shenshen saturday #5… mini! 🌟
Feb. 12th, 2022 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
presumenothingNo full post this week… but hey, I'll take the chance to gush incoherently about Zhou Shen's new song 星鱼 aka Star·Fish instead! Which you know is gonna be good right off the bat from the opening text in the MV:
Legend says that, should a star successfully leap from the sky into the ocean, it would become the largest fish on earth…
(What can I say – any association of Zhou Shen with ocean and/or star motifs gets my immediate and enthusiastic agreement.)
Trivia time: I looked up the quote while writing this and turns out it's adapted from a 2019 book of the same title by award-winning children's author 周晓枫/Zhou Xiaofeng. And I'm glad I did look it up because the quotes I found were beautiful! …and not to make everything Guardian, but the Shen-Wei-and-Ye-Zun vibes are real.
(All quoted material from 星鱼 by 周晓枫, translations my own.)
Synopsis:
从此，变成了大鱼的小弩踏上征程，在茫茫大海中寻找自己的亲人。它遇见过美好也历经凶险，在长途跋涉中感受生命和成长，懂得了真正的梦想与自由也包含着爱与责任……
Legend says that, should a star leap from the sky towards the earth, and leap precisely into the ocean, it would become the largest fish of all. In the sky there was such a pair of twin-brother stars – the younger brother Xiao Nu determined to fulfil its dream, and venture on that long and risky journey; the elder brother Xiao Gong was supposed to have stayed to protect the sky of stars, but decided to follow it at the last minute. After only the briefest meeting in the sky, the brothers were separated by the strong shockwaves of the atmosphere.
From then on, Xiao Nu, now a big fish, embarked on a search for its family in the endlessly vast ocean. Encountering both beauty and danger along the way, it felt both life and growth on its long journey, and came to understand that real dreams and freedom also includes love and responsibility…
Quotes:
The moon was chilly, like the thinnest layer of snow, wonderful and desolate in its falling.
Xiao Nu came to learn, later, that plants on the land had four seasons; but fish in the ocean, so long as they lived, were eternal flowers and fruit.
A billion flecks of snow on the land, a billion flakes of salt in the ocean. It was said that the crystallisation of each snowflake was different, and no two pieces could be exactly identical. But Xiao Nu knew that, among these billions of snowflakes, there were definitely two that resembled each other more than the rest.
…anyway. On to the song! And my various thoughts about it.
- The whispery chorus section in the beginning! Which was… not actually him, according to his Weibo, but it's super atmospheric.
- And the piano. Excellently used all throughout this song.
- It took me embarrassingly long to figure out that the line of handwritten notes that appears at the start (and end) is the first line of the verse, because I've apparently forgotten how key signatures work.
And of course this one had to have six flats. - Whale imagery! Constellations!
- Nicely simple setting for the studio shots which I appreciate, because while I love seeing him sing in MVs sometimes the background can be so distracting. (Case in point: 微光海洋, much as I love the song and even the MV in general, and
at least one other song I can't recall right now that was very recognisably the same studio.茧! Because I might not be able to recognise drama filming locations but I've giffed both songs, so…) - The composition also makes full use of his ability to essentially repeat the same basic melody line without making it sound repetitious, however he does it. (See also: the whole second half of 只有爱 aka thirteen subtly-different iterations of just three words as the most egregious example of this.)
- 吟唱 my beloved! I like the direct transition into the high-notes section – it's like a treat come early because usually the verse/chorus has to go around twice before we get it as a bridge, whereas the order here makes it a central highlight instead.
- Have I mentioned how pretty the MV art is? And the effects? Yeah.
- Children's choir accompaniment! Which always works a treat alongside the clarity of his voice (citations because I'm really into links today: 田埂五月風 and いつも何度でも aka the Spirited Away song, among others), and at least this time he isn't also doubling as the kid choir himself (yes, this is still about Rubia because dude holy shit??)
- The little ad-lib(?) right in the middle of 孤独向前穿梭! Which brings me to…
In conclusion: I really want to hear this live because it's definitely gonna sound even better. Pretty please? Someone give him a stage for it?
Also! Two diametrically different CNY performances that I've already mentioned in last week's post, but taking the excuse to share here again with proper uploads:
