Encapsulates all the good in life.
I should've known firsthand that this was made by the same artist who did Wolf Children because when I stumbled upon one of the tracks here, the sorrow gets the best of me.
But besides that, this album is a very special entity of its own. An album that utilizes a lot of elements that hark to a very peaceful Japanese neighborhood, either the singing of the grandmothers and grandfathers, the piano that seems to be playing at an open space, the church choirs, the nature recordings, the organic instruments peppered around this album. Everything that is heard, seen, and experienced from every day in that place is all combined to create this holistic and organic musing of all the wonderful moments that these people have in life. And that gives it so much power, and most of all, so much heart.
Each song from this album is an embodiment of the small yet substantial moments that are captured so perfectly with the raw textures and collages of sound that make them feel so heartwarming and also tear-jerking from each clumsy action, each shaky tone, each "intentional mishap". It makes them so welcoming, so wholesome, so buoyant. It's like you are a part of this neighborhood, where you do feel like you're experiencing these snippets as your own. Maybe it will make you tear up as I did with 'Kami Shama', where it whispers something within you and makes you discover something anew, something that'll make you better in the course of life.
This album as a whole is an experience that everyone should enter in, welcomed by all that it has to present, and then let you know things that you need to know.
Favorite Tracks: All of them.
Least Favorite Track: None of them