Single Review: Namie Amuro - White Light / Violet Sauce

When Vision Factory sent out the fax that Namie Amuro was releasing a Christmas song I said ‘THAT miserable bitch is releasing a Christmas song? Yes please’. The thought of Namie’s non-smiling, I-don’t-give-a-fuck-looking-ass walking through snow in a fur coat, a mini skirt and those damn boots was everything I didn’t know I wanted. And the song didn’t disappoint. The video was a boring ass mess, but I’m not here to talk about that.

Namie’s Queen of Hip-Pop into Play phase was a pivotal moment in Namie’s career, because we saw the fruits of everything that she seemed to be trying to do for 5 years finally converge in a way that was starting to make sense. Namie and her team found this way to not only consolidate Namie’s present desires with her past, but we got a huge image shift as part of that. And just as Queen of Hip-Pop isn’t given the dues it deserves for setting Namie up to eat into Ayumi Hamasaki and Kumi Koda’s marketing and music video budgets, I don’t think “White Light” is given its dues either.

“White Light” played a massive part in softening the edges of Namie who was transitioning from an image that may have been seen as cold and shying away from pop, into somebody who was still into pop and far more playful than people realised. It was also a reminder that Namie was a mother; which wasn’t something that she hid. I mean…a bitch had a huge tattoo on her arm with her son’s name. But it was a musical reminder, as the tone of the song and the fact that Namie had even agreed to record a Christmas song felt like something which was swayed by her being a mother more than a business decision. Of course, the lyrics of the song heavily imply it’s about being with a lover. But this still doesn’t negate that Namie being a mother may have played some part in her softening to a point where she’d cut a Christmas song.

The song itself is great. It ticks all of the boxes of a good Christmas song, but still feels very much in the vein of what you’d expect from Namie at this point in her career. With Queen of Hip-Pop, Namie had finally found a sweet spot with her sound; fusing her love for R&B with a pop gloss and some distinctly Japanese musicality's - all of which came as a result of her ditching US producers for her then partner in crime, Japanese music producer Nao’ymt.

The B-Side of “White Light” is “Violet Sauce”, and to this day I do not understand why this song wasn’t released separately, with its own cover and music video. To have a cute wholesome Christmas song as track 1, and then a song Namie wanting some dude to dip his dick in her Ivan Ooze pussy as track 2 was strange. Although this is the same woman who used licensed Pink Panther branding on an album which featured a song about Namie wanting a man to part her pussy how Moses did water. Going for a light and dark theme which was represented visually with two separate covers and two music videos would have made far more sense than sticking “Violet Sauce” on a “White Light” branded single. I genuinely think that Namie and her team would have gone this route had this release been post Play or post Best Fiction, when Namie’s sales power was reaffirmed at Avex, and she started to become more of a focus for them. Because “Violet Sauce” definitely should have had a music video and been pushed as its own thing.

But “Violet Sauce” is a really good song. And given that the version which ended up on Play was made worse reworked it makes the single version all the more special. The only issue I have with the song is Namie’s vocals. Nao’ymt puts a filter effect on Namie’s voice which smothers them. Nao’ymt would go on to do the same shit with “Hide & Seek” to a further degree and make me hate it there too. And then Namie would run with it on literally every album which came after Play right up until her retirement album. I get the vibe Nao’ymt was going for here, but it makes certain lines of the song difficult to make out, because the vocal effects bleed into the guitars and cause everything to sound too muddy. Only on the chorus do we get some aural clarity. The Spicy version of “Violet Sauce” which would later be included on Play features a weaker arrangement, but a better mix which brightens the vocals considerably. But the trade off is a weaker song on the whole because the music lacks punch. “Violet Sauce” is still a good song, but it’s a shame that there’s no definitive version of it committed to a release. But at the very least fans have some good live versions to fawn over.

The White Light / Violet Sauce single also featured a remix of “Violet Sauce” which strips away the guitars and takes the switch which occurs at the end of the original version and extends it right the way through the whole song. If the original version of “Violet Sauce” is the Pussycat Dolls routine on a stage with a full production, then the Anotha Recipe version is the Atlanta strip club version - clearly inspired by the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song” song. The song isn’t just minimalistic in its approach as per the Ying Yang Twins breakout song, but Namie even whispers whole verses. This isn’t the version of “Violet Sauce” I ever go to, but I don’t hate it. It’s most certainly a vibe, and it’s different enough to the original version that it will garner its own set of fans. But it does fold into my feelings on why “Violet Sauce” should have had its own physical release, because if any song here was to get a remix, you’d expect it to be “White Light”.

With hindsight we can see that White Light / Violet Sauce was a sign of what to expect from Namie’s next set of singles and albums. “White Light” in many ways felt like a lay-up for a song like “Baby Don’t Cry”, whilst “Violet Sauce” established a fusion of R&B, pop and rock that Namie would delve into on songs such as “Top Secret”, “Shut Up” and “Wonder Woman”. But what White Light / Violet Sauce also signified was that Namie had found a lane that worked for her, and that she was going to commit to trekking down that shit in those damn boots and never look back. And also that Nao’ymt can work his way around a good Christmas song, and that festivity suits Namie far more than we ever thought it would.

Verdict: Whore-y Night