Northern Star - FST
Jul. 18th, 2010 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikkenekoNorthern Star
A Fai Sound Track
Download the zip here!
This post is the short short version of this FST. The zip file also contains an html page -- open it in your browser for the full annotated guide to the FST. With pictures!
If you don't want the whole FST, there are links to individual files below the cut. Tracks marked with a * are ones I recommend you to download even if you aren't interested in the story, just because they are awesome songs that you may not have heard before.
* 1 - cristofori's dream
Instrumental.
The story opens with Valeria. Dimly remembered, barely comprehended, the world of their childhoods. The song is a piano melody, a delicate tinkling thing like a child's music box, which rises in complexity and power to a bittersweet passion before fading away once more.
It's a beautiful song, because it was a beautiful world, but not a happy one. This haunting, delicate tune sets the tone for this album; beautiful, but not happy.
2 - running up that hill
And if I only could
Make a deal with God
And get him to swap our places
I'd be running up that hill
Running up that building
Fai only gets one song in this album, but it's a powerful one. This song is about the despair of exile, and the pain of seperation. The dreamy, hushed tone of the song reflects how Fai's misery is a quieter, more resigned thing than Yuui's raging at the heavens.
Throughout the song the repeated refrain points to striking a bargain, a deal with the devil that will end their exile; and the sudden cessation of the steady heartbeat at the end makes it clear what price he paid.
* 3 - northern star
and i cry and no one can hear
in hell the blinded eyes can see
in blackest night and i wait for you
it’s cold in here there’s no one left
and i wait for you
and nothing stops it happening
and i knew i’d cherish all my misery alone
Yuui is now alone in the bitter cold, the endless night that is the graveyard of all his family and people. He's been promised that someone will come for him, and so he waits, frozen and hopeless, for the one who will take him away.
Unlike the previous two, this is not a beautiful song; it's an ugly, sad, and terrible song, and it reflects the sad and terrible pass that his life has led him to.
* 4 - marvelous things
Oh... lying in the sun
Every day feeling all of the magic in life
and wonder.....
Dark night hold tight
and sleep tight my baby
Morning light shall burst bright
And keep us here safely
This is a song about magic, and as such, about Fai's life in Ceres. It returns to the waltz tempo of Valeria's theme, but this time with an accompanying voice as the song attempts to convey the wonder and joy of Fai's life and growth.
At the same time, however, an eerie background note already forshadows how that joy must end; the magic which was so wondrous will turn on Fai when he must use it to bind his own beloved king in sleep, bidding him sweet dreams.
5 - smile
Smile, don't complicate my time
Smile don't ask me if I'm fine
My world blown down
There is nothing that words can say
Smile, no doubt I'll keep my pride
But it may be hard to find
Fast forward; Fai is now an adult, leaving Ceres for the first time to strike out all on his own. It's a return to the dreamy, entrancing melody of the earlier album, but still tainted with an underlying layer of sadness. He is alone again.
* 6 - dansbanan
Instrumental.
Up until now the soundtrack has been pretty darn depressing, which is not inappropriate for Fai's terrible childhood. Still, I wanted to include at least one piece which was reflective of 'silly' Fai, so I chose this one.
It's a waltz tempo, as all of Fai's core songs are, and the instruments -- banjo, xylophone and accordion -- give it a carnival tone that is impossible to take too seriously. Nevertheless, it still achieves a certain haunting beauty.
* 7 - the return (coming home)
And though my mind is cut by battles
fought so long ago
I return victorious
I am coming home
And if the paths that I have followed
have tread against the flow
there is no need for sorrow
I am coming home
Although this is a soundtrack about Fai, it would be impossible to tell Fai's story without also telling Kurogane's.
Now enters Kurogane, bringing to the soundtrack an intense and driving rock beat that up until now has mostly been missing. The fiery passion and powerful determination stands in stark contrast to Fai's dreamy and quiet grief, as Kurogane himself represents an irresistable force that Fai must content with.
8 - driftwood
You’re driftwood floating underwater
Breaking into pieces, pieces, pieces
Just driftwood hollow and of no use
Waterfalls will find you, bind you, grind you
And you really didn’t think it would happen
But it really is the end of the line
So I’m sorry that you turned to driftwood
But you’ve been drifting for a long long time
Right away Kurogane calls Fai out for his careless attitude, infuriated by the seeming lack of concern for his own life that leads him to float aimlessly through the world, waiting for someone else to pick him up.
9 - sober
I am just a worthless liar
I am just an imbecile
I will only complicate you
Trust in me, and fall as well
Why can't we not be sober?
