Fins in the Air

Fins in the Air is a song performed by Deep Cut during Splatfests. It is one of five songs that will play during Splatfest battles.

Description
Fins in the Air is an energetic electronic song. The song starts with a fast and sporadic synth melody, with the drums emphasizing the offbeat with the hi-hat. On the verse, the grove switches to a drum and bass pattern. The verse sections are all over the pedal note A, which is consistently hammered in the synth bass. Different harmonies are comped intermittently over the pedal tone to create tension as Shiver and Frye alternate lines. In the second half of the verse, Shiver and Frye alternate singing upper and lower harmonies with different lyrics to the same rhythm, the upper part being a new melodic idea and the lower harmony being the same melody and lyrics as what each idol had sung at the beginning of the verse with minor variations.

On the bridge, the singers return to trading lines as they had before, with Shiver singing longer legato phrases and Frye chiming in with faster lines. The pedal point ends and the bass follows the chord progression which descends from Bb to D minor through the C mixolydian scale. The bridge ends with a quick climb up to F# minor and the final line being sung in unison. The chorus returns to the chord progression and groove from the intro as Shiver carries extended high notes over Frye and Big Man, who are harmonizing to a faster rhythmic phrase. The last line is sung in unison and held out as the intro repeats, leading to a new instrumental section that re-establishes the drum and bass feel and the A pedal note before looping back to the verse.

This is one of the four songs that can randomly play during a Splatfest Battle in Splatoon 3.

Lyrics
The booklet included with Splatune 3 gives the official lyrics for Fins in the Air. The lyrics are nonsensical; the Japanese hiragana and katakana simply give the pronunciation.

Fins in the Air (Live)
During the Deep Cut Concert at Nintendo Live 2022, an extended version of Fins in the Air is used. The song is relatively the same during the start until it gets to the middle of the chorus, in which Big Man's vocals are mixed in clearer than the in-game version. A guitar riff can be heard during the instrumental part, and Shiver starts singing again, with the main difference being that most of the instruments are quiet minus the drums. An entire verse is skipped, as Shiver and Frye sing the verse before the chorus with a more quiet and calm instrumental, building up until it gets to the chorus again. The song has a keyboard riff part, and it transitions to the chorus again, with new lyrics from Shiver, changing her notes a bit. Deep Cut harmonizes during the end of the chorus, as the song ends with a proper ending.

Quotes
"While you're pondering which Splatfest team to join, know that that we'll ALL be on "Team Great Tunes" thanks to Deep Cut's latest, Fins in the Air. Between Shiver's sprawling vocals, Frye's bouncy harmonies, and that dazzling intro, Musicology says it's "straight fire.""

- @SplatoonNA on Twitter

Trivia

 * The preview version shown on Twitter sounds different from the in-game version. The main differences are Frye's vocals at the start of the chorus and the mixing in general.
 * This is one of the few songs to include a real language in it, as the line "puchofinza" is part of the real name of the song in Japanese.
 * Big Man's vocals seem to be much more distorted in game compared to the live version, but keep the same lyrics as the live version.
 * The chord progression of the intro and chorus is almost identical to the chorus of Anarchy Rainbow and City of Color (IV- > V- > VI/VII > VII/I).

Etymology
The title is a pun on the expression and phrase "put your hands in the air", used by some musicians in live concerts to hype up their audiences, and the fins that sea creatures have.