With the release of the compilation album NEO JAPANESE HEROINE, I wanted to do more of the tracks that are on that album specifically. Hence why today I jump to “BLAST,” the last track on THIS IS NOW.

Songs like this that have a lot of English interspersed can actually be harder to translate, because it’s hard to know sometimes what’s meant to be taken more as an ad lib or flavoring versus an actual part of the rest of the sentence. For the most part, I’ve interpreted the English words as being parts of the Japanese phrases they’re in, so I’ve not left most of the things that were in CAPS as such.

Some interesting points from miko’s Japanese blog post about this song are that before release, it was unknown whether “BLAST” was a song that had been untitled during shows, or a song that they had never played live before. It turned out to be the latter. Also, at the demo stage the tempo was a bit slower, more like some “light J-rock,” but then when she tried speeding it up in a more “metal approach” it turned out really cool, so the song transformed into this. But perhaps the most important thing is that she doesn’t want people to take the words “THIS IS NOW” as meaning simply “we’re satisfied with this” or “this is all we can do,” but rather:

The exist†trace of 2016 is like this!

With that in mind, we made “BLAST” while affirming “THIS IS NOW,” but negating it simultaneously. Even if this is the birth of the greatest music and the greatest live show, in the next instant we’ll crush that, blast off, and aim even higher!

She also talks about this song on a bilingual blog post leading up to the Setsuzoku Records release, and since she wrote “best moments” in quotation marks, I’m guessing that’s how she’s translating the lyric 最高のこの瞬間 (saikou no kono shunkan), which I had translated to “this greatest of moments” and “greatest moment” before reading her post. I think those sound better in the full context of the lyrics, and since they do ultimately mean the same thing, I’m going to stick with my translation on this one.

Lastly, a minor note: I’d been writing my intros in indigo, but with my new site theme, hyperlinks get either completely obliterated or camouflaged if I do that, as they’re signified by blue text only rather than blue text and an underline. So, I’ll no longer do that, but will still put in a little star character ☆ to mark where my intro ends and the romanized & translated text begins.

And so, on to it! Lyrics in Japanese can be found here on Rock Lyric.

☆

BLAST

GOOD TIME saikoukyuu no SHOW TIME hajikete
BLAST YOUR NOW
yume no you ni

BAD TIME skinkai made SALVAGE ochiteku
BLAST YOUR NOW
akkenai ne

LIFETIME UP & DOWN de souzou fukanou
BLAST YOUR NOW
norikonashite

YOUR TIME iiwake wa NO WAY! massugu ni
BLAST YOUR NOW
sore de ii sa

hitotsu futatsu kazoete mite mo
asu wa keisan dekinakute
aseru hodo ni ashi mo kotoba mo kooru keredo

mabataki mo dekinai kurai
ikusen no kimi wo misete
saikou no kono shunkan mo kako no peeji e to
dakara ima tomo ni utaou

NEXT TIME hontou wa motto sore ja WE DON’T NEED IT
BLAST YOUR NOW
yatte misete

THIS IS NOW ima ga buttonjau kurai
BLAST YOUR NOW
motto NEW ONE

toki ni namida misenai you ni
kimi no mae wo aruku koto mo
kasaneta ima sore sae areba mou daijoubu

mabataki mo dekinai kurai
ikusen no kimi wo misete
saikou no kono shunkan mo kako no peeji e to
bokura ima tashika ni susunderu

doko made mo kakete yukun da
yume miru shounen no you ni
kuyashisouna nakigao mo ima kako no peeji e to nokoshite

mabataki mo dekinai kurai
ikusen no kimi wo misete
saikou no kono shunkan wo towa no peeji e to
dakara ima tomo ni utaou

BLAST

Good time Bust out with the greatest show time
BLAST YOUR NOW
Like a dream

Dive to the deepest seas to salvage a bad time
BLAST YOUR NOW
That was unexpected, huh

You can’t predict life’s ups and downs
BLAST YOUR NOW
You gotta take control

Excuses on your time? NO WAY! Forge straight ahead
BLAST YOUR NOW
That’s all there is to it

Even if you try counting each day one by one,
You can’t calculate the future
Your feet and words freeze the more you rush, but

Show me so many you’s
That I don’t even have time to blink
Even this greatest of moments will go into the pages of the past
So let’s sing together now

“We’ll really do more next time” — We don’t need that!
BLAST YOUR NOW
Show me how you do it!

THIS IS NOW Blow away the present
BLAST YOUR NOW
Gimme more of the latest¹

Sometimes I’d walk in front of you
So you couldn’t see me crying
But I’m alright now, as long as we share the present

Show me so many you’s
That I don’t have time to blink
Even this greatest of moments will go into the pages of the past
Now, we’re moving forward surely

We’ll run to the ends of the earth
Like a boy full of dreams
Leave that disappointed, crying face in the pages of the past

Show me so many you’s
That I don’t have time to blink
Leave this greatest moment to the pages of eternity
So let’s sing together now

---

^1. The written Japanese lyrics say 「もっと最新（NEW ONE）を」(motto saishin [new one] wo) but all miko sings is “motto new one.” (At least, I’m pretty sure that it’s miko, not Jyou, who says the phrases after the “BLAST YOUR NOW!” lyric.) 最新 means not just “new” but rather the “newest,” hence my translation. ⤴