BRILLIANTE thoughts/opinions

[isthisLOL?]

I love how even the progression of the melody is incredibly desperate. At NO point a line begins on the first beat. It's always somewhere in the middle and mixes note lenghts in a weird way. A very desperate feeling is coming from the timing of the melody. Most melodies have the majority of the lines begin and end on a beat.

This song is probably her biggest masterpiece since...possibly forgiveness to me.

[Olw---A]

for this is the type of song that I love from her... like will or green... something that reminds you something epic : you picture epic movie scenes listening to those song !!!
this song really deserves to have a single only release and a real MV (not a low budget of B sides)...
this song really give interest back in ayumi... I wasn't really excited about her releases for a while but now I'm totallly looking for the next thing !!!

this song have quality and sounds fresh!!! something so rare now in jpop...

[Olw---A]

I forgot the essential : i freaking love this song !!!

[AyumiAi]

I waited until i got my copy of my CD to listen to anything from FIVE. It started with progress which was amazing! It really hyped me up, ANother Song was good but i can tell ayu is trying to become a bit more mainstream or at least have a few mainstream songs like AN song and Why... incidentally Why... was good, it was a catchy pop song, but after hearing those two i was excited for beloved and it reminded me or curtain call or rainy day something beautiful but not too impressive, simply beautiful (thought the more i listen to it the more i love it) but THEN THEN THEN THEN THEN THEN BRILLANTE began and i literally spazmed ARGUABLY one of her MOST AMAZING SONG OF ALL TIME! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG IT REALLY SAVED THE ALBUM ALONG WIHT PROGRESS so im taking this really as an amazing single Progress/BRILLANTE with 3 complementary tracks ;p but OMG AND THE MUSIC VIDEO! HOLY COW WAS AMAZING IT LITERALLY WAS AMAZING AHHHH BRILLANTE IS AMAZING!!!!!!
side note: I was dissapointed she couldnt have the guys bathing WITHOUT their little black underwear T_T one can dream...

[happiholic★]

I love her vocals in this song. The PV was odd, though.

[relmy]

Aside from the chanting, I don't think there is anything special about this song. Someone here compared it to Don't Look Back. I'd say this song really really feels like do it again, but with Don't Look Back's more original instrumentation. I didn't like do it again much either.

Basically, my feelings are that without the chanting, this song is pretty standard, which is why I think the chanting feels a bit out of place.

I can see why Tim said it was "movie soundtrack", because this probably would be better if it was instrumental, quite sad we didn't get one.

It's not bad, I wouldn't skip, but nor would I choose it to listen to it. I don't get how people are calling this epic and her best song ever I guess.

[Mari-chan]

I'm confused about the PV, after watching the Making of.
Leslie said something like, the Boxer-Scene, and in the Danceroom and the shower is now.. and than they switch to the Pyramide, 2000 years ago, when she bacame strong about them.
I never thought it as Past and present. But almost wondering, why are boxers and so on?
So... it means, they killed her in Past, but in the present, she still is with the guys?? Or what?

But ok.. I love watching the PV... and I totaly love the song.

[relmy]

^ even if someone is killed their reputation as someone strong will live on throughout centuries?

[Melting_Holidays]

Am I the only one who thinks this is a love song? Well a song telling a past love I'm over you. I haven't watched the PV yet.

[jewelbox]

I think it's one of her best songs for a while. I can't stop listening it, I got to hear it everyday.. Tough the PV is quite .. Well, at least progress has a great PV.

[Nessa]

Hey guys, I was reading the translation while listening to BRILLANTE last night, and something occurred to me and I wanted to share it with you guys to see what you all think of it! Hopefully people will still read this thread, because this may be like a mini thesis, and this thread is so old and nearly daed. And by the way, I believe this thread is mispelt, as all my resources say it's "BRILLANTE" not "BRILLIANTE", which makes a huge difference which I will touch on. And let me make this perfectly clear too, this is only speculation by someone who had the power out all day yesterday!

So, some BRILLANTE song lyric interpretations by Nessa!

First off, the title isn't a misspelling of "brilliant" in English. In French, "brillante" is the feminine form of the adjective "brillant" which means either "shiny" or "brilliant" - but brilliant as a simile to remarkable. So if Ayu did use this French adjective as the title, it doesn't mean intelligent/smart, it would mean it as a descriptive word for "light intensive" or "shiny", or as a descriptive word for "remarkable" or "stunning". I hope that makes sense! And if people have already clarified this, I'm sorry for beating a dead horse.

