Review Summary: Literal or Sarcastic; whichever you prefer it to be.
Supercell’s second full length album Today is a Beautiful Day operates on the premise that its title is ambiguous to how the listener is feeling when they hear it; literally or sarcastically. That makes discussing how this album feels rather difficult in a way, because today I took it sarcastically. I’ve found literal appreciation in the album's bright, poppy nature before, multiple times in fact. Every time “Perfect Day” comes on I smile, tap my feet and nod my head along as its graceful guitars and Nagi Yanagi’s melancholic voice remind me of time spent as a young child just coming out of primary school and finding pleasure in trying to keep my balance walking along a curb. Or the when the funky bass and piano of “Feel So Good” comes on and gets me absorbed in the comfort of happiness.
Despite all that, I still took it sarcastically today. But it didn’t affect how I felt about the album as a whole and that’s what’s wonderful about it. Despite finding “Perfect Day” as a cynical and mournful ode to a time filled with joy lost forever, Today is a Beautiful Day is still a heavily emotionally impacting album. It’s rare to find an album that will stick with you no matter what in a way like that. It doesn’t matter what mood you find yourself in because this album bats on whatever side of the field you’re batting on. Within the soft comfort of Today is a Beautiful Day are little moments of directly relatable nostalgia and memories.
Cleverly establishing the album's reflective nature, the album starts off at the end with “Owari e Mukau Hajimari no Uta,” (which literally means “The First Song which Heads to the End”), a light and mellow piano driven track that introduces us to the softness and warmth of Yanagi’s voice. Yanagi’s voice complements Ryo’s composition in a much more human way than what Hatsune Miku provided on their debut, tying in more honestly with Ryo’s fascination with human emotion in his lyrics. Structurally, as is the case with a lot of albums with Today is a Beautiful Day’s pop inclination, the songs all feel very familiar and easy to stick with. Granted, this doesn’t so much provide the album with mundane familiarity so much as it makes it cohesive and engrossing. Rather than dragging you through overblown, long winded compositions like it could very well have, the listener is presented with 13, excellently composed pieces that serve to walk alongside you rather than swallow you.
The album utilises superbly executed pop hooks over the top of Ryo’s painstakingly formed arrangements, helping the listener to truly capture the feelings dripping from the music. Fiery guitars hold the reigns for a lot of the album and groovy leads slide in over the top and complement Yanagi’s hooks instrumentally. This wraps up the anger and revenge seeping from tracks like “Fukushuu” and the heart-string tugging, memory driven “Perfect Day.” Piano keys present themselves in “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” to create a more percussive driven hooks that keeps the album from growing stale. There’s even some infectious electro-pop influence in “LOVE & ROLL” if you feel so inclined to get up and dance along to the album. Thanks to Ryo’s clever composition talents and Yanagi’s highly listenable voice and right on the point vocal delivery, all of the emotions present on the album show through the music as well as the lyrics. Thus, the potential language barrier for non-Japanese speakers (that’s me included) becomes redundant for the most part. Unfortunately, due to wide mix of ideas the album presents, it is plagued by being a little aesthetically incomplete. This is made apparent by “Feel So Good” coming a little too suddenly after “LOVE & ROLL,” which seems to split the album into two distinct sectors. Although this does help you to examine the tracks all as separate, stand-alone bodies more, it doesn’t change the fact that it can become a little distracting when trying to listen to the album as a whole.
Regardless, Today is a Beautiful Day’s attention to the human experience is nothing short of impressive. Have you ever had one of those nights where you just cannot fall asleep no matter how hard you try? I’ve had a hard time getting to sleep for a long time. I’m better now than I was (though it was never anything serious) but sometimes it felt like I was never going to fall asleep. There was this one time at my friend’s house where I literally did not fall asleep at all. I stayed awake all night with nothing to do with myself. I studied the landscape outside the window and painfully watched as the sky got progressively brighter and the room got warmer. The song “Yoru ga Akeru yo” is born from this exact feeling of being unable to sleep. The feeling of complacent exhaustion that you can’t erase drips from the lullaby-like quality of the songs acoustic guitars and Yanagi’s soothing vocals. The volume and the songs tone swells up in the same way that the sky suddenly begins to go red as the sun rises in the sky, filling the listener’s ears with comforting warmth. “Yoru ga Akeru yo” is in a sense, cleverly placed near the end of the album perhaps subconsciously as the artists way of preparing you for the coming day, which may or may not be beautiful.
You don’t have to put yourself in an unnecessarily jolly mood to enjoy Today is a Beautiful Day if you can’t do it. Alternatively, if you’re in a bright and joyous disposition, you don’t have to be all doom and gloom for this album to affect you emotionally. Ryo’s stunning talent for capturing real, human feelings in his music and Nagi Yanagi’s soothing vocals make this album pure top-tier enjoyment. If your day is not as beautiful as it could be, it doesn’t matter as this album is more than happy to sit alongside you and be as cynical as you want it to be. If you’re feeling down and feel that life is going too fast and unfairly, songs like “Perfect Day,” and “Utakata Hanabi” will put a hand on your shoulder and cry with you if you need them too. Today is a Beautiful Day can serve as a comforting shoulder to lean on if you’re feeling down, or provide someone to laugh with and dance alongside if you’re feeling on top of the world.
