Suiyoubi no Campanella -- Buckingham（バッキンガム）

 

OK, the first time that I saw this music video by the eclectic music unit Suiyoubi no Campanella（水曜日のカンパネラ）, I'd thought that the face of the group, vocalist KOM_I（コムアイ）, looked a little different and a little wild. Maybe she changed her makeup and hair style, I first went. Well, actually, I didn't get the memo until too late but last September, KOM_I left Suiyoubi no Campanella.

In her place, came in model and new vocalist Utaha（詩羽）and she has made quite the impression with her first music video with Suiyoubi no Campanella, "Buckingham", a song from the group's 7th single "Alice/Buckingham"（アリス / バッキンガム）which was released in October 2021. Her voice warps out at a parsec a minute to some exotic-sounding technopop set to band songwriter Hidefumi Kenmochi's（ケンモチヒデフミ）patter that I couldn't quite understand until I checked out his lyrics. The key is the word kyuuden（きゅうでん）which is represented by two sets of kanji: 「宮殿」and「給田」. The first set is translated as palace as in Buckingham Palace in London, and the second set refers to a local area known as Kyuuden in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. 

From then on, the lyrics take on parallel routes of palaces from various other countries and that area of Kyuuden with Utaha even throwing out the exact coordinates and postal number for it (maybe she's from the area). Talk about giving a shoutout to a geographical location! I just wonder when it does become much easier to travel between Japan and the rest of the world whether Suiyoubi no Campanella fans will flock to Kyuuden as a pop cultural pilgrimage (and by the way, take the Keio Line westbound from Shinjuku to either Chitose-Karasuyama or Sengawa Stations since Kyuuden is smack-dab in between them). I'd be curious enough to try!