きゅうくらりん / kyu-kurarin

This is a song I came across during a random spotify shuffle a while ago, and I was instantly taken by the near immediate combination of urgency and anxiety, the latter mostly coming through in some of the strange melodies and discordant clashing of some sounds. KAFU is a voicebank I haven't come across as much as nearly as often as the classic Vocaloids but I find the general tone especially when used in a song as chaotic as this to be very interesting. There's an inherent clash between the feel of the instrumentation and the voice for the most part, barring a few moments where the voice comes down a bit along with the rest of the song in a very melancholic sort of way, which, looking at the song lyrically is fairly fitting. Despite the fast paced somewhat light(?) energy it seems to present at times, this is definitely not a happy song, though, and the listlessness and depression of the singer along with their strong desire to not let anyone know about their struggles are on full display.

The anxious combination of structured piano chords mixed with the other all over the place instrumentation, and eventual degradation of the piano into random notes (and eventual total loss of melody breakdown) really illustrate this. Peppered throughout are vocal moments signalling resignation, hopelessness, some sort of acceptance of the singer's bad situation, but it culminates in a near manic section where the singer is re-energized, only for the lyrics to indicate their relief at having been able to 'finally have seen such a dream.' All this said I find it very interesting to listen to, and the variety of covers of it is quite large. It's fun to see how different voicebanks or vocalists handle the more emotional sections.

This song is practically confirmed to be based around Sayori from Doki Doki Literature Club, which, if you're familiar with her in that game, shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but I was admittedly surprised by this myself as being a DDLC inspiration in general feels kind of out there to me.