The music rock group RADWIMPS has made for Makoto Shinkai’s most recent films has been vital to the features they accompany. That’s especially true for Your Name, where the band’s all-emotions-on-deck songs added to the intensity of a story where familiar teenage feelings became (literally, in the plot) something that could save or snuff out the world. That can turn melodramatic fast, but the pair work well together in hitting on the urgency teen emotions create, and how everything takes on over-inflated status.
Still, it’s important to also note…RADWIMPS’ music can stand on its own too, minus animation surrounding it. I have yet to see Weathering With You, so I don’t know how their music for that movie weaves itself as seamlessly as they did on Your Name. I have listened to the songs the group shared that also appear on the soundtrack, and they leave plenty of an impression. They recently shared the video for ballad “Daijobu,” which underlines this point well. Watch it below.
“Daijobu” finds the band continuing to embrace their turn to the silver screen, but in a way where all the end-credit ambitions work as a standalone song too. RADWIMPS has been exploring orchestra sounds more in recent years, and this one leans in heavily on swelling string sections as it plays out. While still relatively new to this type of composing, RADWIMPS has picked up a lot in a short amount of time, as this number offers a good build from the sparse (guitar, flute, voice) to something spilling over with a wave of violins. It peaks with a final segment that sees them bring in their rock side to offer up some extra juice.
RADWIMPS has a busy 2020 ahead of them, as they recently announced a jaunt of arena shows for early next year, highlighted by two shows at Tokyo Dome. Read more about that here.