One listen and I’ve been sitting on this song for a while.
I’d decided I’d cover it a good few months ago and kept postponing and that wasn’t a good idea, I think. I probably should’ve covered it when I wanted to rather than now as, whilst some of this came easy, I felt like I had to force myself to keep listening.

I think Anamanaguchi have some interesting ideas as well as a bunch of songs that work better if you don’t look beyond the surface. “Mermaid” is more the former than the latter, I think, but it also ventures into the latter. There’s nothing wrong with music being surface; it has a place, but I think here, whilst digging further gives a better appreciation for what Anamanaguchi are doing, it also reveals how boring the song can be.

Anamanaguchi’s “Mermaid” is from Dawn Metropolis.

I hope you enjoy.

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A beep echoes into a space, and soon is joined by something that sounds like a guitar, and something else that sounds like percussion. There’s maybe a sense of the regal here and it seems like a pretty, if tense moment. It does not last long as it is.

The instruments fill out and move toward something a bit heavier and dramatic, and they move on forward, marching and rising. They seem to build but never do, and eventually they reach a plateau as a mix of joy and harshness. Something pulls away and the space is darkened and threatening to burst forth with weather-based violence, but then the space clears, if only for a moment.

Guitar comes in proper, or at least more obviously and it locks in with the percussion which seems to move as a disco beat, and they stay locked whilst the synth cycles around. Another pause of sorts, leaving the synth to move on its own, upward. A return of sounds and they all lock in and seem to call out before resting once more.

Last gasps of the sounds before leaving the beeping synth alone, carrying a tune through space and having some additions here and there. This seems solemn, or at least a moment of pause before rising up from defeat. Eventually everything returns and emphasises its seeming swing, and the sounds squeak and squeal and try to groove.

Soon they seem to move toward building once more before pulling away, leaving the synths to beep and screech. Noise here and there, seemingly shuffling as it sprays. Guitar and bass come in, thundering for a moment and cacophony builds before reaching another pause of sorts.

A return to the dramatic that runs in opposition to the screeching, and now something akin to a joyous voice is there. The sounds remain cacophonous, seemingly fighting against each other to control the mood. They do not last long and are cut short, leaving a beep and static.

A drone is there too, and it shifts and changes and returns, and seemingly around it something sparks here and there, and something rises and rises on a loop, and it all suddenly stops and the song ends.