biggest dork imaginable voice the Arius Squad girls remind me of Deafheaven songs.
Seriously, there's a line in "Canary Yellow" ("I have wondered about the language of flowers") that's basically identical to Atsuko's momotalk status, and it has GRAFTED itself onto my brain.
they've both got this undeniable upfront darkness to them, but then there's layers of beauty underneath that make you cry.
I will interrogate this further. It's been hard to stop thinking about this
I've mostly had this ironed out a week or so ago but I wanted it to simmer a little bit and for the final chapter of Eden Treaty to go live in Global before I finalized it. (Some Eden Treaty spoilers to follow, naturally.) To my surprise nothing off of Sunbather quite fit the bill here and there were a lot of personal favorite Deafheaven tracks that didn't make the cut.
This is the end result of intense scientific study by myself.
Atsuko - "Canary Yellow" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5eQuhBfDE0
The genesis of this endeavor was me connecting Atsuko's Momotalk status to this song, so it's a fitting place to start. Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is Deafheaven's most "magical" feeling record in ways that are vague and hard to define. Similarly, Atsuko's is also possessed of nonspecific mystical qualities that highlight her role as the Princess of the Arius Squad. It's never elaborated on exactly what "The Royal Blood" grants her, but it does enhance her air of ethereal mystique.
Atsuko's bond story reveals her to be a bit of a trickster, and along with the enchanting, naturalistic imagery throughout "Canary Yellow," there's a certain playfulness to the music, especially towards the end. The sing-song backing vocals and the way the guitar bounces make it an incredibly whimsical track, probably the band's most outwardly joyous track. It's a perfect pairing for a girl who acts as the North Star for a particularly melancholy group.
On and on and on we choke on
On and on and on we choke on
An everlasting, handsome night
My lover’s blood rushes right through me
Misaki - "Luna" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6it-7KIzjmM
There is sadly an obvious, lazy choice for Misaki on this same album in "Gifts for the Earth," but I feel it's a disservice to the character to flatten her to her one most obvious trait, so I chose a different track from New Bermuda. "Luna," in a strange way, reminds me a lot of her L2D. A crestfallen soul observing an indifferent city. It's a song about adapting to new circumstances but being unimpressed by those unfamiliar surroundings. It could almost represent Misaki's apathy to the Squad's New Normal of life on the run.
Both Misaki and Saori refer to themselves as hounds, and I like the way the opening guitar riff chugs and has a "bite" to it. All of the Arius girls have some degree of an outward hostility, but those two are the most immediately intimidating, so I felt good about giving them the heavier songs. Beneath that harsh exterior is where you'll find the tenderness and insecurity that really color their characters. For Misaki it's an apathy she's developed as a defense mechanism. Hurt by her world to the point of numbness, she watches it all pass by her from a dirty window.
Confined to a house that never remains clean
To a bed where the ill never get well
I cough ceaselessly into the night
Hiyori - "In Blur" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXTBQQU191Y
Much of Hiyori's presentation is done for comedic effect and to bring a degree of "levity" to the dynamics of the Arius Squad, but she is still a product of the same violence and abuse as the other girls. Plagued by a floundering self-worth, constantly fearful of receiving again the punishment from her childhood but unable to affect aggression like Saori or Misaki, she was the hardest to find a song pairing for. "Sunbather" was a lyrical match but the music didn't quite vibe well. So I turned to the mellower tones of Infinite Granite.
More in depth examination of "In Blur" revealed it as exactly what I was looking for. In particular the line "What does daylight look like in this chaos of cold?" was incredibly evocative of Hiyori for me. Her obsession with magazines is her window into what she imagines a normal girl's "daylight" to be in contrast to the suffering she's always known; "this chaos of cold." There are other lyrics throughout that remind me of her upbringing or others that seems like a reflection of her image of Atsuko as a fantastical princess. Also the childlike voice that comes in during the bridge was that element of silliness that really sealed this as "Hiyori's song." It took me awhile to get here but I think it's really perfect for her.
Forgive the trembling love
I'm weak and acting bold
And alone
Saori - "Unrequited" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOH_ORa0po4
And so we end with our leader. The dad of this found family with her Princess Wife Atsuko, her Depression Wife Misaki, and her Trauma Daughter Hiyori. Saori has been trying to bear the collective burden of the Arius Squad for as long as she can remember and that weight is crushing her. She's an incredibly expansive character and there are so many avenues down which I could take this exercise and so many of them make me want to cry, but I focused on one particular relationship; Saori's broken bond with her defiant protégé, Azusa.
"Unrequited" was such a natural fit here for the regret that Saori makes incredibly clear during the last few chapters of The Eden Treaty. She tried to impart the nihilism that she believed was protecting her onto Azusa, and her pupil's rejection of that caused her to lash out in such incredibly hurtful ways. Saori's so cruel during Chapter 3 of the Eden Treaty and the remorse over the ways in which she's tried to punish Azusa have stuck with her since Arius's counter attack failed. This song is such a perfect encapsulation of past failures that I can imagine Saori repeating certain lines from it as she desperately tries to pick up all the pieces before turning to face the reckoning she believes is coming her way.
There is no such thing as
The past, present, or future
There just is
And it never goes away
here's the playlist to all these fuckin songs! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1BblgqJvku635EDuLBr6uB?si=97597f3380684bd4