Review: Tokyo Lights Fade Away

 

Adhitia Sofyan has always been on my top list singers since I was in college. Well, poor me. I didn’t have that much music reference until I was there. That said, even he already published plenty of sweet-toned songs years before, I never had a chance to listen to his magical works, not until my college friends introduced me to his music. Blue Sky Collapse’s the very first song I listened to, and in that exact moment I knew this guy’s a badass. I was ‘so’ into it and it took me to my-currently-most-treasured-songs like Gaze, Memilihmu, Adelaide Sky, Midnight, After the Rain, Seniman, and best of all Tokyo Lights Fade Away. You can always check them all on Spotify or his YouTube channel. You choose.

Amongst all of the tracks, Tokyo Lights Fade Away is my personal number one on the list. The moment I used to feel my heart broken, the song kept me accompanied. It sure was my heartbreak anthem (and I believe it will still be in the future). It sounds silly, but I truly cherish a heartbreak kind of state. You know… it’s an endless source of ideas to dramatize about, so why not? I genuinely won’t mind if I need to suffer from another one or two. Anyway, the real question is how broken his heart was that he managed to come by such a lyrical ideas? I refuse to believe that the song’s all written merely by imagining stuffs.

And here’s what the lyrics say:

(Verse 1)

Finally we walked along in the dark

As I watched the light reappear

As she held on my hand I believe it would last

I don’t mind if the world standing still

 

Further along I could see how I wished

That I knew how to stop time

As she held on my hand I could see it won’t last

I don’t mind if the world crashes down

 

(Chorus)

Wake up wake up

Isn’t time always been on the run

We walked to the door and we said our goodbyes

And then Tokyo lights fade away

 

(Verse 2)

It's funny how all stretches far and it

Felt like a dream and I’m wide awake

As the sunlight have fallen I stood by the bed

I don’t mind if world standing still

 

While moments of you being trapped in a jar

When I heard a knock on the door

As my faithful old friend mister time came along

I don’t mind if the world crashes down

 

(Chorus)

Wake up wake up

Isn’t time always been on the run

We walked to the door and we said our goodbyes

And then Tokyo lights fade away

 

(Bridge)

I held on too close the sky’s finally fall over me

I stood all too tall the ground’s finally shake under me

I fell to the light they were more translucent than I knew

I fell in too deep the truth knocks me flat down on the ground

 

(Chorus)

Wake up wake up

Isn’t time always been on the run

We walked to the door and we said our goodbyes

And then Tokyo lights fade away

 

 

I love how the verse builds the whole story of the song, the way it pictures the moment of being together with our dearest person so much beautifully, the intimate sense of a touch, as in how it says that he won’t mind if the world freezes up the second they’re holding hands. Yeah, there sure are times we hate to let things go. And here comes the moment of truth. “The world does not revolve around us”. Times can be that scary every now and then. It may shift an affection to a farewell so much quickly that we didn’t get it already happened. It may change somebody’s feeling, somebody’s perception of things, somebody’s world. It may even change the person themselves. We never know. I couldn’t tell why here they need to say goodbye, but a heartbreak is a heartbreak. You may face it over and over again, yet you sure will never get accustomed to the pain. Bet you’ll never do.

 

As for what the chorus say, I believe that it tells how the person tried to toughen himself to face the reality. Those last conversations they had that night suggested them to put their togetherness to an end. It was the exact moment Tokyo lights faded away, as for him the beauty of Tokyo’s night did not mean a thing anymore. Well, I believe that it is what it is. But, personally I’d love to visualize that moment in a much more literal way. Let’s say we were spending time with our beloved one in a certain city (be it Tokyo or any other place). We’re hanging out, strolling around, having fun and else. Then without us having a clue, our partner told us that we needed to give up the relationship. We then said goodbye to each other for the last time. We went back to our apartment or our room, laying our back to the bed in a sorrowful state, wondering what’d just happened. Then for some reason (whatever it was), the city lights went out, leaving us alone and lonely. That must be the saddest moment of contemplation, the melancholiest heartbreak story. Well ya, that’s nothing more than how I imagine the situation. So be it.

 

Last but not least, the bridge leads the song to its end dramatically. The rhythm, the lyrics, everything. The way he romanticized those pain in confronting the truth, I couldn’t get enough. Here is where the song suddenly plays its tempo to a higher tense before it gradually slowing down. With the melody and the lyrics combined, It throws me to a square empty space with no door to escape the reality, getting me drown in the sorrow deeper and deeper, suffocated. One well-written song indeed.

 

Anyway, in case you need to celebrate your heartbreak, this one may be a suitable choice. Listen it here.