Kikuo - Cotton Candy 

Mom: go play outside they're only clouds The clouds outside:

The gradually dropping tempo really gives us the feeling of falling down into the abyss.

I generally love experimental music, but this is absolutely terrifying. Not like those cheap jump-scares in horror movies but like.....this creepy sinister feeling grows on you throughout the whole song, '"something is definitely wrong" kind of feeling.

聴覚情報で人を不安恐怖の渦に陥れる方法を知ってるだろってくらい精神にくる

its freaky how perfectly this song captures that sinking feeling in your stomach when out of nowhere something in your life goes irreparably wrong

nobody: kikuo: *_wanna hear a cute cloud singing really unsettlingly?_*

clever of kikuo to make the drop feel so entrancing and addicting, like you’re tripping it’s so encapsulating, but then it fades away. and by the second time the buildup starts, you can’t wait for it to hit again but... it doesn’t stop until the song becomes a scrambled mess, then silent.

This feels almost like a psychotic break. Imagine sitting in a room alone with nothing but a couple furniture around you as you clutch your head in pain, trying to make the sounds stop and it only gets progressively worse until the episode is over. For some reason. This feels familiar to me. 10/10 would make myself mentally unwell again with this

all of my stuffed plushies that I didn't invite to sleep on my bed when I was 7 coming back to haunt me during my sleep paralysis

THIS SLAPS DUDE

My interpretation of this song is that this is about growing up and slowly becoming more depressed as the years go on and they (the person singing) are remembering the time when they were happy. The "cotton candy" refers to happy memories of being a child and just having that joyfulness all the time. The lyrics, "Cotton candy in my head, sweet and fluffy" are the memories that are innocent and happy. They then go on to say, "please give me lots of cotton candy, like the old days. I want to go back how we were." This shows their want to go back to their childhood. "Forever, and ever, my head is empty, empty, empty" This is their depression making them feel empty. One again after this line they say, "The old days, the old days, please let me go back" almost like they are begging to be happy and free again. The last lines in the song is, "Put me back... cotton... candy" The hesitation in their voice could be them taking their last breath, which could be them committing suicide because they couldn't handle their depression any longer. I hope this made sense! :)) Edit: I also just thought about WHY they specifically said cotton candy. This could be because cotton candy melts or "goes away" very fast, so cotton candy could symbolize how short youth and childhood is!

1小節ごとに転調してるの狂ってて気持ち良い……合法ドラッグや……

Everyone's gangsta till the cloud starts singing

wow i love the new kirby game

サビの前とかに入る「ｼｬｯ」っていう雑音を逆再生したみたいな音、不眠症だった時に寝落ち寸前にジャーキングと共に聞こえてた音にそっくりでドキドキしちゃった(語彙力皆無)

I got the impression that this song is about the fogginess and dissociation associated with trauma. Being unable to think cleary, feeling like your mind is, well, foggy. As well as wanting to escape and go back to a time before it felt so bad. I feel that a lot of Kikuo's songs explore childhood trauma while sympathising with the innocent fear, lack of understanding and naivety that children have about their situations. This would make this song fit into that trend, too.

How can this be so soft and terrifying at the same time

kikuo’s been making his songs more horror SOUNDING and honestly? im on board

音が正規ルートから外れてるの好き

This song literally made me anxious as if I'm being watched or something, But for some reason listening to this at night calms me.

The reversed parts make me wonder how the song sounds reversed.

this song honestly sounds like the music you'd hear in the credits of a movie/game where everybody dies. soft, but still horrifying. it's lovely.

きくおさんの作る曲凄すぎて音楽を用いた現代美術って言われた方が納得出来る

この苦しくて辛くなって心臓掴まれて、、 ってされてる感覚になれる 精神的にキツすぎて大好き

Sounds like somebody’s last thoughts before they die

I know kikuo's songs are all unsettling in their own cutesy way, but never once have I ever would say this one takes that whole 'cute but unsettling' to the next level. Like yes cute cloud fluffy cotton candy uwu but when the beat drops, all hell breaks lose and i am *ｓｃａｒｅｄ*

2:13 it may be myself but i hear some broken glass and a laugher, according to the others, it may be the man's laugher when he was a child sobs

Never before, NEVER BEFORE has a song genuinely scared me Not like the thrill scare of a rollercoaster I felt like I was in danger, like I am bleeding out and about to be ripped apart this is amazing and its great, thank you kikuo この曲は本当に怖かったです、どうもありがとうございました。私の悪い日本人にごめんなさい

Me: -oh so cute fluffy cloud Also me 55 seconds later - oh my god lord cotton candy please take my soul and forgive my sins

kikuo’s old method was taking rlly fucked up concepts and making them sound adorable, but his new method is taking pretty innocent concepts and making them sound fucking terrifying

