Today Is a Beautiful Day

Produksi

Sebelum mencapai debut album Supercell (2009), pengubah lagu supercell (Ryo) telah menggunakan suara Vocaloid Hatsune Miku untuk vokalis dari lagu yang dia produksi. dalam transisi untuk penyanyi manusia, kemudian penyanyi berumur 21 tahun Nagi Yanagi dipanggil oleh Ryo untuk menyanyikan vokal untuk debut tunggal Supercell "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" (2009). Yanagi sebelumnya telah mengajukan cover version dari sebuah lagu ke situs berbagi video Nico Nico Douga dengan nama Gazelle, dan Ryo telah mempunyai penggemar dari suaranya bahkan sebelum meng-upload lagu sendiri untuk Nico Nico Douga pada akhir 2007. Menurut Ryo, anggota staf lain ingin mencoba memiliki semua lagu di album dinyanyikan oleh Vocaloid tersebut, tetapi Ryo menginginkannya untuk dimasukkan ke album. Kemudian, Supercell memutuskan untuk tetap dengan Nagi sebagai vokalis untuk album kedua mereka. Judul album sebagian terinspirasi oleh Confessions film (2010) dan yang mendampingi lagu tema "Last Flower". Ryo terkesan dengan nuansa melankolis dari lagu dalam film yang mengungkapkan tema "hidup indah," dan ia menginginkannya dengan judul yang maknanya akan berubah tergantung pada bagaimana hal itu dirasakan. Dalam melakukannya, Ryo menyarankan menggunakan judul Today Is A Beautiful Day yang dapat diambil secara harfiah atau sinis.

Komposisi

Ryo gemar mengekspresikan emosi manusia dalam musiknya, jadi untuk Today Is A Beautiful Day, ia ingin menggabungkan perasaan seperti pengalaman seumur hidup dan kenangan. Dia menjelaskan proses yang mengekspresikan setiap memori sebagai cerita individu. Ryo menyusun lagu-lagu di album pada awal dan akhir di lagu "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" (Artinya: "Cerita yang tidak kau ketahui"). Dengan demikian, lagu kedua di album "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari", dan lagu terakhir "Watashi e" (Artinya: "Untukku") menggunakan lagu yang sama. Untuk "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari", Ryo ditawari untuk menulis lagu ending untuk serial anime Bakemonogatari 2009. Ryo tidak ingin menyalin nada atau gaya novel Bakemonogatari yang asli, karena ia merasa penulis Novel Nisio Isin ingin menikmati lagu asli tanpa salinan manapun. Dengan demikian, Ryo menulis cerita yang berbeda setelah meminjam pengaturan umum dari novel tersebut. Sementara menciptakan album, Ryo pikir akan menarik jika lagu pertama pada album tersebut adalah akhir dari cerita.Trek pertama dari sebuah album "Owari e Mukau Hajimari no Uta" (Artinya: "Lagu pertama yang menjelang akhir") disusun dengan gambar dimulai dengan adegan flashback, mengingat masa lalu, dan kembali ke masa kini
Untuk "Hero", Ryo diminta untuk menulis sebuah lagu tema untuk majalah manga Shueisha Aoharu, edisi spesial dari Young Jump. Para seniman manga akan serial di Aoharu diminta untuk menggambar "pahlawan mereka berpikir itu lucu," dan Ryo diminta untuk membuat lagu dengan tema yang sama. Ryo berpikir tentang seorang bocah yang bertujuan untuk menjadi seorang seniman manga & sebagai protagonis lagu, dan menulis dengan konsep yang ingin mendukung mereka yang dikorbankan untuk menjadi otaku. Lagu ini mencerminkan sudut pandang yang berbeda antara protagonis dan pahlawan, Nagi Yanagi mengubah gaya bernyanyinya dari dingin menjadi terdengar sangat lucu. Ryo menggambarkan "Perfect Day" dengan gambar tertutup ke judul album dan merasakan lagu yang melambangkan album tersebut. "Perfect Day" muncul dari sebuah nuansa bahwa tidak akan diragukan lagi besok akan menjadi hari yang terbaik (Perfect Day).
Ryo membuat sebuah lagu "Fukushū" (Artinya: "Balas Dendam") dengan tema seseorang yang sedang kesal, dan ini terpengaruh oleh "Snow White" untuk memasukkan barisan pada lagu tersebut yang menggambarkan seseorang yang diberitahu untuk memakai sepatu besi merah dan harus berdansa. Ryo ingin sebuah lagi yang menggambarkan perasaan yang sering dialami masa-masa remaja. Yanagi berpendapat bahwa itu sangat sulit untuk mengungkapkan perasaan pada lagu tersebut. "Rock 'n' Roll Nan desu no" (Artinya: Ini adalah Rock 'n' Roll) disusun dengan komponen drum yang begitu kuat sebagai konsep awal dan Ryo ingin membuat lagu dengan tempo yang cepat dan terdiri atas nuansa Rock and roll. Lagu ini memiliki Tempo sekitar 200 beat per menit. Ryo bekerja dalam kolaborasi dengan Yanagi untuk membuat lagu berdasarkan konsep percobaan Ryo. Ryo awalnya tidak ingin menempatkan "Love & Roll", tetapi staff lainnya berpendapat bahwa konsep itu seharusnya dimasukkan ke dalam lagu tersebut.
For the middle of the album, Ryo wanted a lower tempo song with a different mood and composed "Feel So Good" based on this concept. When it was decided Ryo would compose the theme song to Type-Moon's visual novel Mahōtsukai no Yoru, he first read the original novel by Kinoko Nasu the visual novel is based on to get a feel for the work. Ryo wrote "Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni" (literally: "The Stars Twinkle on a Night Like This") for the theme song, and there was not much trial and error in the composition of this song. Fireworks were an influence in the writing of "Utakata Hanabi" (literally: "Bubble Fireworks"). Ryo wanted the song to reflect how fireworks, which are initially brilliant, are hard to vividly remember afterwards. "Yoru ga Akeru yo" (literally: "Dawn Will Break") was the last song on the album Ryo composed, and was born from the feeling of lying in bed being unable to sleep. Ryo was inspired by the layout of the room where he works and how when dawn is breaking, the temperature slowly starts to rise, and a school near his home starts to bustle. Since "Sayonara Memories" was initially released in February 2010, Ryo used that month as the song's theme. He attempted to write a song that reflected February as the time of year in Japan when people are reminded of farewells they made the previous year, as well as the time when people think about meeting others for the first time. The last song "Watashi e" is meant to convey perseverance through tough times.
While Ryo writes all the music, an assortment of session musicians perform the songs on the album, including four guitarists and bassists, five drummers, three pianists, and a violinist. Ryo cites drummer Masayuki Muraishi as an influence in the composition of "Rock 'n' Roll Nan desu no"; Muraishi contributes on several songs on the album. In composing "Feel So Good", Ryo employed bassist Kenji Hino, son of Terumasa Hino, after he became interested in a performance of his on a TV music program. Ryo felt using strings in "Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni" was an essential part of the song; Crusher Kimura provides the strings for three songs on the album. Haruko Ohinata is credited for the chorus of the song "Utakata Hanabi". Today Is A Beautiful Day was mixed by Takeshi Hara, Yasuhisa Kataoka, Keiji Kondo, Masashi Kudo, Eiji Makino, Koji Morimoto, Okuda Supa, and Shuji Yamaguchi. Yuji Chinone provided the mastering.

