Credits

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

Thursday, June 18, 2020

Naotaro Moriyama -- Hibi(日々)



Some weeks ago, when NHK's "Uta Kon"(うたコン)was merely broadcasting a combination of past clips and a couple of artists performing from home, one of the guests was Naotaro Moriyama(森山直太朗). He's one of the relatively few singers who can put forth a fine falsetto such as in his famous tune "Sakura"(さくら), and Moriyama that night put out an unplugged version of a 2013 single "Hibi" (Days). The actual footage was up on YouTube but it looks like it has been taken down.

I found "Hibi" to be a nice song to hear especially during these times of social distancing and staying-at-home because the lyrics relate on how to keep on going through the tough times, just by taking things day-by-day. Day-by-day is the one way that I've been enduring staying only within the neighbourhood for the past few months, and I figure that the status quo will remain so for another few weeks at least.


Moriyama and poet/lyricist Kaito Okachimachi(御徒町凧)worked together on both words and music to create "Hibi", the singer's 19th single which peaked at No. 46 on Oricon. I read an article somewhere years ago in which it said that during tough times, soothing ballads tend to come out to the fore. If so, I think "Hibi" would be one of the ideal ones.

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