Shintaro Sakamoto -- Omoide ga Kiete Yuku（思い出が消えてゆく）

I heard a theory once some time back. Supposedly as one ages, he/she will only remember the more recent half of his/her life at whatever age with anything approaching clarity. Therefore, if the person is 40, then the time between 20 and 40 will still be in the old melon fairly clearly. At age 80, it may more be like the memories between 40 and 80 that are still pretty strong.

Not quite sure if I really believe in that theory too much since despite the alleged eventual fadeout of the ability to remember one's salad days, it seems to be a reach to think that the period of clear remembrances gets larger and larger as one gets older and older. Plus, although a lot of haziness has set in when it comes to my childhood years, I still retain my earliest memory of crawling on a wood floor at a family friend's house when I was 3, and of course, there are my just-as-if-it-were-yesterday memories of traveling through Japan in 1981 at 16.

Just the introduction to present before showing Shintaro Sakamoto's（坂本慎太郎）"Omoide ga Kiete Yuku" (My Memories Fade). Sakamoto is the former vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the eclectic band Yura Yura Teikoku（ゆらゆら帝国）which had its run between 1989 and 2010. Once the band was done, Sakamoto went onto his solo career.

His first of three solo albums was "Maboroshi to no Tsukiai Kata"（幻とのつきあい方...How To Live With A Phantom）from November 2011. One of those tracks "Omoide ga Kiete Yuku" is a dreamy sing-songy number with a keyboard relentlessly counting time like a grandfather clock and a twangy guitar that seems to reflect some fellow's slow walk into his second childhood. In fact, he mentions children a fair bit in the song in a way as if he's trying to grasp at those blurry kids from his failing mind. By the end, Sakamoto is simply and forlornly calling out "Memories..." as they scatter like dust in a breeze. It's relaxing and haunting at the same time.

"Maboroshi to no Tsukiai Kata" reached No. 11 on Oricon and became the 79th-ranked album on the indies charts. If you like, you can also take a look at what he was doing with Yura Yura Teikoku here.