To those who are saying this is dementia or amnesia this is not about disorders this is about drug addiction and trauma at 0:58 the smoke said "Please give me lots of cotton candy.......Just like the old days " a person apparently pointed out this is about a girl who remembered her childhood memories and decided to drink a lot of pills and the distortion at the end seems to be her dying from overdose

この曲息が苦しくなってとっても危険。でも聞いちゃう

This reminds me of dementia. My mother who used to work with dementia patients described it as “Losing yourself until you’re back into the mental state of a child.” Which for me explains the reversing track, wish to relive ‘the good old days’ and abrupt joyful descriptions of cotton candy. Something that is obviously synonymous with childhood and innocence. At the end of the track it all reverses until the music dies completely which for me represents the way dementia usually ends. Complete loss of self and eventual death.

通知では『Cotton Candy』開いたら『わたあめ』 ふわふわ！可愛い！と思ってたら、やはり不安になる音だった……好き

微分音使ってこんだけカッコいい曲作れるのすごいなぁ。 他の音と整合性取れてるしめちゃくちゃ好き

The unsettling parts of his song’s comforts me to no end. It feels like my childhood. I realize when I was young the entire time I was floating and not really present. Like a narrator in my own life

imo this song's about someone remembering their childhood (or just a better time in general) and using drugs to get the high ((happiness/innocence/whatever) they felt back then (cotton candy is the nice feeling of sweetness of the high, but when they were happy this feeling was all the time) considering how distorted the song gets by the end, i figure they die from an overdose from using too much of the drug to feel happy again

this is what you hear when the earth's ozone layer finally gives up

この不安な感じがずっっっごい良い…(語彙)

記憶消してもう一回聴きたい神曲

I was waiting for my sleep paralysis demon but I guess Kikuo will be the one haunting me tonight

*descending into madness from the beginning*

この曲異次元すぎてにやけてしまう。 怖いんだけど、こういう他には無いゾクゾクする曲とても好きです。

この歌は私に奇妙な感情を与える

It's creepy undertones are apparent with the reversing and the occasional off-pitch. This is it, chief.

*drops everything and watches kikuo*

怖くて最後まで聞けないけど、定期的に聞きたくなる

Drugs, PTSD, dementia, depression, missing your childhood innocence, I think all of those theories are correct. The song is about the dissociation and confusion and “cotton filled brain” feeling those things cause.

I like to think this is about staying stuck in childhood memories, trying to go back to that innocence but your memories becoming distorted and tainted with time and bitterness. Every thing was like cotten candy back then, but as you grow up you percieve the world differently. Those memories are tainted with new understanding and looking back you just feel sad looking at them. Though, I also like the drug theory, fits much better than mine

かわいいけどこわくて きこえる音全部気持ちいい これこそきくおさんって感じ 平成最後にありがとう

This to me kinda felt like the ‘cotton candy in my head’ was both a metaphor for depressive brain fog and nostalgia for better times. I found myself relating a little too much to this song, wishing for a time where the dissociative fog and fugue wasn’t there, when life hadn’t kicked my butt.

This song isn't about something in specific, in my opinion. It's just about a vague return to a childlike state. Sure, the drug theory is good, but in my opinion it's not the only truth in the song. It's vague on purpose. In my first listen, I came up with another theory, that it's about closing yourself off from being an adult, and just sheltering yourself into being a kid, unready to face the true horrors of the world. The drug theory is equally valid still, but more than anything we should praise this song for being able to express multiple meanings at once. Another interpretation can be that the cloud is brainfog, and then many things can follow: it could be a song about dementia, too, or ADHD. There's so many things this is, let's just take it as art.

No one: My sleep paralysis demon in the corner of my room:

まって、、この子めっちゃ可愛くて怖さがこない(語彙力)

