Japaican singer Misia works with Fujii Kaze for her song "Higher Love"

Japaican singer Misia had released a new song "Higher Love" a couple of weeks ago, in readiness for the release of her 14th studio album Hello Love. And it is written and co-produced not other then Fujii Kaze. And when you go into the song knowing this and knowing him, it's impossible to not hear him.

This is a really nice song, with an equally nice video. I'm not gonna go on about how a simple video can work and be engaging, and drag Perfume's "Polygon Wave" music video; especially because we already know this, as do Perfume, having put out great, simple music videos.

It's pretty remarkable than after only one studio album that Kaze has what could be considered an identifiable style. He's also pretty churched up, and Misia likes to believe she was Sister Mary Clarence in a past life; so the two of them are a very good fit.

It's great to see Kaze flexing his songwriting and production muscle for other artists. I don't think there's enough of J-Pop artists who write for other artists, unless they're artists who are better known as songwriters because their career flopped (i.e Michico and Emyli). At which point, you're just a songwriter. Hikaru Utada has dabbled, but that only tends to be with Nariaki Obukuro, which is a cyclical and reciprocal thing. Hopefully Kaze will continue to write and produce for others, because I think his style would work with a number of artists.

Kaze also managed to do something remarkable, which is make me like a Misia song. I don't dislike her material, I just find it so hit and miss on the whole. And much like Kumi Koda, despite having a really good voice, she sings in a way that I find grating a lot of the time. But Kaze did a fantastic job of allowing himself to come through the song, but not so much that it overshadows Misia. It's still very much her song, and she sounds great on it. I really do hope other artists extend interests in having Kaze write and produce for them.

About Kaze...
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