Gen Hoshino - Cube Review: Anger, Despair, and Vulnerability

The Japanese superstar once again shows off his finesse in creating cutting-edge, outside-the-box music with his new CUBE remake soundtrack, as he shows the vulnerability and despair of human beings.

Credit: Youtube

After his duet with Korean RnB artist Zion T for Marvel Shang-Chi in September. On the 18th of October, he released a song called Cube, which is the soundtrack for the Japanese remake of Vicenzo Natali's 1997 film of the same name.

In interviews with many major Japanese media. The 40 years old singer-songwriter told interviewers that the song is a 'whole new world' to his music

I thought that being offered the theme song for a movie of this genre (psychological-thriller) would give me an opportunity to go to a place I had never set foot in before.

The song starts with a heavy drum beat with an electric organ and creates this distorted sound that is different from previous recordings and has a unique funk/gospel rhythm. It's very similar to punk, funk, and electronica. This is very different from Gen Hoshino we all know, and most of it was done digitally.

Each line in the song speaks of someone's powerlessness. I think the most noteworthy part of the song is the connection to the original movie, one is "I saw the Canadian film back when, just gonna get killed in this cube of insanity" and the one at the end of the song “We are always in endless stupidity.” But, in the last part, he customized it for a more personal impact. "We will always be trapped in this endless absurdity."

In my personal opinion, this is related to someone's fragility, as shown many times in the lyrics, people try to hide their own feelings and try to be someone who they're not. but inside they are more fragile and vulnerable than you think. So that is why in the end we will always end up in this 'absurdity'.

The lyrics themselves are more satirical rather than straightforward. It depends on the listener, but I got the impression from the song that you can be upset with the world but unable to do anything about it, so you simply have to live another day. Although I must say that it has the connotation of "positivity, self-acceptance" in some of the lyrics such as

"The river of fate flows on — gotta resist the current now, turn that unconscious daydream I’d been living, those illusions of the past into fragile pieces of straw, linking them ‘til I find my way out."

"Engulfed by my fate, I cursed it all, now, I even grew tired of that, break free of this absurdity, imposed on us by fools, the exit begins to glow"

However, in an interview with Billboard Japan, Gen said that he didn't intend for the song to have such a positive and hopeful connotation.

I had no intention of putting hope in it. So, it was a little surprising that you could feel the hope from this song. Hope is an image of the future and the outside, but the lyrics of "Cube" are more like the feeling of "I don't want to die unreasonably"

Another point that I have to take note of in this song is how vulnerable and desperate humans are. We cannot deny that every single line describes the dark side of human beings. Vulnerability, despair, anger, fear, and hatred, all packed in one song.

The misery, rage, and helplessness are all well-represented in the music video. Gen was stuck inside the "Cube" and attempted to navigate his way out. Suda Masaki appeared as a guest for 15 seconds, which is fascinating. However, I was fascinated with the camera work as well as the video's concept.

For your information, Suda Masaki is one of the main characters in the film. I am still trying to establish his involvement in this video but from his appearance, I think his role is simply as the "devil" that lures him into the maze, but eventually, he finds his way out from the mazes.

Overall, Cube is a representation of anger, despair, and most of all, utopia. It is definitely new music and the new face of Gen Hoshino as he stated that he wanted to create music without having to stick with his public images.

When I work under the name "Gen Hoshino", it's a bit cramped that I have to have my own song. I think it would be fun to be able to act as "Gen Hoshino" without my own song. I also want to do new things while returning to the origin of instrumentation.

Album Information

Release Date: 18th October 2021

Available Platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Line Music