Kirinji -- Daikanyama Elegy（代官山エレジー）

 

I've been to the neighbourhood of Daikanyama, Tokyo on a few occasions, all due to the fact that my friend was living in the area at the time. My impression of this very stylish area is that it was filled with college students dressed all in black (and perhaps reading stuff like Sartre). I probably stuck out like a hillbilly in Beverly Hills (I think there was an old TV show about that😊) and perhaps not surprisingly, I don't have any photographs of Daikanyama, as if someone from the great beyond (but a spirit who could afford an apartment in Daikanyama) whispered in my ear "YOU ARE FORBIDDEN FROM TAKING ANY PHOTOS IN THIS VICINITY! YOU ARE NOT DAIKANYAMA ENOUGH!". Ahem...regardless, enjoy the above video by Tokyo Weekender.

Perhaps then, this song by the cool fraternal duo Kirinji (before they exploded into a full-fledged band some years later) can be considered to be a contemporary form of a go-touchi（ご当地）song. "Daikanyama Elegy" hails from the Horigome brothers' November 2002 self-cover album "Omnibus". I also read that the smooth-as-silk song was actually first sung by actor-comedian-singer Takashi Fujii（藤井隆）but I can't seem to find hide nor hair of his original version. 

However, I am not complaining at all at this self-cover which says Kirinji（キリンジ）all over. It was a combination of the brothers along with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）coming up with the result, and this "Omnibus" version sounds like the type of music that customers in a Daikanyama cafe would hear. It's such a kakkoii and laidback song that would make Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）weep for joy and envy. I can talk on the music to a certain extent but as I've mentioned in past articles, I'm not so much of an expert on lyrics. However, I have to state that one person's Japanese blog entry that covers the song is absolutely enraptured by the words in "Daikanyama Elegy" so that I felt I had to say something about it. Feel free to use Google Translate to find out what he's saying.

Pretty moody music video for such a relaxing song. You may recognize the two actors in there. As for "Omnibus", it reached No. 42 on Oricon.