A simpler time, back in 1999, we had some classic hits like Mysterious Times (#52), Missing (#18) and It feels so good (Coming in #74)
2 Times by Ann Lee has always been a bop in nightclubs across UK, Ireland and beyond.
The YouTube video has the following about Ann Lee:
Ann Lee is a British Eurodance singer and songwriter who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She is known solely for her 1999 hit single “2 Times”.
Having moved to live in Italy in the late 1980s, Lee was talent-scouted, and was used as the lead singer on a series of Eurodance singles, issued under various aliases. These have included Charme, Anne, Ally & Jo, DJ Space’C, Lolita, A Kay BJ, Alex, Wienna and TH Express.[citation needed] She also released a few Eurobeat solo singles on the Italian label A.Beat-C. under the names Annerley Gordon and Annalise. Gordon is credited with contributing to the composition of “Rhythm of the Night”, released in Italy in December 1993 on the DWA record label, by the Eurodance project Corona.
Her first solo single under the name “Ann Lee” was “2 Times”, originally released in 1998. It was re-released in early 1999 and became a Top 10 hit in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Norway, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. It also hit number 2 in her native United Kingdom, and reached number one in Flanders and Denmark. In Canada it reached number 14 on the singles chart. “2 Times” was featured in the 2001 film Head Over Heels as the movie’s theme song.
I’m sure by now a lot of readers of this blog know that I enjoy anime. One of those anime’s being Yu-Gi-Oh! I have been a fan of the franchise for the longest time now and outside of the original series, I am a big fan of 5D’s which ran from April 2008 until March 2011.
Season 2 of the show started in October of 2008 and it featured 2 great tracks which were used for the Opening and Ending of the anime.
The ‘Ending’, CROSS GAME by Alice Nine is by far one of my favourite tracks of all time… and I am surprised while searching this evening, that I have never covered Alice Nine on The Jukebox… (Please see the footnote at the bottom for more about The JukeBox and its future)
LAST TRAIN along with CROSS GAME became the catalyst in my fascination with Visual Kei music from Japan. I remember that I downloaded LAST TRAIN along with CROSS GAME (and it’s album Vandalize) and I would listen to it constantly on repeat… on a near daily basis.
There isn’t a lot of English information about knotlamp but from translation of their Japanese Wikipedia entry: knotlamp was a rock band from Fukuoku Prefecture, Japan who were active between 2000 and 2013.
They were signed to Run Run Run Records until 2012 before moving to Imperial Records. Their discography is a bit bare as the band has had 4 EP’s and 1 ‘Mini album’ which was released in 2006.
As previously mentioned, knotlamp’s LAST TRAIN was used for Yu-Gi-Oh!, but they also had a song used for another anime Ginga e Kickoff!!
A ‘Best of’ album titled “MY PROLOGUE” was released in January 2014 which reached #183 in the Oricon Album Charts.
Today’s the day to carry out a plan. I’ll finally escape from my saturated life today I don’t know what is going on today But somehow I feel that my answer isn’t here
Though I don’t know how my life will end, I never wanna be a slave ‘Cause there is always the chance to change I guess it’s up to you
I’m trying to be a better person I will get on the train I don’t wanna become a slave I will live for myself
I’m trying to be another me ‘Cause I won’t lose my life My life will succeed I’ll reach my goal yea
I try to smile but I can’t remember how I don’t know please tell me, how’d I become so Jaded? Sometimes I feel like I might be dead soon But I know that it gave me something to believe
Though I don’t know how my life will end I never wanna be a slave ‘Cause there is always the chance to change I guess it’s up to you
I’m trying to be a better person I will get on the train I don’t wanna become a slave I will live for myself
I’m trying to be another me ‘Cause I won’t lose my life My life will succeed I’ll reach my goal
I’m waiting for my dawn I’m dreaming of freedom Nobody Knows my worries No need to understand me
I wanna get this small freedom I break away my worries It’s time to say goodbye I’m not afraid of you
I need to walk away ‘Cause I don’t wanna be a liar If I cannot live my life, I am as good as dead
I’m trying to be a better person I will get on the train I don’t wanna become a slave I will live for myself
I’m trying to be another me ‘Cause I won’t lose my life My life will succeed I’ll reach my goal yea
My new story My life is just about to start I’m trying to be a better person I will get on the train I don’t wanna become a slave
I will live for myself I’m trying to be another me ‘Cause I won’t lose my life My life will succeed I’ll reach my goal
Lyrics (Romanji):
tooku kanata o miwatashite tanjyun ni shikai no semai kotokitzuita jibun suteru hou ga raku demo saidaigen taetemitai to omotta kyou ga donna dame na hi demo wazukana hikari o asu wa mada asu no jibun de tomoseba ii togirenai you ni kienai you ni jibun o tashikamete kazoe kirenai hodokizutsuitemo tashikana ashita ga kuru you ni tonegatte hashiru nido to nai kyou o nani ka no seinishinagara soyatte susumenai jibun danmai ni shite kokoshikanai shunkandatte mouzutto muda ni shite kitakedo warai sugoshitai tsukamo nai teta kinou mo kuru asa wa itsumo onaji de tada hitotsu datta tomaranai you ni taenai you ni jibun ni toikakete asu o ushinatte mo jibun no seidarou nido wa nai kyou o dou ikiru no mo jyuu dakara sonna koukainai jinsei o It’s time to say goodbye I’m not afraid of you I need to walk away ‘Cause I don’t wanna be a liar If I cannot live my life I am as good as dead togirenai you ni kienai you ni jibun o tashikamete kazoe kirenai hodokizutsuitemo tashikana ashita ga kuru you ni tonegatte hashiru nido to nai kyou o (It’s just about to start) tomaranai you ni taenai you ni jibun ni toikakete asu o ushinatte mo jibun no seidarou nido wa nai kyou o dou ikiru no mo jyuu dakara sonna koukainai jinsei o sonna koukainai jinsei o togirenai you ni kienai you ni
The JukeBox has been a staple of this blog, sharing the music, the lyrics and in more recent times, the background to the songs that I highlight and it has been very fun. In my searching for ‘Alice Nine’ posts that I have done, it turns out that I haven’t actually written any posts about Alice Nine on The JukeBox.
This sent me on a rabbit hole. I know I changed the name of “MusicLyricFriday” (or MusicLyricMonday) to The JukeBox back in 2012. Unfortunately, what I deemed to be S1 or even S2 of these posts are lost to time… I believe they were on an old Tumblr blog which is now gone.
So I figured out how many JukeBox posts I have made since S3 up to this one today and it would be: #74
I’ll be switching the numbering scheme started with the next post #75 and I will be working to retroactively tagging the old posts under The JukeBox tag so they can all be found easier. I could guesstimate how many posts were missing but I’d say it must have been an handful.
Oh well.
EDIT: 20th February 2022 – I have figured it out. Back on an old WordPress that I had when I was 17 which is still live at https://padraigfahy.wordpress.com – I had 2 album reviews, and something in the back of my head was that they were my first 2 album reviews and I had made them their own series to ‘bump the numbers’.
The number for this one should be 94 or something, but given S1 and S2 were just 2 posts, I am removing 28 (30 songs from both albums minus the number of posts) which makes this post number 67!
![[The JukeBox] #74 – Ann Lee – 2 Times](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ann_lee_2_times.png)
![[The Jukebox] #68 – knotlamp LAST TRAIN](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/itschXB4mH.png)