Okay, so I think "BRILLANTE" could be about/to her father, in the same way "Virgin Road" was about/to her mother. I get this impression based solely on the lyrics. And with that said, I'm going to use Masa's translation (and if there's an "*", I mixed it with Misa's translation so it was more fluid in English, but not changed) I also get this impression due to the melancholily nature of her vocals.


"I decided that this is my last time writing
Thinking of you
I don't tell you the reason
This is the biggest present from me"

She's decided that she no longer wants to write songs about her emotions while thinking of her father. Her not having to tell him, or anyone at all for that matter, is the biggest present she could give him. This, to me, is very very dark for Ayu. To me, it denotes that it's more that she just no longer wants to even think about him, or let him influence her work at all any more.

"A human is much stronger
Than I thought, isn't he?
I've stayed in the darkness a little longer [than expected]*
But it's time to go"

She's much stronger than she thought she'd ever be (and this statement can be reinforced by how often she says she's weak in other lyrics). She focused her emotions too long on the void left by her father. Now it's time to finally let it go (which in reality I hope she doesn't because the songs to her father are some of her most dynamic IMO)

"I couldn't see anything
After that, I saw everything
The road ahead is too narrow
And I have no choice but to walk alone"

For a long long time, she was blinded by her pain and the emotional scars left by her father leaving her. Once she was able to let go, she can see everything (and I highly speculate that her marriage to Mannie and her love for him has allowed her to let go). She's lived with these feelings for nearly her entire life, so proceeding forward will be difficult and alien to her (this is enforced by her saying the road ahead is too narrow). And now that she's let go, she has no choice by to proceed down this road alone, because she's let go all of those feelings that have been with her all these years.

"When the pain becomes
Far beyond the reach of imagination

There is no more energy left
To be able to cry or shout
A human is entirely
Caught in nothingness, isn't he?"

I wonder if these lines were meant to go together, but it feels to me like they were sequential in their meaning. The first two lines are self explanatory. When it's too much, there is no more energy remaining to cry or shout. What's too much is her having to live with all the emotions she has for her father, and she can no longer just cry or shout about it (I almost equate her line of "cry or shout" as metaphor for her singing and/or song writing). The feeling of being trapped by these emotion makes her feel as though she caught up in nothingness.

"What had been two
Became one, and became two
It's no more than that
We've just come full circle, haven't we?"

What was two: her and her father, became one: her alone, became two: her and Mannie. The way it has come full circle is that she had some fulfillment in her heart while with her father, then it was gone, but with Mannie she has found it again, thusly coming full circle. She compares the fulfillment Mannie has brought her to how her mother must have felt for her father in "Virgin Road", so it could be down that same vein.

"I coundn't see anything
After that, I saw everything
The road ahead is too narrow
And I can no more walk on, side by side with you"

Again, the pain kept her blind, and once she let go, she could see everything, even herself better. The way forward is full of some emptiness and potential pain, and by letting go of so much, she's letting go of him completely, so he'll no longer be lingering with her.

I was a little compelled by how well it worked together. But of course, this is just one of looking at her words, which is the beauty of it because everyone can see their meaning in different ways. So I want to know what you guys think! Please post your thoughts =D And thank you for actually reading this!!

[AyumiAi]

^ It makes sense! I really like your thesis about the song's meaning, yet at the same time im not sure how it goes with the PV but it could be very possible that it had nothing to do with the song itself

[isthisLOL?]

I am almost 100% sure that BRILLANTE is about her fans - and maybe especially her international fans as they seem extra-*****y over the internet and the song includes goodbye in all those languages. The video makes that rather obvious to me. Talking about her father ended with Memorial Address. After that there was nothing left to say.
Also the whole context of the FIVE EP as somewhat a "**** you" to fans telling her what to do and then still being disappointed.
It's a goodbye to her fans. Not in the "I will end my career" way but in the "I will stop listening to what you want" way. She's proven just that throughout this era. The duets, a-nation, trying rather generic RnB, no upbeat track, untypical progress video...she's not trying to please her fans anymore, she has grown up into someone doing what she wants to do.

[Nessa]

Originally Posted by isthisLOL?

I am almost 100% sure that BRILLANTE is about her fans - and maybe especially her international fans as they seem extra-*****y over the internet and the song includes goodbye in all those languages. The video makes that rather obvious to me. Talking about her father ended with Memorial Address. After that there was nothing left to say.
Also the whole context of the FIVE EP as somewhat a "**** you" to fans telling her what to do and then still being disappointed.
It's a goodbye to her fans. Not in the "I will end my career" way but in the "I will stop listening to what you want" way. She's proven just that throughout this era. The duets, a-nation, trying rather generic RnB, no upbeat track, untypical progress video...she's not trying to please her fans anymore, she has grown up into someone doing what she wants to do.

