pinocchio-p and relatability

recently, i've been taking the time to listen to more of my favorite vocaloid producer's discography and i just wanted to write about the experience at large.

before this process, my favorite songs of pinocchio-p were 'i'm glad you're evil too,' and 'nice to meet you, mr. earthling.' and while i don't feel like those songs have been dethroned for me, i think that listening to a larger sample of their discog has left me with a lingering theme that i'd like to talk about.

relatability. when i think of pop music i think that besides having an earwormy melody, having a core idea that a majority of listeners can relate to is a base tenet of the genre. in a lot of examples, it's love, love lost, jealousy, or a specific feeling extrapolated into a full song. where pinocchio-p differs when it comes to relatability is in how he tackles this; but i feel like i should give some context to which songs i listened to and took in before i get to what i'm trying to explain.

'apple dot com' talks about things being put into perspective, and reflecting upon past decisions. an apple is delicious, but it's better in prison when there isn't much else. taking the time and effort to prepare for a job application, but never actually applying. the chorus talks about having tons of 'debt' weighing down on yourself, and to me it reads as if the 'debt' is the weight behind past decisions affecting your current state. decisions you may have made years ago that weigh on you now because of how they shifted your life path, and being tired of having to make new decisions daily.

'nee nee nee' is probably my favorite of the new set of songs i've introduced to myself. it's a song all about talking and expressing yourself to someone who isn't listening actively. being around someone regularly enough that you feel as if you're expressing your love openly to them despite their aloofness, only for the same thing to be mirrored back. it's about missed connections in a world where connections feel tentative to begin with. learning to meet at a middle ground and put in the effort to stop and listen.

'all i need are the things i like' feels eerily relevant to today's internet culture that seems hellbent on entirely erasing our ability to stay focused on one thing at a time. it's a song about cutting out all of the things you don't like in your life and living it by only exposing yourself to the things you like, and how by doing that you're missing out on even greater things because of a stubborn refusal to leave one's comfort zone. it over and over again repeats the title in the chorus, but refutes its own claim by saying that if that were the case for everyone, the world would fall into ruin. 

'slowmotion' feels the most personal of the songs i listened to. it's an introspective, nihilistic, but optimistic reflection on one's self in the face of a debilitating fever. pinocchio-p tells a story about being sick and doing the typical things one does when recovering from said sickness. going to the store for food, gulping down water, taking medicine, changing a cool rag on your forehead. but interspersed within is half-meta comments about how long the song has been running, and comparing it with a lifespan, along with the struggles and triumphs of everyday life. at one point the fleeting nature of a fever is compared to life itself, about being 'on pace for my wrinkle-filled finale,' a line that has multiple meanings depending on if the listener is contextualizing it with the fever or the introspection in mind.

'isn't it "a"' is the newest song that pinocchio-p has put out as of writing, and i asked myself while listening if he'd recently gotten on twitter and sifted through a controversial trending tag. the entire song plays like a frantic, haphazard argument filled with pointless side-tracking and jabs at character rather than the debated topic. the singers go back and forth about nothing, and despite mirroring one another and knowing on their own that their pride is what's keeping them at each other's throats, they can't help but ignore any possible common ground they have. it's lightly comedic and takes the piss out of petty internet arguments, all while reminding the listener that it's a shame that no one can find a resolution or meet in the middle.

brief and frankly reductive summaries aside, all of these songs talk about the types of things we often overlook in our lives because they're such generic things. we have a tendency as humans to inherently make things more personal, rather than looking at things from a distance. it's why love songs are so effective; the listener can effortlessly conjure at least one person who they love when listening to the song. but all of these songs feel like they're more directly dealing with the human condition, the quirks that make us painfully human and despite the pitfalls, what make life worth living. i don't have some grandiose point to make, i just adore how personal and emotionally impactful pinocchio-p's music is and wanted to rant into the void for a while. thanks for reading.