The song this time is 酔生夢死 -Hedonism-.
酔生夢死 basically means something along the lines of drinking until you die, or drinking your life away. The dictionary definition is “idling one’s life away”. But the kanji, in order, are “drunk”, “life”, “dream”, “death”, so you can sort of infer the meaning from that haha.
The original Touhou track by ZUN for this one is Broken Moon, one of the more popular Touhou songs. I’ve heard so many adaptations of this song, and it never gets old. It’s a great song with many parts to work with. Here’s a great piano arrange of Broken Moon that gives it a more powerful & emotional feel, in contrast to the original and Hedonism which have a more lively energy.
Anyways, Broken Moon has a very versatile melody that can be arranged in many different ways. It’s one of my favourites, and I’m always happy to hear songs arranged from it.
As for Hedonism, it seems that Stack decided to take a rockin approach to the song. As always, I have to praise Stack’s vocals, I especially love when she belts out the lyrics during the chorus, and her fast singing right after that.
Speaking of taking a rockin approach to Broken Moon, Hedonism isn’t the only time Akatsuki has done this, as they also did it for their song Rock On!, which judging by the arranger, is older than Hedonism. Rock On! also sounds more tame compared to Hedonism, and I have to say that I like the more aggressive sound of Hedonism better.
I’m giving Hedonism a 10 / 10.
You can’t go wrong with a Broken Moon arrange.
Until next time,
Thanks for reading.
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