Ai to Iu Takaramono / 愛という宝物

Ai to Iu Takaramono / 愛という宝物: “A Treasure Called Love”

ai / 愛

“love”

to / と

A particle used as a quotation

iu / いう

“to call” (a name), “to say”. Also written as 言う.

takaramono / 宝物

“treasure”

Oku Hanako’s new double A-side single, Omoide ni Nare/Ai to Iu Takaramono / 思い出になれ／愛という宝物 has been released!

Today, I have for you the only song that I could find out of the three songs on the single: the second of the two A-sides, Ai to Iu Takaramono / 愛という宝物. It’s the CM song for the “2016 cross fm official GREEN campaign”.

愛という宝物 by yasutaka [Nico Nico Douga]

At first when I found a video for the song, I thought it was going to be one of those useless fan announcement videos (if you’re going to announce something by a music artist, at least use her music!); I was about to skip it when I heard her voice come in.

This song has a style that I’ve never heard before in any of her other songs, and yet I think it’s still distinctly hers. One of the things I notice about this song is all the voice layering: it’s not a new technique for her, but it seems to be done a lot more in this song; usually it’s restricted to just a certain section like the bridge or interlude. Sure I miss her old style, but I’m not complaining about this one. Overall, I think the style sounds very refined.

I can’t wait to hear the rest of the single!

Cover art for Omoide ni Nare/Ai to Iu Takaramono / 思い出になれ/愛という宝物 released!

The cover art for Oku Hanako’s upcoming double A-side single “Omoide ni Nare/Ai to Iu Takaramono” / 思い出になれ/愛という宝物 was released on Twitter today.

奥華子new single『思い出になれ/愛という宝物』ジャケ写出来ました！
全曲ライブのシークレットソングで歌い反響が大きかった「小さなアリ」のライブ音源も収録！盛り沢山シングル9/21発売宜しくお願いします☆ pic.twitter.com/0jH9Uz3ML9

— 奥華子 (@okuhanako) August 7, 2016

Cover art for Omoide ni Nare/Ai to Iu Takaramono

It appears to be a head shot of her leaning against a brick wall.

According to the updated announcement post, the track list also appears to be finalized:

1. Omoide ni Nare / 思い出になれ (“Become a Memory”)
2. 愛という宝物（2016 cross fm GREEN campaign song） (“A Treasure Called Love”)
3. Chiisa na Ari / 小さなアリ（Live ver.）(“Small Ant”)

The newly-revealed song, “Chiisa na Ari”, is the “secret song” that was listed for one of her recent concert tours. According to Popscene^[jp], it is one of her indies songs and the recording is from one of her recent hikigatari tours. Further research reveals that this was the 40th song played during the 2007 Oku Hanako Day^[jp] event. Taking a look at nouburin28’s blog post^[jp] that lists the keys for her songs, it is likely in the key of D, and the note says that the first performance of this song was on June 25, 1999.