After hearing about some controversy around the Angel Beats OP, I decided to give it a try.
Some thoughts as I listened through:
0:12
Strong opening – repeating the same melancholic melody (see what I did there?) sets the mood. Piano sounds digitally enhanced but I’m lovin’ it.
0:20
Strings! I love violins. And surprise LIA!
0:30
Weird eighth notes playing off-key… this would work, but nothing else is playing but the synth beat (not plural!) and Lia singing.
Lia doesn’t go beyond an octave for this whole first half. Don’t you need a strong melody to contrast the off-key notes with?
0:50
We get some more instruments now, finally. And Lia puts some feeling into her song.
0:55
I guess the song comes into its own around this point but…
1:00
Wait, where the fuck is the piano? It’s drowned out by EVERYTHING.
1:20
Okay, it’s bac–
1:30
I feel like I just got trolled.
Edit:
I did like how they animated Tenshi playing the notes, I wouldn’t be surprised if she were hitting the actual keys to the song too.
You should be a music blogger mang. All I noted was the flat singing and that things just didn’t seem to match. I am impress.
Not sure what you felt trolled about, exactly; I quite like this song.
In the verse, you missed the other instruments: the driving bass, the synth, and the strings (well, which are also snyth). A bit of electric guitar gets added in the second half. And the piano isn’t so much off-key, as they’re passing notes that support/complement the (simple) melody. I think the balance between the melody and the off-beat keys is pretty critical — neither one is supposed to over-power the other, which is why the melody isn’t “stronger”.
The pre-chorus, where you said the “songs comes to its own” serves (as all pre-choruses do) as a transition. The piano doesn’t get drowned out in the chorus, it just starts playing rhythm as well as accents, so it’s supposed to be part of the “fill” rather than simply stand on its own. I think the mix here is actually quite good, as they gradually increase the prominence of the electric guitar to give the song a bit more of a driving feel.
Also, note the 3/4, 5/4 pattern in the intro that comes back at the end, which is what gives it that sort of mournful/melancholic sound.
So anyway, from a musical perspective, this is very much your usual modern J-pop/light rock piece (intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, all gradually building in intensity), with the piano serving as the main distinguishing feature. The mix is rather usual for the style of music. So I’m really not too sure why you felt trolled or what the supposed “controversy” is about, though of course liking any music is a matter of taste.
Oh my.
To tell the truth, this post was borne from a (playfully?) vitriolic irc conversation (#animeblogger if you have the stomach) so I was quite surprised by your analytic response (which I didn’t expect).
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the gradual crescendo (is it really that typical of jpop?) I just found the first half to be lackluster… That said, I can’t wait for TAM Music or someone to do their version of it.
As for me feeling trolled, the first time I heard the song I really did go “wtf”… it’s complicated. I guess with Tenshi on the piano like that, I was expecting the piano to have a stronger role in the song (carrying the main melody instead of accents).
And controversy, eh? Apparently the song has its fair share of detractors xD.
Regardless, thanks for your opinion, you did bring up some valid points.
“is it really that typical of jpop?”
Actually, that’s a good point – the gradual crescendo is a common pattern in modern music in general, but most J-pop (and especially the songs chosen for anime OPs) tend to start with a big intro, and then drop back a bit for the verse only to build back up to the chorus. I guess you could say that they generally want OPs to start with a “bang”. The way this song starts leave an impact in a different way (and makes the show seem more “thoughtful”, serious or whimsical, I guess). I guess I could see from the beginning how you might have expected something a bit more classical/instrument driven, but it turned out to be almost a bit more electronica. The piano is simply the lead accompaniment.
But yeah, I wasn’t too sure just how serious you were being, but I thought I’d offer a bit of a musical perspective anyway. :p I will at least say that it’s one of the more musically-interesting OP songs of this anime season, at least for doing something a bit differently in terms of the instrumentation.
Finally!
Well considering I watched it once (on Youtube)…. it’s techneoclassical imo (jpop lol). Visuals are really awesome, but I don’t think the piano is the main instrument since its a vocal song; if the piano fades in and out of /existence/ it’s somewhat expected :<
@relentless:
Hate it or love it, the OP really is quite interesting xD.
@Ryan:
Which is why I wait for TAM… ;_;
(boring elm0 captcha)
@hikago, after listening to it more, the piano is there and I think it’s good. It underlies the entire melody.
this sucks
you all suck
wu tang clan bitches