カービィに見えてきた… 可愛いのに恐怖を感じる。 でも何回も聴いちゃう。

Billie Eilish: I make the creepiest songs Kikuo: hold my mic

暗闇から這い上がろうとしたら、押さえつけられて突き落とされた時の浮遊感みたいな曲

ライブで聞いた時は「頭の中はだあれ？」って言ってるのかと思ってた。 わたあめって言ってたのか…

Well here's a theory I made about the history of the song: An important detail that we must take into account is to listen to the rhythm of the music and ignore the lyrics for a while, at the beginning while she compares drugs with sweets, a sharp and very low rhythm of music is heard which causes a sensation of tranquility but later that tranquility turns into something chaotic which could represent how the "drugs" (or that thought that overwhelms her) are already affecting her but something equally important is that among all that noise objects are heard breaking (like all that noise they resemble crying), what made me most interesting of the whole song was the end since the way in which she says that I want to go back to the past and the distortion of the music could try to imply how her perception of reality is already he was going and the whisper seemed to be trying to tell us a secret (he does this in almost the entire song, more when he says he wants to go back to the past but there are times when he screams maybe because inside he is (She knows that we all want to go back to the past, which is why it's no longer a secret, or maybe it's just her desperation), another thing that was interesting to me was the fact that if you put the song on a loop, it seemed that what happened had nothing to do with it. end and yes I know that the utility of the loop is that but pay attention to the silence at the beginning and at the end it seems that the song is made for that to repeat itself and have no end. Theory 1: We can assume that the person singing the song is probably a teenager, something important that we must take into account is that throughout the song she compares her overdose with cotton candy, that could mean that for her that is something that she likes, it is something that makes her feel "comfortable" since she always says how soft and sweet she is and how she wants more of that, so the girl seems to be talking to someone we do not know who she is talking to but it may be that she is imagining that she is with someone she has loved That is why she says that she would like to go back to those past times, or maybe she is talking to herself, her little self, that could explain why she compares drugs and her overdose with sweets (since it would be like a reflection of her innocence) the fact that she wants to return to that stage of her life means that she just wants to return to having the ability to warp her world with her imagination to see everything happily and without any bad things without having to use drugs, probably her life began to go very wrong and when she grew up she saw everything differently, a more "realistic" way, realizing that not everything is the fantasy world that she believed in, which causes her tremendous pain but at the same time she knows that she can't do anything to change her reality or so she believed until for unknown reasons she got some drugs which she started taking to be able to see the world like when she was just a girl which apparently everything repeated itself in a loop endlessly until the moment of his death. Theory 2: The song uses drugs as a metaphor to refer to a thought that does not leave her alone that is destroying her but she knows that but still she continues to have it and does not seek help (because in a certain way thinking that makes her happy, but the destroys) I consider that probably as in theory 1 she is not talking to someone outside but to herself with her little self (it could represent her innocence and her happiness), we should still pay attention in Kikuo's original video since they show us at first a small ball of smoke that seems happy and in the moments of noise of the song it becomes bigger and bigger and almost almost takes over the entire screen I think it's obvious that it could mean the way in which that thought that comes being soft and sweet can take over her and the screaming could mean how she doesn't want that as it may be a bad thought (probably committing suicide or hurting other people as she can't stand to see her happiness, but that thought of hating the happiness of others eats away at her inside and doesn't leave her alone since she knows it's wrong), but there is something that is when she says to give her more cotton, then she says "I want to go back to the old times" and this confirms my theory that she wants to be little again, that stage where she could see everything in a different way and not affect her, the way she says "unhappy cotton candy" is very interesting to me since she probably I hated her little self for changing and not always being in her fantasy world where she saw everything perfectly, I still think that the noise parts could mean how she just fakes her smile and tries to see everything in a different way, to see the world as her little self saw it, but she does not achieve it completely since in the background we hear crying and things breaking, making us understand that no matter what she does, the world is not going to change for her. Sorry if there are grammatical errors use the google translator 😿😿

途中途中不思議な音が流れるのがいいです、不安になる感じがとても

Me: thinking this will be a fun track to listen to Kikuo: *I pulled a little sneaky on you*

I listened to this with headphones while a blanket was covering me (including my head) and after a while a sense of legitimate terror seized over me. I knew when the song would end, I knew I didn't have much longer, but I was still boutta throw my headphones and the blanket off. It's the musical equivalent (well, some parts are more about sound design than actual 'music' I think?) of a fuckin horror movie and I love it.

この不安を煽るような感じがたまらなく心地良いんだよなぁ…逆再生みたいな音が特に癖になる。これがドラッグか

something about the animated face is so unsettling. It doesn’t have the exaggerated expressions you would expect from it, as weird as it sounds it’s mouth moves like a humans would along with the eyes and the blinking. It moves more like a human than a cute face.

The whole song sounds like it's going backwards and i love it, it's like time is rewinding and everything that once existed is now being unborn and uncreated, leaving nothing...

うちのクラスで「わたあめ」って曲怖いって言ってて、見にきてみたらきくおさんの曲だった…

何度も聞いてると何故か聞く度安心できてしまうから怖いんだよな

鳥肌が立つけど完成された音楽だから気分がいい

Everyone seems to imply that this song is about drug addiction. I just suddenly got worried and I hope that Kikuo is not doing drugs or anything.

