The Invisible Book Of Love

Miho Hatori “Formula X”

“Formula X” sounds like a sleek late ‘90s R&B song caught in a paper jam, a copy of an idea warped and bent up and crushed by faulty mechanisms to the point that it becomes something entirely different in the process. This suits the lyrical premise nicely, as Miho Hatori questions the impulse to repeat expected patterns of behavior and consumption in order to yield a happy life. The implication is that invidualism, self-knowledge, imagination, and creativity is much more satisfying and authentic – the ability to approach the question of love and “answer in your own way.” The song sidesteps didacticism entirely, with Hatori singing her lines with a touch of doubt and insecuritiy, and the suggestion that she can be as much of a programmed robot as anyone else, even if she ends up becoming a more surreal version of one.

Buy it from Bandcamp.