Spitz -- Mizuiro no Machi（水色の街）

 

Last weekend, I wrote up an article for 1970s folk group Sanrisha's（三輪車）"Mizuiro no Machi"（水色の街）and then I noticed in the backlog that there was another identically-titled song by the more contemporary rock band Spitz（スピッツ）.

However, Spitz's "Mizuiro no Machi" (Aqua Town) isn't a cover of the Sanrisha song at all but their 27th single from August 2002. So, unlike the jaunty nature of Sanrisha's song, Spitz's tune is a more contemplative affair that I think might fall under the umbrella of shoegaze or dream pop according to vocalist/songwriter Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）and Seiji Kameda's（亀田誠治）arrangements.

According to the J-Wiki article for the song, the town in the title may actually refer to the city of Kawasaki between Tokyo and Yokohama although that is not made clear in Kusano's lyrics which merely relate someone's fondness for a woman in that town. Furthermore, the music video for "Mizuiro no Machi" might have been filmed in Thailand according to that elephant and the signboard. Indeed, there is something very dreamlike about the video which looks as if Kusano had hooked himself to that machine from Christopher Nolan's "Inception".

There may be a certain level of surreal wonder with "Mizuiro no Machi" but that's not to say that there is anything wrong with the song. It's all very relaxing despite the jangling of guitars and crashing of drums, and I could say that it can be used as an entry in a lineup of a hammock-friendly compilation mixtape. The single reached No. 5 on Oricon and it was released on the same day as the 26th single "Hanemono"（ハネモノ...The Rejected）. Both songs were also tracks on Spitz's 10th studio album "Mikazuki Rock"（三日月ロック...Crescent Moon Rock）, released in September that same year. The album hit No. 1 and became the 44th-ranked release of 2002.