There are only a handful of songs that sound as fresh as they did when they first released. This song, released in 2006, is one of them.
There is something so poignant about this song, with lyrics that ache for a romance that has long since run its course. Yearning for connection feels like an incredibly Gen-Z-coded emotion, yet vocalist Yuki Chikudate manages to thread the needle between longing for the song’s subject and acceptance that what was once had is no more.
“In drops dew
I wished that I were you.”
Aided by the shoegazey instrumentation, this melancholic waltz cuts through like a warm knife through butter.
This then begs the question: why call this yearning song “Thursday?” To me, “Thursday” feels like a cyclical lament, trying to weave together what frail threads remain of this relationship, even as the lyrics wax poetically about the person being pined over. Much like Thursday during the week, the end is in sight, yet you still are left with so much more in the rearview mirror.
“The autumn wind feels as if it were you /
And swayed through the fields where I once held you“
Time is a cruel mistress, and “Thursday” captures this kind cruelty perfectly. It’s almost like a Groundhog Day of the soul, wishing to relive the past every day, and yet the march towards our collective demise continues onward, leaving us all in an eternal waltz while we reminisce on the gool ol’ days.
In the same way that our own memories live on in our minds and photographs, Asobi Seksu does so too. The band announced an indefinite hiatus in 2013, well before I had the chance to listen to them and form any sort of an emotional attachment to their music. It seems almost poetic that the last song they released was a cover of Boris’ “Farewell.”
With my final semester coming to a rapid close, “Thursday” has been the rock that I’ve turned to in order to keep me sane. These lyrics have given me so much advice through this tumultuous time, and I am left here, whistling through the window, acting the same way that everyone else does.
