GLAY ~ Winter Again

Ebisu Garden Palace at Christmas

It's early for this (not even winter), but strangely this year has brought very little of that dark gloom I like to stew in until December.  As such, I'm already feeling Christmasy.  Which brings me to the music, of course.  I've never been fond of commercial Christmas music, i.e. non-choral, non-traditional, original Christmas music.  I especially dislike pop stars' renditions of things like "Here Comes Santa Claus".  Oddly, until a few years ago, it never occurred to me that Japanese musicians might have any interest in what is technically a Christian holiday.  Obviously this is an incredibly wrong assumption, because not only are they interested, but it's actually a big deal.  Over only two years, I've amassed eight 80-minute CDs worth of Jrock and Jpop Christmas music, some of it traditional, but most of it is original.  The latter is what amazes me the most.  Many of these original Christmas songs are gorgeous and moving, and very accurately portray the meaning of a holiday that it seems us Amerikajin have forgotten.  I heard very few original Christmas songs while listening to American music for years, certainly none that I remember fondly, if at all.

Take, for example, B'z's "itsuka no Merry Christmas".  This is now one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time.  The lyrics are incredibly moving and the song is so simple and full of soul that I cannot help but get a little misty every time I hear it.
Another band responsible for three of my favorites, is GLAY.  Even when I hated them, I adored White Road.  Christmas Ring and Winter Again are also amazing, and have the exact vibe I love in Christmas songs.  Dark, wistful, mystical and hopeful.
I only recently discovered the duo of Chage & Aska (thanks to Aie), and their Christmas album, entitled: Snowmail.  Done in a style reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and Barbershop groups, and with amazing harmonizations and jazzy compositions.  I think I would consider listening to them outside of Christmas, just because it's so rare to hear TRUE tenors in popular music.
There are also a couple of uniquely Japanese songs that I love to hear every year.  That is, songs with the traditional instrumentation intact.  Specifically "Poinsettia" by hitomi shimatani and "Harmony of December" by the Kinki Kids have this.  The former is a gorgeous song, and hitomi's voice is definitely traditional in delivery.
It's also a bit amusing to me that bands I cannot stand the rest of the year, happen to have Christmas songs I quite like.  Such as Psycho le Cemu's "inori", or Gackt's "12gatsu no Love Song", as well as songs by Vidoll, Wizard and Remioromen.  Also,there is, of course, always pop.  But Christmas is where pop shines, because it has license to be sweet and sappy and no damage done to reputations.

Generally, Japanese Christmas songs not only sound Christmasy (there IS a sound, people), but they contain a lyrical motif of love and often winter or snow imagery.  A particularly poignant song uses the opposite effect of all these warm, hopeful songs full of love.
Instead it connects the falling snow with lost love.  The snow piling up on Tokyo only reminds the narrator of his burdensome memories.  This all set to an upbeat jazzy tune courtesy of the one and only Retrock band in Japan, Merry.  If you don't know the lyrics, you'll have no need to feel sad, because the song doesn't suggest that at all.  But then, isn't that the point of jazz and blues?  No one understands that better than Gara, the vocalist and mad genius lyricist of the band.
Actually, I personally like the effect of this song among all the rest of my library.  It reminds one that not everyone has family and/or a significant other to share Christmas with, and how profoundly lonely this must be.  Leave it to Gara to point this out. XD

But you don't have to understand the lyrics to hear the Christmas in these songs.  Even without the requisite "Merry Christmas".  Trust me on this. ;D

GLAY: Winter Again