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内無双
Like many scientific terms in Japanese, 超新星 was formed by translating each element of a foreign word. 超 (chō) means “super-,” 新 (shin) means “new,” and 星 (pronounced “sei” here, though “hoshi” when it's a word on its own) means “star.” (It also means “planet” in some compounds; if that seems like a quaint preservation of ignorance, remember that “planet” comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning “wandering star.”)
“Supernova” is a popular title in music, not only in English but in Japanese and Chinese (where it's also 超新星; despite being composed of Chinese characters, it was probably imported from Japanese). You can see why: the word looks and sounds cool, and supernovas themselves look awesome.
But the term also has ominous connotations: it's the final surge of brilliance from a star that's about to die. Our own sun doesn't have enough mass to become a supernova, though it will form a pretty nebula some time after it's engulfed the earth.
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Fukuyama Masaharu's new album is called 超新星. At a concert earlier this year, he teased the crowd: “You must be worried it's my last?” He then explained that the album had several songs with astronomical themes, and that writing a new song felt like the birth of a new star (something that can be triggered by the shock waves from a supernova). Finally he admitted he'd originally got the idea while drinking a cocktail called a supernova (in English).
He struck a more serious note in the announcement on his website:
What if the music I created were to be played hundreds of years in the future, anonymously? I'm not sure yet whether this daydream is the ego of a writer, a pure wish, or a resistance to physical death.
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As a fanclub member, I knew about the album a few weeks before the general public. It's Masha's first since I became a fan, and I've been looking forward to it with both excitement and a bit of anxiety. It's the same feeling I have when there's a rare astronomical event in the skies above London: Will I miss it? Am I doing this right?
I pre-ordered two special editions of the CD with bonus re-recordings of older songs, but of course I couldn't wait for them to be shipped from Japan to hear the album. On release day, I watched Japanese fans’ reactions on social media while impatiently counting down to the UK digital release at midnight.
Except when the time came and I went to my preferred service, Qobuz, the album wasn't there. Their chatbot said they didn't have the rights and suggested I request it using a menu option that didn't actually exist. After searching for another place to buy proper downloads (I refuse to “buy” media I won't actually own), I spent half an hour installing iTunes on my laptop and got my husband to use his account to buy it there.
I had to leave actually listening to it till the next day. At which point it showed up on Qobuz too. Welcome to 2026, when the universe should be on your doorstep but gets left in a random hedge.
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I'd heard all the songs on 超新星 already. Half had been released as standalone singles (though some have different mixes here), two had been the themes for a TV programme and an advert, and all of them had been part of Masha's live sets, which I'd seen thanks to his practice of livestreaming concerts for overseas fans. It was worth buying the album just to be able to play them whenever they get stuck in my head.
The first two tracks, SUPERNOVA and ウシュクベーハー, made their debut in Masha's last concert before the album's release. SUPERNOVA sounds like it was written to be an opening track, and it works very well, although I'm not yet sure how often I'll listen to it on its own.
I found ウシュクベーハー much more interesting. I puzzled over the title until a caption during the concert told me it was “Uisge beatha,” Scots Gaelic for “whisky,” written in katakana. It does have the sound of late-night mulling over a drink.
Though he has many albums full of great songs, I think this may be Masha's strongest album as an album. It's paced like a concert, with energy building up and being brought down in a natural flow. So the solemn but life-affirming Kusunoki - Blowing in the Wind of 500 Years - is followed by the expansive, upbeat tracks Great Freedom and 万有引力 (Banyūinryoku), both of which had me clapping above my head in my living room.
We then get a rest with the gentleness of Hitomi.
By the way, 万有引力 is one of the songs with an astronomy-adjacent title. I'm so fascinated by the beauty of its kanji that I'd be tempted to get them tattooed, but you really don't want “Law of Universal Gravitation” on your body if you're over 40.
Even when songs were familiar, the sequencing sometimes gave me a new appreciation. Take 妖 (Ayakashi / Ghost). I'd bought it as a standalone single and had always thought it was powered mainly by vibes. But putting it after 光 (Hikari / Light, another new track that had me punching the air) brought out new depths in its melody, like a colour placed next to a complementary one.
I was very glad to get Masha's solo version of ヒトツボシ (Evening Star, which he previously recorded with KOH+), even if the studio recording doesn't quite match the emotion of this live version.
If the album's sequencing has a flaw, it's the decision to end it with a piano version of 拍手喝采 (Hakushukassai / Applause and Cheers), the theme song to Tatsuki: Too Kind for School, which appears in a full version earlier on the album. It's fine, but it's a bit of an anticlimax.
Maybe a more spectacular ending would have been better. But then, Masha isn't finished.