2025.8.19
Context: Harapan
by The Cottons
The guitarist of one of my favourite Japanese rock band, Gama, mentioned this song in one of his tweet, so I went and gave it a listen and HOLY -- this has to be one of the most haunting song I've listened in years. To be fair there do be many different kinds of "haunting", like for example The Dripping Tap
by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard is also haunting but of a different kind. This song, Harapan
by The Cottons, is a beast on its own. First of all the whole thing is 16 minutes long - how often do you come across pop songs that are 16 minutes long?? Second of all, before reading the lyrics, the way the main vocal sings in this song has always been slightly bothering me - it sounds like it's supposed to be a pretty, quiet and calm song but why do I keep feeling this slight bit of eeriness? And then I read the lyrics and the eeriness makes full sense immediately. It doesn't sound like a sad song - although it might be because I don't know Indonesian and rely on machine translation - but the sadness it's able to depict and convey is at such a strong level. What is this feeling they're putting in my brain?? Existential dread???