly shows variety lyrical-wise, starting from True Therapy to Akashic. Those songs seem to drift more away from relationships and lean more towards the hardships of life through different perspectives. Despite how I felt with the second half, music-wise, I did feel like I gained more from understanding the songs more through their lyrics, which gave me a better appreciation of them more. You know, it’s funny. I like the first half of the album more than the second half, music-wise, but I like the second half more than the first half, lyrical-wise. It’s interesting that’s the way it is.
Despite that, I did still appreciate the way the songs were written to feel subtle and ambiguous, but sometimes, they came off too subtle and ambiguous, making them challenging to decipher. It was like trying to solve a hard puzzle and it got to a point where I felt like I was just making shit up as I go. But admittingly, I wouldn’t say the experience was all bad. I did like the ambiguity from the songs, because it showed that there was some thought and effort put into the lyrics to get people to actually think critically about what is said, to keep them interested and come back to them, and hopefully grow to appreciate them more. It definitely worked for me, for the most part. When I eventually get the jist of it, I find myself more engaged with the song and its message. It’s like going inside a person’s psyche to understand them, only to find out they’re a lot more complicated than you thought. You can understand some things, but you're still left wondering.
Overall, despite how the messages are conveyed, I still found the tone of the album to be pretty intriguing and meaningful, and honestly, also pretty sad as well. Like I said before, the songs in this album are mostly about relationship issues, self-hatred, and the hardships of life, and I’m sure those are things a lot of people resonate with. So after going through the whole album, I think I understand why it’s called Scrap Farm, it’s meant to be a reflection of life.
The Scrap Farm is an overcrowded wasteland filled with scraps, each of them representing a person with their own set of problems. Most of them are rounded up and put into separate containers, like people stuck in their own communities with their own set of rules, and sometimes we cross paths, but most of the time, we’re either excluded or remain in one place. Sometimes, crossing paths can lead us into conflict, like resentment or even warfare. What the scraps have in common though is that they all keep the farm going by having the same purpose, satisfying others that are bigger than them, being carried around and used by others, while taking care of themselves and dealing with their own problems is an ongoing struggle for them, like a chicken that’s only purpose is to stay in one place to lay eggs and get eaten or a boss telling their workers what to do. We can always be rebuilt into something better, but that opportunity isn't equally distributed. At the end of the day, we all live to suffer until we die and eventually get replaced like we’re disposable, just like scraps. We’re the ones that are built to hold everything together to make the world go round, while the ones above us benefit from it the most, and that is what the Scrap Farm represents.
I do have to admit though, after listening to this album, it makes me wonder if Hiiragi Kirai is alright. Because of the direction they decided to take for this album, it just seems like they have a very cynical view on relationships and life in general, so this is like their cry for help. Kind of like Maretu, but the only difference is, Maretu’s songs feel like they have a more aggressive and outrageous view on life, while with Hiiragi Kirai’s songs, it feels like they view their life as a sad tragedy. As of now, Hiiragi Kirai hasn’t been posting as frequently as they used to. They’re still involved with some projects here and there, but it’s at a minimum, and they seem to be going at a slow pace these days.
And you know, perhaps it’s better that way; not being too focused on making many sad songs at this moment. It could mean they’re more focused on prioritizing their personal life and trying to make things better for themselves. And I think that is something that we should all take from this album. Despite how tough life is, you should still try to keep on going and make life better for yourself, so that you don’t end up feeling like you have fallen into a ditch, like the people in these songs. So as much as I enjoy Hiiragi Kirai’s music, I’m fine with them focusing on what is more important to them and come back to making more songs when they’re ready.
- Mobius
- Greeding
- Galleria
- Troy
- Flower Bed
- True Therapy
- Vita
- Disease
- Seek!
- Some experimental approaches
- Great tuning of Vflower
- Decent production quality
- Some good album exclusive tracks
- Fair variety of different genres
- Mixing can be better in some songs
- Underwhelming last track
- Clashing tone shifts from some tracks
- Quality starts to deteriorate near the end
- Lacking variety of theming
Taking the pros and cons into consideration, I am honestly feeling a solid 7/10.
Despite its flaws, this was overall a pretty good album and an enjoyable experience.
So in conclusion, I suddenly have an interest in watching The Odyssey now.
VIDEO VERSION COMING SOON
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IMAGE SOURCES:
Ryuuseee: https://x.com/ryuuseee/status/1607678838473101312/photo/1
Nintendo: https://omegametroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Metroid-Zero-Mission-123.png
Yahoo! Japan Flea Market: https://paypayfleamarket.yahoo.co.jp/item/z230235052
The Vocaloid Collection: https://vocaloid-collection.jp/2021-autumn/special/vmaj/
ZABI: https://x.com/ZabiMasurao/status/1445719488360431618/photo/1
Sanrio: https://www.maimaimaigoen.com/character/detail/index.html?chara=04
TEXT SOURCES:
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/M%C3%B6bius%20strip
[2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Trojan-horse
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metron_(poetry)
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashic_records
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