I have never felt this threatened in my entire life. This song made me so anxious, I wanted to throw up the whole time. 10/10 would recommend

This song reminds me of how you can be so happy and not realise it until it's all taken away from you and you beg to have it all back

I love how kikuo makes his music deep and meaningful. I've seen many comments saying he has helped with the meanings behind his songs. I love how some melodies sound adorable and innocent and the lyrics just being eeire and disturbing but understandable and relatable (most) and how some of them sound creepy and the lyrics being creepy and eerie. all of his songs are twisted, deep and meaningful and I honestly think hes amazing. Thats kikuo for you lmao

insomniacs everywhere are quaking our god has uploaded

me: *is having a bad* kikuo: *posts a new song* me: oh ok cool i’ll jut watch this- cloud song: *SPOOKY BANGER* me: i have confused anxiety but i like it

the only way i can describe this is as comforting discomfort and honestly i love it

you know how cotton candy melts as soon as it hits water? thats what the beat drop looks like to me if i try to visualize it

at first, i thought this song was so unsettling and creepy, and couln't listen to it. now it's just a bop. like... damn the beat drop goes hard though.

Now I have two reasons to not eat cotton candy: 1: It’s too sweet 2: After eating it (slim chance) I would look up to the sky and see this.

I remeber this randomly coming on at 2am when I had my spotify playlist on shuffle and it scared me so bad

i love how kikuo's songs can be interpreted in a variety of ways

かわいいのに不安を注入されてる感じ、好きだなあ…

this is horrifyingly calming... or calmingly horrifying? i don't know. depends on my mood. love it either way

TW: SELF HARM this song comforts me but also gives me so much trauma because somehow it perfectly captures my mind sinking into chaos every time i harmed myself before, and the feeling of wanting to end it all but not wanting to lose the good memories, and now im stuck in a limbo of harming myself to the point of no return or keeping all the feelings inside and crumble myself as time passes. it actually brings me down to something that happened before, when i woke up in the morning and started crying in fear because i didnt want to wake up anymore and this is close to what i heard. my dad asked me why i was crying and i was so scared that i couldnt answer and i just fumbled while crying, and that's when my dad found the scars on my arm. that was the most scary thing that has ever happened to me, ever. i can get every horror game and horror movie and that moment was more terrifying. even scarier since there was nothing inherently scary when i woke up. it was just the dread of still being alive. but this song actually saved me. instead of inspiring me to live, it actually scared me of death. i still have some battles, but i handle it better every day and i dont have to harm myself just to escape. listening to the chorus of this song i literally gripped onto my bed sheet so hard and my legs started shaking because of how much it scared me from how accurate it is. the sensation of breaking down and crying while i ruin myself. so scary its enough to rehabilitate me not into self harming again because i know the destruction and harm that goes through my head every time i do. as of now, im 3 weeks clean and i hope to keep going on. the more i listen to this song the more it helps me realize the mental anguish that i experienced.

I love how this song gives you a feeling of "this sounds nice and calm" perfectly mixed with "something is wrong here". Edit: and depression

I love the creepy theme, but at the same time mikus voice is cute. I love the beat behind it-this song is awesome. That's the tea sis

これは……もしやドラック……？ 不思議な浮遊感と不安と、心地良さがさすがきくおさんですね！

I literally describe myself as fuzzy because my mental illness and trauma made it so I disassociate pretty heavily. Even when I was a little kid I was disgusted when I realized everything around me was apparently real including my body. Its hard to bring me back and everything always feels like I'm in a dreamlike state this song reminds me of my experience.

this sounds nothing like Kikuo’s other songs kikuo’s songs are upbeat, fast paced, morbid, funky this is just straight up horrifying and... nearly sickening LMAO i really love it 5:18 pm, Tuesday 27 April 2021 edit: damn. i wanted to read more creative comments but all I got was “Moony... you’re a TERRIBLE friend” it’s being spammed

I'm now_________ A)In love with this B) Spooked C) Smashing replay D) All of the above

ヘッドフォンで聴くと頭おかしくなりそう😨🤤 びくびくしながら聴いてみた、。

this song makes me irrationally anxious. something is cominf 😭😭😭

if you reverse the polarity of one side of the tracks, then overlay them together into a mono track, then play it in reverse, you can hear repeated "もどして"s playing in some of the noisy sections pretty clearly(you can actually sorta hear them near 2:38 going left then right then left) also there is a part that sounds the same in reverse

可愛いのに怖い…。 怖いけど見てしまう…。 中毒溢れる…

Man- haven’t heard a genuinely unsettling Kikuo track in a while. I can only imagine what the English lyrics to this are... EDIT: y’all it’s been two months, I know the vid has subtitles lmao

back when this song came out, it was before my disorder had progressed to no return. coming back to this song just feels eerie now, with how relatable it's gotten

耳が心地良すぎてたまらない

the way this is literally how my nightmares are,,,,,and i love kikuo for physically capturing that

綿飴というか、雲みたいだと思った。 掴みどころのない、不思議な曲…

Thinking of this song playing in my head, the more distorted part I mean, while I’m dying is crazy. Like it makes me teary-eyed for some odd reason..

I can definitely say that this is one of kikuo's most harmless songs in the lyrics