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Old 2014.05.20, 07:53 PM   #53
Osiris12345
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Surprised I didn't post in this thread yet...

Poltergeist is a fantastic song. Something about it still gives me chills to this day. It's creepy yet sad. Haunting yet warm. I'm reminded of a ghost who lost her lover a long time ago somehow and the sounds of the train and a carnival only add to the old time feel of the song. I love how Doppelganger ends on a train and Poltergeist begins on one. It's like a haunted train leaving for its destination and arriving before the album's end.

For some reason, I've always attributed Doppelganger and Poltergeist to being spirits - Doppelganger a more malevolent spirit and Poltergeist a benevolent one. Even the end of Doppelganger seems to suggest this as the speaker slowly drifts off and then a very clear new voice emerges from the darkness. The outro with the music box is incredibly chilling. It ranks right up there with the best of J-horror. Poltergeist is similar but the ghost/spirit seems to be singing affectionately about someone rather than wanting to possess them. The Doppelganger wishes to become the person in their sights while the Poltergeist merely wishes to be close to them.

In fact, a good portion of KSK is about death itself. You can look at every song and find some sort of parallel with life and death (whether you listen to the instrumentation or can understand/read the lyrics) which is why Yattsuke Shigoto is my favorite of the bunch here.

While certain points of the album have touches of cynicism and small bits of humor, Yattsuke Shigoto is front and center when it comes to both. The very subject of the song is about the monotony of a "damned job" and how utterly soul sucking it is. The light string flourishes in the instrumentation only serve as a "real world" that the subject longs for as they look outside the window of their confined office. The drum machine trudges along suggesting the worker bees continuing their labor without missing a beat. An assembly line of people all making widgets or taking phone calls or inputting data into a computer. And here is Ringo in the middle of it all asking the question "Why? What's it all for?"

She can't help but wonder what the purpose of this endless routine is. It's a never ending cycle of getting up, going to work, going home, going to bed, getting up, going to work, going home... ad nauseum. There has to be something else. This can't be all there is. She's become numb to feeling anything now. She's forgotten what it feels like to love. She wants to become a machine. Then she starts planning out some kind of "arranged copulation" and then she realizes that she's started to think just like a machine. She is a machine.

And herein lies a lot of the humor and horror of the song. It's about day to day life numbing you to the point where nothing surprises you or excites you. To me that's almost a fate worse than death. Living a life with no wonder or joy is a hollow life. I could really go on and on about how much I love the arrangement and the lyrics of this song but I think you all get the point. I think it's often overlooked in favor of darker or edgier pieces but I think its pristine orchestration and humorously monotone vocals from Ringo are definitely worth a second look.
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