Ai no Shizuku / 愛のしずく

Ai no Shizuku / 愛のしずく: “Drops of Love”

ai / 愛

“love”

no / の

A particle that acts as a modifier. Roughly equivalent to “of”

shizuku / しずく

“drop”

In recognition of the upcoming All Songs Live! Blu-ray BOX, today’s song will be the titular song of Oku Hanako’s first indies release, the mini-album from 2000, Ai no Shizuku / 愛のしずく.

According to Generasia, the mini album was limited to only 1000 copies and was only sold at live events. As I had pointed out in a previous post, this release has been auctioned for even more than the Blu-ray BOX.

This song appeared as the opening track of the mini album. Outside of the mini album, the only other time this song has appeared in her releases was in her 2010 Christmas concert DVD released in 2011. It will appear again in the All Songs Live! Blu-ray BOX.

The old name for this song is “Good Night” and was listed so for the LAPIN ET HALOT performance on June 25, 1996.

奥華子　レア曲 by 爆走チャーリー [Nico Nico Douga]

Compared to the rest of the songs on the mini album, this is the one that sounds the most typical, even if Sonna Kigashita / そんな気がした ended up on vol.best and not this song.

Lyrics for Tsumiki / 積木

Tsumiki / 積木: “building blocks”

Being one of her more obscure indies songs, and one of the most unusual at that with only drums instead of piano, Tsumiki was a hard find.

I follow a bot on Twitter, @09876lyrics_bot, that tweets an excerpt from Oku Hanako’s songs every hour. I noticed a few of times that it posted lyrics for Tsumiki and it has apparently posted the whole song over five tweets:

２人が一緒にいるとなんだか嬉しかった 「２人で食べるとおいしいね」って言ってたね いつもと同じはずなのに 空気も景色も すべてが綺麗に見えた あなたの隣にいるからじゃなくて 心がわかったから / 積木

— 奥華子歌詞bot (@09875lyrics_bot) August 14, 2015

会うたびに変わってゆく あなたが恐くて 誰よりも愛しい 好きという気持ちだけじゃ頼りないけど 何よりも大事なこと / 積木

— 奥華子歌詞bot (@09875lyrics_bot) April 2, 2015

あの頃の私達を 天秤に架けてみよう きっと釣り合ってたね ２人はいつも同じ場所にいた よそ見もしないで あなただけを見る事がとても幸せだった あなたの手の中もがいてる その苦しさが今は欲しい / 積木

— 奥華子歌詞bot (@09875lyrics_bot) February 18, 2015

心があなたのとこに置きざりのまま 私から目を反らすあなたのことを見てる 信じたもの 許したもの 手に入れたもの 全てが消えてゆく / 積木

— 奥華子歌詞bot (@09875lyrics_bot) December 31, 2014

２人の間の見えない積み木を一つ一つ一緒に積んだ 絶対に崩れてしまわぬように ボンドでいっぱい固めた 私といることが辛いのなら 遠くからあなたを見守ってるよ こんなにも あなたを知ってしまったら もう他の誰も 愛せないから･･･ / 積木

— 奥華子歌詞bot (@09875lyrics_bot) April 8, 2015

These tweets are recent, but the bot has been posting lyrics for this song since 2012.

Line breaks were determined from this image:

Ai no Shizuku / 愛のしずく booklet showing Tsumiki / 積木 lyrics

And while I was formatting the lyrics, I noticed an error: @09875lyrics_bot had 許したもの instead of 許したこと (note もの and こと).

Such a novelty item this mini album is. I found the picture above from an auction site and that copy sold for ¥36800, which is over US$300. There’s another one that sold for ¥27000 (over US$200).

All that’s left for this song is a translation. If you have one, please submit it

Tsumiki / 積木

Tsumiki / 積木: “building blocks”

Out of all of Oku Hanako’s songs, Tsumiki has to be one of the most unusual. Like a lot of her other songs, it features only two elements: her singing and another instrument. However, that instrument isn’t a piano, nor is it even a trumpet.

奥華子　積木 by takayukikk [Nico Nico Douga]

The instrument is a drum set! A drum set, can you believe it? To my knowledge, she doesn’t play the drums, so either she really does play, she used a drum machine or other computer program, or she got someone to play for her. As for calling it “hikigatari” (“singing to one’s own accompaniment”), it depends: if she played it while singing (which would be quite impressive), then it would be, but otherwise not.

Tsumiki is the third track on Oku-san’s début mini album, Ai no Shizuku / 愛のしずく, released in 2000, making this one of her indies songs. That makes it even more curious: being an indies song, she must have come up with it herself; does that also imply that she also knows how to write a really good drum solo? If so, that would explain Garasu no Hana / ガラスの花 and blue green (especially blue green), two songs that have incredible arrangements that were arranged by her.

Tsumiki is actually quite impressive. To be able to pull this off well, the song has to have a strong melody, since it’s the only melodic element present; without it, it’s just a long drum solo. Similarly, the drum part has to be captivating, otherwise it’s just someone singing with an interesting metronome. Indeed, she sings with strong vocals, perhaps the strongest of all her songs, and she’s accompanied by a drum line that commands respect.

I’d make some sort of comment on the lyrics, but I can’t find even the Japanese. Considering this is one of her really obscure songs, I wasn’t expecting much.

Overall, a jaw-dropping performance by Oku Hanako from her indies days.

Gekkou / 月光

Gekkou / 月光: “moonlight”. 月: “moon”; 光: “light”

You’re in for a treat today. “Gekkou” is one of Oku Hanako’s earlier indies songs, appearing as track 2 on her 2000 debut mini album, Ai no Shizuku / 愛のしずく.

I find Gekkou to be somewhat ahead of its time, almost like something that you’d expect from her 2010 album, Utakata / うたかた. She sings with a full voice, and it’s very apparent that she’s singing from her diaphragm. She also sings in her lower range—that’s something that’s actually more common in her indies songs than you might think, but it’s not something that we’re used to in her major career. I even hear a hint of vibrato in there.

奥華子 「月光」 [Nico Nico Douga]

Ah, quite refreshing.

She released a re-sung version in 2012 for disc 3 of Oku Hanako BEST -My Letters-. I’ll post that version eventually, but I think the indies version is much better than the new version. The way she sings in the indies version captures the mood better than the cute voice we all know and love.