Wasn't this song written before the whole a-Nation backlash? I don't understand how it's a "frak-you" to fans if it was. I'm not trying to argue your point, as my entire analysis was based completely off of a "what-if" mentality. It does make far more sense for it to be directed at fans given how they've been acting since that DQHYGmh6F group broke up and they blamed Max.

Also... I never remember reading or hearing anywhere that Ayu would no longer be writing about her father post "Memorial Address", which wasn't even written for him, it was written for her grandmother. I'd really like to know where you got that information because it's not exactly correct. I'm pretty sure "It was" was written with her father in mind, to name just one song written after the Memorial Address mini-album that just DRIPS with that theme.

[Agieboyz]

the video is realy confusing... even with what leslie said in the making of...
however... i really love this song and the lyric...

[jewelbox]

I got Duty~flashback from BRILLANTE, and it's not bad thing at all! The song is one of her best new songs, no doubt!! I adore it, it's powerful, very Ayu-like and it just proves that Ayu is not just a regular pop artist. AMAZING song!!

[isthisLOL?]

Where did you get that Memorial Address was about her grandmother? It seems weird to write a song like that - an angry song even, considering she loved her grandmother and grew up with her around - 5 or so years after her death. And the way she so emotionally performed it with teddy bear the first time she sang it just made them being about the same person very clear to me. It was just those two songs blending together almost like one with no show involved and Ayumi doesn't do things that make no sense lyrically - at least not when it involves songs that are obviously meaningful to her.
And I don't think It Was was about her father, I see no indication for that, when she is writing about her father it's a mix of sadness and anger but in It Was there is no anger. There is just a feeling of sadness following the end of a relationship. It's so vague it could be about any type of relationship(romantic, friendly, family...) and seeing how it's a left-over from (miss)understood(or at least I remember something like that from an interview about Secret, so don't hold me to that) I doubt it was very important to her.

And Ayu's fans haven't been like that only around a-nation, that's just when everything peaked and Ayumi showed how pissed she was, she may or may not have worked on FIVE with that in mind, but I am convinced that FIVE is Ayumi's way of saying that she doesn't try to please her fans anymore. Because quite frankly she took just about everything(especially international) fans want and did the opposite on it and to promote it and then even ended it with such a track - and with goodbye in a variety of languages.

The way I see it almost every Ayumi album is arranged so the songs fit lyrically and tell a story first and foremost(how they fit musically comes afterwards, which is why there are some seemingly random transitions on albums like NEXT LEVEL, but they make lots of sense reading the lyrics) and looking at all of FIVE in order it tells a story of having been through alot with your fans, loving your fans(at least beloved is pretty much confirmed to be about fans I think) but needing distance from your fans at the same time. And having to be yourself rather than doing what they want because there is no pleasing them.

[YUKARI]

actually I started to avoid this song week ago, because it has such a great impact on me.. . every time I listen it, I get depressed and sad. and when I watch PV, it really hurts to see ayu crying and suffering. idk, this song just spoils the balance of my mind making me think about sad things.

[koumori]

Originally Posted by isthisLOL?

I am almost 100% sure that BRILLANTE is about her fans - and maybe especially her international fans as they seem extra-*****y over the internet and the song includes goodbye in all those languages. The video makes that rather obvious to me. Talking about her father ended with Memorial Address. After that there was nothing left to say.
Also the whole context of the FIVE EP as somewhat a "**** you" to fans telling her what to do and then still being disappointed.
It's a goodbye to her fans. Not in the "I will end my career" way but in the "I will stop listening to what you want" way. She's proven just that throughout this era. The duets, a-nation, trying rather generic RnB, no upbeat track, untypical progress video...she's not trying to please her fans anymore, she has grown up into someone doing what she wants to do.

This song was written before the whole A-Nation thing..so I doubt this is true. Besides, I really doubt if she had written such a song she'd be so happy meeting with overseas fans? It doesn't fit Ayumi's image at all.

[jbrat2219]

^ Yeah but Ayu's music is her emotional outlet. Of course she loves her fans no matter what, it doesn't mean we don't piss her off. I'm not sure whether or not I believe BRILLANTE is written about us fans but it wouldn't surprised me if she wrote a song telling us all to back off. It's a fact that no matter what she does, even if she does exactly what we request (ayu-mi-x 7 for example), someone somewhere is going to complain and now because of twitter more people are going to bring those complaints directly to her. Sure she should be prepared for dissatisfying comments from fans but she's human and she's bound to get fed up. This is HER music after all. I feel like if you want someone who will make music the way you want it to be made, you should make it yourself.