Review
Genre and Mood
Ane Brun recorded Big In Japan as a folk singer-songwriter reading a synth-pop classic, and the change of genre changes its mood. Alphaville’s 1984 original was a dance hit; in Brun’s hands the same lyric sounds melancholic and intimate, a haunting song about getting away that no longer pretends the escape will work.
Song Summary
Big in Japan was Alphaville’s debut single, written by Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens. Gold has said it is about two friends caught in the drug scene around West Berlin’s Zoo station, and that the title phrase is “the lie of the loser”, the fantasy of being successful somewhere else; he also said the song has nothing to do with Japan. Brun’s version was recorded for the soundtrack of the Swedish TV documentary Stor i Japan, released as a single in Sweden in September 2008 and added as a bonus track to European editions of her album Changing of the Seasons.
Musical Breakdown
Main Section
The studio recording is short, a little over three minutes, and its weight rests on the voice. Reviewing a later Brun cover, The 13th Floor’s Tim Gruar described a delicate, deliberate delivery and said the treatment was very much like her earlier work, especially Big In Japan.
Overall Vibe
No source we found describes the arrangement of this recording instrument by instrument, so this review does not either. The sources hear it against the original, a synth-pop dance hit, and so should you.
Concepts in Focus
Big in Japan is a clear example of a cover version that changes genre. The words and melody are Alphaville’s; the meaning shifts because the setting does. The NBHAP review of her retrospective Songs 2003-2013 credited Brun’s fresh interpretations with giving familiar songs a new-found significance, and she herself has said that “covers have been such a big part of my career”, almost a career in itself.
It also began as a soundtrack commission. Stor i Japan is Swedish for big in Japan, and the cover then outgrew the programme, returning on albums long after the broadcast.
Artistic Context
Ane Brun, born Ane Brunvoll in Molde, Norway, in 1976, has lived in Stockholm since 2001 and runs her own label, Balloon Ranger Recordings. Changing of the Seasons, her fourth studio album, was produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson and debuted at No. 1 in Norway. Big in Japan sits beside another bonus cover, Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors.
Impact and Reception
The cover returned on Songs 2003-2013 and again in 2023 on Portrayals, Brun’s collection of her most popular covers, released for her twentieth anniversary. Listen with the original in mind, and notice how much of the song survives once it leaves the dancefloor.