I just want to start this over
Why can't we drink forever?
I just want to start this over
Fai responds to Kurogane's challenge not with denial, but with evasion; he pleads with Kurogane to stop pressing him for answers, and warns him against getting too close, lest he find himself tangled in something he's not prepared to deal with.
10 - liar you lie
Instrumental.
Kurogane is unconvinced by Fai's bullshit.
11 - never too late
The world we knew won't come back
The time we've lost can't get back
The life we had won't be ours again
Even if I say it'll be alright
Still I hear you say you want to end your life
Maybe we'll turn it all around
'Cause it's not too late, it's never too late
When the world all falls to pieces around them in Tokyo, Kurogane's powerful determination comes to the fore again; this time in a wild and desperate bid to keep Fai alive, as he refuses to accept his willingness to die.
* 12 - drunkard's prayer
You're my water
You're my wine
You're my whiskey
From time to time
You're the hunger
On my bones
All the nights
I sleep alone
In the aftermath of Tokyo, this song is a quiet, aching reflection of how things have become. Fai now owes his life to Kurogane, not just once but every day going forwards, and the concept overwhelms him almost to the point of numbness.
13 - selfless, cold and composed
Come on baby now throw me a right to the chin
Just one sign that will show me that you give a shit
But you just smiled... politely
and I grow weaker and I...
Fai rallies, of course, and Kurogane rails in frustration against the polite, controlled, cool facade that Fai has put up against him. Another piano and waltz tempo song, although this one mixed with the faster beat and stronger vocals of Kurogane's theming as well.
* 14 - haunted
And I'm haunted
By the lies that I have loved
And actions I have hated
I'm haunted
By the promises I've made
And others I have broken
I'm haunted
By the lies that wove the web
Inside my haunted head
In Ceres, Fai finally faces up to his past and to the demons that have haunted him all his life; the ghost of his brother, whom he's never been able to let go, and of the curse which has driven him since childhood to a betrayal that he would have rathered died to avoid.
When at last he is driven to the brink, by threats not to his own life but to those of his companions, Fai finally turns and confronts his final demon: Ashura, who will not let him go until he fulfills his final duty.
* 15 - good bye my master
Instrumental.
A powerful, driving melodic piece illustrates the final battle between Ashura and Fai. This is the first and only time that Fai truly cuts loose with all his power, and the results are spectacular. At the same time, it's a song full of loss and grief, since no matter who wins this battle, Fai will lose the man who has always been a father to him.
* 16 - ego brain
You see my pain is real
Watch my world dissolve
And pretend that none of us see the fall
As I turn to sand
You took me by the hand
And declared that love prevails over all.
A dark and eerie tune, which alternates between Fai's three-four and Kurogane's four-four tempo, plays over the destruction of Ceres. Everything Fai has ever loved has, quite literally, turned to sand before him, but once again Kurogane is not content to just let Fai die; he takes Fai's hand and will not let him go.
17 - i'm with you
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you now
I'm with you, I'm with you
If not for the existence of 'Northern Star' earlier in the album, this song probably would have been on here twice; once for Ashura, and once for Kurogane. This is the final Fai song with a waltz tempo, but he has finally added in the strong beat and powerful vocals that Kurogane's themes have always had.
Fai has been cold and alone for too long, and it's hard for him to get past the fears of his childhood and the grief of his adult life to take the second chance that is offered to him. But in the end... he moves forward, and opens his heart once more.
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Date: 2010-07-18 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-18 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-18 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-18 08:21 pm (UTC)Thank you very much for making and sharing this soundtrack! It's already loading :)
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Date: 2010-07-18 10:46 am (UTC)Thank you so much for sharing~
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Date: 2010-07-18 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-07-19 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 04:58 am (UTC)Also, I'd love to see your fanmix when you finish it! Will you post it to
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Date: 2010-07-19 04:59 am (UTC)I surely will! =)
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Date: 2010-07-18 08:57 pm (UTC)I see some nice tracks *is a Placebo fan* but I'm curious about the rest =3
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Date: 2010-07-19 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 06:09 pm (UTC)This is a fantastic FST!!! I think I have to give you a hug for that X3
The music, the lyrics and all the description you included - it was like a journey through Fai's life <3
My faves are Northern Star, Ego Brain, Haunted and also Marvelous Things. And I love the instrumental Cristofori's Dream, Liar You Lie and Good bye my master =)
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Date: 2010-07-21 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-23 11:41 pm (UTC)