This song may sound familiar to some and stink of enka. That's because it is. It's a cover of Sayuri Ishikawa's song of the same name. And d'ya know what? I f**king love it. This could easily be a James Bond theme.
It's no secret that Angela Aki has a strong voice with beautiful clarity on her, but her vocals really shine with this song - pushing for notes and throwing in a few acrobatics that you tend not to hear from her normally.
I even liked the video. Really simple. Although I'm surprised UNIQLO didn't strangle a bitch and force her to wear a Merino sweater in the video, given she's the face of their campaign in Japan.
The only other artist whom I can think of who would go and release an enka cover as a single with production this simple and stripped back is Hikaru Utada. Which is exactly why I dig this woman. She's such a breath of fresh air. And this shits ALL over her past couple of singles.
It's no secret that Angela Aki has a strong voice with beautiful clarity on her, but her vocals really shine with this song - pushing for notes and throwing in a few acrobatics that you tend not to hear from her normally.
I even liked the video. Really simple. Although I'm surprised UNIQLO didn't strangle a bitch and force her to wear a Merino sweater in the video, given she's the face of their campaign in Japan.
The only other artist whom I can think of who would go and release an enka cover as a single with production this simple and stripped back is Hikaru Utada. Which is exactly why I dig this woman. She's such a breath of fresh air. And this shits ALL over her past couple of singles.
I love this woman. Another great talent! I was waiting for her to release a single that I could really latch on to! this song is great. I love it. I love how she went for higher notes, because as you stated, she usually sings in a very fixed vocal range. I always love her covers, and some I prefer to the originals. Her last singles may not have been as good from her upcoming album, but I LOVE the cover of creep she did. She put an interesting spin on the original, and it worked really well IMO.
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