The Birthday - ビート

This performance is taken from the bonus DVD included with the first-press limited edition of VISION. "Beat" was the track from NIGHT ON FOOL that left the strongest impression on me upon first listen. At this point in time, Chiba Yusuke’s vocals were unexpectedly bright, creating a curious chemistry with the steady, grounded instrumentation. Driven by a powerful rhythm, the song carries an almost addictive momentum. True to its title, it is, in the purest sense, a song built entirely on "beat." Chiba Yusuke later used the same title for his poetry anthology, even printing these very lyrics on the cover beneath the dust jacket. The imagery of the lyrics is equally intriguing, sketching the messy aftermath of a wild night in stark contrast to the protagonist lying on a corner bench. Right after the tender declaration, “Only one planet we got, you are the only one of you. So I won't forgive, all kinds of things that they do,” comes the bizarre image of God using the Earth to fill in for a juggling ball. “If it drops just once, then it's all over, all over.” In the end, perhaps the world is not so precious after all, and the reason for its destruction might be something utterly absurd. This peculiar sense of absurdity is, perhaps, one of the defining charms of early The Birthday.