Album review: Chisato Moritaka - Mi-ha

Mi-ha was Chisato Moritaka’s second studio album, for which the promotional tagline was ‘Rock? Pop? Whichever is fine’ - which is so Japanese as far as marketing goes, because it’s so inconsequential and vague. I can see what Warner Bros. tried to do with this. But don’t let the potential misdirects and ambiguity fool you. Mi-ha is 100% a pop album through and through. A cute little guitar solo 2 minutes into a song does not make it rock by association. Neither does wearing a leather jacket on the album cover. Whitney Houston was on a motorcycle for one of her album covers. It don’t mean shit.

But whilst it’s easy to file 80s J-Pop as being a carbon copy of what was happening in the States, 80s J-Pop also feels like its own thing entirely. Sure, there are moments on Mi-ha which will probably remind you of Madonna, but nothing about it nor Chisato feels like it’s a copy and bringing nothing to the table. After all, none of the music Madonna was putting out in the 80s was original. Many other artists were doing the same shit, she was one of the few who happened to get the most popular with it.

Mi-ha runs a pretty standard gamut for pop music of the 1980s. Slap bass, synthesized horns and stabs, guitar solos and the ubiquitous sax solo. But what really sells these songs is Chisato herself. She doesn’t have the best voice. But when Chisato came onto the scene, it was rather distinct; as she was part of the wave of acts (alongside Wink) who would go on to form the basis of J-Pop as we know it now. Chisato had character, even at this stage of her career before had as much control as she did for Mi-ha’s follow up Mite, with songs like “Stress”. The album title track “The Mi-ha” is the first that Chisato wrote, which would go on to shape much of her future work. But even with no co-writes or production credits for any of the other songs on Mi-ha, Chisato’s personality still comes through; whether it’s through raps and off mic banter on “Overheat Night” or her singing over the Bossa Nova / Sonic menu sounding-ass music of “Pi-a-no”, on which she’s also playing the rhodes. This is why it’s a shame that so many of the songs feature male backing vocalists who cast such long shadows over songs, but we’ll get to that.

For all of Chisato’s charm, not a great deal about Mi-ha is original by any means. But the songs on it are good. REALLY fucking good. Hideo Saitō, Takumi Yamamoto and Ken Shima all brought their A-game to the table to deliver great songs, with there being no discernible distinction of the material sounding like lesser versions of anything being produced in the US or in the UK by Stock, Aitken and Waterman. “Overheat Night” and “Good-Bye Season” could easily have been Billboard Hot 100 hits. And the whole of Mi-ha doo-doo’s on some of the albums that the biggest of stars were putting out in the late 80s. If there’s one thing to be said about the quality of the album, it’s that I wish it did touch just a little more on rock as the promotional tagline insinuated that it would. Chisato ended up putting a rock version of Mi-ha’s “Get Smile” on her remix album Moritaka Land, which is so much better than the original version, and would have been a more fantastical close to the album. Moritaka Land also included a more rock tinged version of "Good-Bye Season", which is also great, but not quite as sharp as the album version.

Mi-ha is a wonderfully produced album, blending a fusion of the electronic sounds which were wholly embraced in the 80s following the advent of it during the disco era, with live instrumentation. Every song sounds rich, and the songs being helmed by Japanese producers adds a unique quality to the songs as far as chord progressions and melodies go.

Chisato Moritaka has a great pop radio voice. She doesn’t have the biggest nor the best voice. On this album in particular she hits a few flat notes and be struggling with the highs, despite singing most of the album in a high register, because J-Pop gon’ J-Pop. For the majority of the album there’s no real sense of Chisato having that good a voice until the song “47 Hard Days Night” rolls around, where Chisato dips into her lower register, and she sounds great. We also get Chisato really sitting into her lower register for “Get Smile”, where she shows a far greater level of vocal control and comfort, ON THE LAST DAMN TRACK OF THE ALBUM. I don’t get why J-Pop is obsessed with vocals sounding a struggle and forcing women to sing out of the range they sound best in, but it’s clearly a thing that’s been a trait of J-Pop since the beginning of time.

But for all of Chisato’s off notes and not so glorious moments, she never sounds bad on the songs or ruins them. Music in the 80s was pretty reflective of music now, in that there was room for everybody regardless of their vocal ability, because the richness of the production and the power of the hooks could carry entire songs - and that’s before we even get to things like image and music videos. But one of the things I adore about music from the 80s is the clarity of the vocals and the diction. Even if you can’t understand Japanese, you can hear every word and syllable so clearly that you can recite the lyrics verbatim, which is a far cry from J-Pop nowadays. Listen to Namie Amuro’s “Stranger” and tell me whether that song is even in English or Japanese, between the vocal effects and the over-production, because I can barely tell. You can catch every single thing Chisato is singing. Even if you don’t understand the bitch.

Something that’s not always common in pop music of the 80s is prevalent vocal production where backing vocals are concerned; but we get lots of nice moments of it on Mi-ha. There are harmonies, layers and ad-libs throughout most of these songs. The only sour note they hit is that most of these vocals are performed by men, and they sometimes have more presence on songs than Chisato. I don’t get why we couldn’t have gotten female backing vocalists instead, as per "Good-Bye Season” and “Kiss the Night”.

Chisato Moritaka’s Mi-ha is an absolute delight to listen to from top to bottom. Great production. Solid hooks. Charm out the ear holes. The only real dip in the album is the song “Pi-a-no” which feels a little out of place and literally sucks all of the energy built up over the course of 4 songs. But Chisato’s charm and that of the song itself, along with the sheer audacity is what just about allows Mi-ha to get away with it. Although I imagine it’s a song that many will probably skip. One thing you shouldn’t skip however, is this album. If you dug the likes of Tommy february6’s Tommy Airline, then Mi-ha might just make your wig budge.

VERDICT: JUST KEEP ON DANCING

Highlights:
■ Overheat Night 🔥
■ Yokohama One Night
■ Good-Bye Season 🏆
■ Can't Say Good-bye
■ Weekend Blue
■ Kiss The Night
■ Get Smile