Behind the Track (SHINYA AFTER 2nd) #5 — The Building at Night
The building does not know she is leaving, and carries on exactly as usual.
The scene it came from
Footsteps upstairs at eleven exactly, the same as every day. Pipes knock somewhere; someone is running water. 「起きてる人が いる / 名前は 知らない」.
The turn is in the pre-chorus: 「うるさいと 思ってた / ずっと 思ってた / 今夜だけは / 聞いていたい」. Nothing about the noise changed. Only the number of nights left did.
A hallway light has been out for half a year and nobody reported it. 「明日から / 私も 言えない / 直らないまま / 覚えてる」 — from tomorrow she loses even the standing to complain, so the fault becomes a memory instead.
The closing verse is the coolest moment on the album: 「明日 誰かが / ここに 来る / 上の足音を / その人が 聞く」. The building continues without her, and the same footsteps become someone else’s.
Sound notes
The percussion is made of domestic noise — knocks, taps, the ring of a pipe. The Rhodes sits quietly underneath. This is a song about sound, so the sounds through the wall are in front of the instruments.
One line
明日 誰かが / ここに 来る / 上の足音を / その人が 聞く — tomorrow someone / will come here / and the footsteps upstairs / will be theirs to hear
No resentment in it, and no sentiment either. The building was never hers.