Karya Seni

The limited edition of Today Is A Beautiful Day came bundled with a 36-page full-color illustration booklet titled Supercell Works 2: 2009 Summer–2011 Spring. The booklet contains color illustrations for the songs, as well as comments by Ryo, Nagi Yanagi and the illustrators, an interview of Supercell members, and other details about the songs and artwork, including lyrics. The albums' packaging, designed by Yoshiki Usa, includes the song lyrics and some of the illustrations featured in Supercell Works 2. Each song is given an illustration by an artist, which include members outside of the band in addition to members of Supercell. These illustrators are listed below with the track listing. The cover art is by Shirow Miwa and shows a girl in a blue dress smiling in front of an assortment of flowers on a tan background. The limited edition came with a design case illustrated by Redjuice featuring a girl with luggage in tow in a rural setting walking next to an old-fashioned blue car.

Rilis dan Penerimaan

Today Is A Beautiful Day was released on March 16, 2011 in two editions: a regular CD version and a CD+DVD limited edition. The DVD contained an anime music video of the song "Perfect Day". Also on the DVD are trailers for the anime film Cencoroll, the visual novel Mahōtsukai no Yoru, and Shueisha's manga magazine Aoharu, as well as a commercial for "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" and the anime Bakemonogatari. For the week of March 14, 2011 on Oricon's weekly albums chart, Today Is A Beautiful Day was reported to have sold over 34,000 copies in its first week of sales, peaking at No. 3, and charted for 42 weeks. In July 2011, Today Is A Beautiful Day was awarded a Gold Disc by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for having exceeded 100,000 copies shipped in a single year.

Video Musik

The DVD bundled with the album's limited edition included an anime music video of the song "Perfect Day" produced by Madhouse. It was directed by Ryōsuke Nakamura, with animation direction by Mieko Hosoi. The character design is based on original designs by Shirow Miwa. The video shows a girl with short, blue hair coming back to the town where she used to live. The girl reminisces about the time she spent with another girl with long, light brown hair years before when they were children. The two had fun around town, and during one day the wind blew the hat off the girl with brown hair. While walking around town, the two girls meet by chance, shocking both of them, but both are happy to each other again. The hat from years before lands in front of the blue-haired girl, much to her surprise, and she puts it on. Contrails are mentioned twice in the song as a part of the chorus and images of them are seen throughout the video. Nakamura says the video is about life and dreams, and he used the song as inspiration to make the video as a side story to the song's lyrics. He explains that the two girls are actually one person that chose different paths in life, and describes their chance meeting as a "somewhat magical winter day."