Advantage Lucy's album Fanfare (ファンファーレ) came out 27 years ago, today! A classic with several fan favorites, and a perfect starting point if you've never listened to them before.
1999 ; TOCT-24128
Album scans curtsey of user @tweecafe
i love this album a TON. from the bright and poppy instrumentals to the bittersweet lyrics, this album is delightful. the vocals are light and sugary, contrasting with some of the lyrics throughout the runtime. the album contains bits of melancholy throughout, finally resulting in the song 'so', that is stripped of the twee guitar and light sound, and has a more forlorn feeling that contrasts greatly with the rest of the album, which is made even more obvious by the next song's opening guitar riffs that feature the same pop sound as most of the previous tracks. i especially love the use of droning guitars and other instruments (synthesizers maybe?) that add a certain something to tracks such as 'armond' and 'metro', which actually happen to be some of my favorite tracks off the album. this music provides a wave of happiness that feels just like a summer breeze or a cold glass of soda on a hot day.
The Girl awakes from a dream, into a dream. Made of Her own.
Teddy has prepared the ship, it's time to lift off.
Onto a new planet, and then to another.
Another field of asteroids, cleared with ease.
There’s no stopping Her.
The television’s bubble screen plays the topics of the day.
No matter where She goes, She can see what She’s left behind, and what She’s yet to see.
Always looking to experience what She hasn’t.
The Girl and Teddy are always like that. Always alone, together.
Far from home.
Autopilot switched on, The Girl digs through the cargo hold.
She scavenges for her music box. It plays, and She remembers the lyrics to match the tune.
“i went beyond the cloudy sky, beyond the night, counting the stars
i’ve opened the window of light, put on the rainbow, and I’m waiting for you
I’m sure you must exist ahead of the future
To the sky
One day I’ll be able to hear you
In the sunset I begin to question
Can I let you know my feelings?
Jumping into my fading memories, streaming…
Opening up the window to the world, making a wish, gathering the stars
A world before dreams, colors changing, taken care by you
I wonder if you’re there when I look up at the sky
to the sky”
Back then, The Girl quietly waited for a miracle. It didn’t go well.
Back on that blue orb, everything was so far away.
But now She has Teddy, and His trusty galaxy cruiser.
The Star Surfer.
She Believed Everything She Was Told.
Nothing was given to Her, only said.
On a new planet today. Crowds of busy creatures, of many sorts, filed through the thoroughfare. A festival! It was all alive, and The Girl reveled in it. She did not belong here, but nobody bothered to care. A day, a week, a month. She spent her time learning the language and the way it’s spoken. Quick to blend in. The multicolored plant life growing in the middle of the city emanated an intoxicating aroma, that somehow always left you craving a sweet.
Comfortable in a place with comfortable people, but not the very next day… Deciding in unison, Teddy and The Girl prepare the ship for yet another takeoff. No goodbyes, nothing left behind, aside from memories in other’s minds. A ripple in the water that never bounces back.
It was always like that.
Coming and Going.
It’s how They liked to be. To not be.
They had traveled like this for A Very Long Time.
Only concerned in what’s close to Them, and never letting it stop Them from freedom.
Through many spaces, times, people and languages.
The Girl looked for something. Something she couldn't even understand Herself.
Planet after planet, station after station. Never settling.
She just is.
She is Just Here.
One far away day, Teddy’s flying failed to get Them through a nasty patch of decommissioned satellites. Far into the outer range of gravity of what seemed to be a dead, grey planet, the Star Surfer suffered a critical hit to the fuselage. There was only one way to go, toward the grey. The ship's computer announces they were rapidly approaching Earth, approaching a home that looked nothing like she knew lifetimes ago. Their landing wasn’t ideal, but the thrusters were still in good shape, so the blow was cushioned.
This orb was no longer blue, or green for that matter. The Girl’s celestial peers, those mortal homo sapiens, weaved to and fro atop a plane of grey stone below their feet. From that grey stone protruded endless, monolithic structures of white, where those neighbors hurried into with their faces covered. The Star that once shone onto the ground and through Her skin was dim, covered, or perhaps waned.
There was no more blue left, it was needed elsewhere.
She had been away for too many lifetimes. Her home forgot Her.
She wasn’t even sure if She remembered home either. Like a file, permanently deleted. The next few days of waiting for Teddy’s repairs to be done were ruinous for The Girl. She was home, but time had erased anything she could have come home to. And not one person she met in the city knew the people she remembered, or the shops she used to go to. After a week or so of Her slump, the ship was ready to go, and The Girl couldn’t wait another second for lift off.
No shops.
No guitars.
No music.
No candy.
No television.
No family.
No classmates.
No grass.
No sunshine.
No water.
This disgusting past.
There was nothing left. And She felt nothing.
Liftoff. Bye-bye Earth.
Teddy guided Them through the atmosphere in silence.
The Girl, silent as well.
The television switched off, She entered a fresh set of coordinates into the hyperdrive.
To put distance. To be somewhere that felt like now, not before.
Teddy stopped the ship far away from any orbs, and opened the blast doors.
It was all she could do to hold it in.
Out They Went, Into The Void.
The Girl floated aimlessly in space, holding Teddy tight.
Eyes closed, a tear escapes, only to float aimlessly in her helmet.
A tether linked her to the ship. Her long legs curled above the vastness.
Nothing but tiny lights could be seen, far away.
She was alone, it was always like that, right?
