Passing through the stillness of the night
There is something we may share
So now, I reach out my hand, gazing into a cage
Gorgeously, the wind plays the melody of spring
At the end of the world, I was searching
For a precious thing, only just the one.
If we cross the speed of sound and melt together, then look—
We won’t even need time, you know
We keep on walking
Lose ourselves in time, pass each other by.
So now, I’ll give you a song,
To spin a thread that had come undone
The milky way glitters, bores into my heart
Soar,
Beautifully
The blueness of the sun, an angels’ parade
These feelings—I want to exist without changing
I want to set the same landscape to piano
And meet you here, once more
If it will come true, just let me make a wish
Before I end up forgetting
During so many chance encounters
Now, I would call out your name
Earth of silence
Confused universe
Graced the beautiful name
(And I sing) buzz love song
At the end of the world
Was the thing I was searching for
A hymn to an unending tomorrow
In order to make up for the fragment that I’ve lost
Now, here, I’ll call out your name
Even though we’re at a distance
To wherever you are
.
★
I found your place.
But when the lights go out
Where are you?
I call your name
But when the lights go out
I call the beautiful name
God may bless you
Now and forever
Graces us tonight
I want you bless yourself
I found your place
But when the lights go out
I call the beautiful name
God may bless you
Now and forever
Graces us without
Without you
.
NOTES / INTERPRETATION:
Blue font indicates text originally written in English in the official booklet.
★. These additional verses of the song, called Graced the beautiful day, are an accompanying prologue of a piece written entirely in English, which has only ever been performed live. A live recording of this is included on their UNTITLED VANDAL(ism) #FINALE GRACED THE BEAUTIFUL DAY live DVD, and Show posted the lyrics on the ameba blog that he maintained at the time.
Thoughts. This song holds a free-flying joy the likes of which is not difficult to imagine just in reading the lyrics, but which is only compounded by listening to the music that envelops them. The speaker in the lyrics calls out to someone they feel deeply connected to, but who they do not tangibly know. Like a soulmate they haven’t met, except perhaps in dreams. Or a soulmate they once crossed paths with, but didn’t recognize—and so, with a song, they try to reel in their thread of destiny, shorten the unknown distance between them. I love the imagery of setting a familiar landscape, whether real or dreamed, to piano (music), to recreate a meeting place. A part of me even wonders if it might be a sort of companion to the lyrics of Dream-electric eden-, in which the speaker wanders through and waits in an imagined meeting place while feeling the surreal nature of the real location they find themselves in. the beautiful name as a follow-up, then, is a reminder to not stop believing in love, in connection, in the beauty of having hope.
The theme of a fateful encounter within innumerable chance meetings is one that shows up strongly in their subsequent album, GEMINI, but which also makes appearances in lyrics here and there in later years.
In 2019, Saga re-arranged the song slightly to include his own vocals harmonizing with Show’s, giving the song yet another dimension of beauty with those new, soaring notes. During lives, while Show continues to sing the main verses, Saga leads the audience in repetitions of the English verse, the entire audience unifying with the band in one of their most beloved classics’ joyous refrain.
Listening to this song is like reaching up to embrace the heavens, the cosmos.
It’s beautiful—it always lifts me up.
.
アリス九號. ★ the beautiful name → VANDALIZE (将・2009)
ALICE NINE. – the beautiful name | From VANDALIZE (Show – 2009)
Original text translated from Japanese.
Song composed by 沙我 (Saga).
Purchase from itunes | Listen on Spotify (2019 version).