Gold -Mata Au Hi Made-

Mata Au Hi Made (Gold) is the first single released by Hikaru Utada ever since the launch of their English-Japanese BAD MODE album in 2022.

I don't have the full context to what went into this song's creation. All I really know are the lyrics, the video visuals, and how it makes me feel. There's a lot I want to unpack about this song, Mata Au Hi Made, which translates to "Until the day we meet again".

It is accompanied by a music video that I dare say is equally as important, nay, inseparable to the song as the audio itself. With Utada walking down an empty, foggy street that appears to resemble Shinjuku City, undertoned with a lovely piano ballad, there's a sense of somber loneliness you can feel, before any words are even spoken.

Unfortunately for me, the lyrics start off with ideological sweeping statements, in regards to some of the unavoidable rises and falls of everyday living.

• Happiness - it's just waiting nearby. It's not all fun and games, but even the things that suck will one day blossom like flowers.
  • It's unfortunate because I'm an absolute sucker for this kind of writing.
• Anyone that shines like you... like gold, refuses to be an ornament and fashioned by just anyone.

In typical Utada fashion, they stroll down the street by themselves, as if they're in their own universe. Some truck drivers and whatnot can be noticed, but that's real life seeming to work around Utada's intentions, and not the other way around.

• Tragedies that could someday happen, I take them and say
  • F--k off, go bother me some other day
    • In the official video, 「おととい来やがれ」 is translated as "F--k off, you belong in the past", though the phrase can directly translate to "Come back the day before yesterday", which has a bit of an indirect meaning. I think this translation more closely resembles the theme of the song than what was actually in the video.

As the song continued, my heart steadily started to sink once I started to piece things together, especially with regards to the song title. This song might be about the void that's left when someone close is no longer around.