Dis Cover: Angela Aki - Shadow Work

Angela Aki has returned with her first studio album in 14 years — which is absolute insanity. Angela’s last studio album was Blue in 2012. Blue is an Angela Aki album I will always remember, because I associate it with the day I missed my flight to Japan — as the song “Aiueo” was the only song I listened to for the entire journey to the airport.

HENNYWAY.

Speaking of Blue, that album was the first to buck the same ol’ looks and creative direction we had gotten for Angela’s albums up until that point. And now its follow up Shadow Work continues the trend.

Angela Aki - Shadow Work | Sony Music Labels

📷 Photographer: Tomoyuki Kawakami | tomoyuki_kawakami
🎨 Art direction & design: Kento Yamada | dutch_tokyo

Angela Aki can be pretty predictable, both musically and visually. So many of her promo shots since her return to pop music have been pretty regular Angela Aki affairs — her wearing her trademark black frame glasses, in a black and white ensemble on a solid colour backdrop. And when you look at her discography, almost all her the albu and single covers look the damn same. So I was expecting her comeback album cover to just be Angela in a very plain-ass shot, possibly at a piano in a pair of Chuck Taylor’s. But that is not what we got. Not even close.

The cover for Shadow Work is a huge bucking of a trend for Angela — more so than even Blue — and I like it. The creative part of me thinks that this album cover is really fucking cool. But the part of me that’s conscious of branding wonders whether this album cover should have featured Angela at a piano with her signature black frame glasses and Chuck Taylor’s. It’s not always a bad thing to present yourself in the way that people are used to seeing you. I think Blue did a nice job balancing this with presenting Angela in a new way people weren’t used to seeing her. And given that it has been so long since Angela last had a studio album on the shelves, maybe she should have gone tried and true, but with a twist. Then again, maybe having a cover which is so different that you cannot immediately tell that it’s Angela is the move. And given that Angela’s 2024 album Angela Aki Sings Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni did give us the same ol’ same ol’ for an album cover, it probably makes the most sense to swing in the other direction creatively.

Perhaps the compromise would have been to have released the album in two editions. Make the regular edition the cool-ass editorial close-up shot. And the limited edition cover feature Angela in the same outfit, without her glasses — but a full body shot of her where you can see her Chuck Taylor’s.

I dunno.

I really do like this album cover though. Something which was even more editorial and really played with light, dark and shadows would have been really cool and had a stronger connection to the album title. But I like what we got. For Angela, this cover is pretty bold. Striking even. And it’s also a serve, which isn’t something you’d really associate with Angela.

Work bitch.

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💿 Angela Aki album reviews: Answer | Songbook | Blue