After an impressive-selling debut album (which has been certified double-platinum, selling just over 500,000 copies as of this week), a successful nationwide tour and a sold-out show at Japan's prestigious Budokan concert hall, twenty-nine year-old singer-songwriter/pianist Angela Aki certainly has reason to celebrate -- she's gone from struggling to sell five-hundred copies of her independently-released English debut (These Words, 2000) to an established, well-loved darling of critical and commercial acclaim.

SAKURA-iro, Aki's fifth single, is her first release post-album, and is currently her highest -selling single, reaching a peak of #8 on Japan's Oricon charts.

The disc’s title track, written specially for Aki’s one-man live at Budokan last December, is enjoyable and quite pretty, but retreads familiar ground when it comes to Aki songs. Opening with a lovely piano solo and some well-played strings, the song sounds like it’s going to be going in a slightly more classical-influenced direction before things slow down a bit and Aki’s lilting piano line takes the forefront, the drums join in, and the song becomes a lesser version of Aki’s first single, HOME. Sure, the melodies are different, this track places more emphasis on the piano and strings while the former has a bit of guitar and organ, and there’s a slightly more mournful tone here, but the song just seems like it’s repeating things Aki’s done before, and better. The songs follow a similar structure – slower verses, a dramatic build in the pre-chorus (executed here by the strings and Aki’s trademark yodel-in-place-of-“yeah!”), a chorus where everything’s louder and the performance is more impassioned, and a bridge where Aki gets to pound on the piano more intensely than she already does. What’s more, there’s even repetition in the lyrics, as both songs talk about homes – HOME speaks of her hometown in Japan, while this track speaks of her “second home” in Washington, D.C. (where she attended university) – and this song’s bridge even reprises the first line of HOME’s chorus to make everything come full-circle and have that much more of an impact. What’s sad is, that part of the song (and the dramatic swelling of the strings that backs Aki’s climb up and then slide down the piano) is the best part, as it seems Aki’s finally really believing what she’s singing. The emotion feels real there, while in the rest of the song it’s there, but not as fine-tuned.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m ragging on the song, because I’m really not. It’s well-done, Aki performs it aptly, and the instrumentation keeps my interest, but it just feels like a bit of a cop-out, even though the sentiment is lovely.

The first of the disc’s B-sides, On&On, improves things, though. In describing the song, which was used as the image song for the Japanese film inugamike no ichizoku, Aki called the track “piano-rock”, and she definitely wasn’t lying. The piano playing here is sharp and intense, and while one might think combining such a delicate instrument with loud, crashing guitars-and-drums and the thump-thump-thump of a bass might be a bad thing, Aki manages to integrate her piano well here, using it both as a foreground instrument (during the verses) and as a back-up (during the chorus, where everything’s basically in balance in terms of mixing). Aki’s performance here is pleasant and varied, ranging from restrained and clear during the verses and edgy-emotional during the chorus, which uses her upper register well, even if she still sounds like she’s yodeling at times (mostly on longer, sustained vowel sounds). The tagline (“Dreams live on&on&on!”) easily gets stuck in one’s head as well, making this a well-crafted piece of pop music in addition to one of Aki’s finer uptempo songs.

One might think that an artist like Aki, who (I suppose) can be compared somewhat to Tori Amos in that their primary instrument is a piano (although Aki’s far-less strange than Amos), wouldn’t seem fit for dance music at all. Power of MUSIC, however, proves that sentiment wrong. A dance-styled remix of MUSIC from Aki’s debut album (with completely rewritten lyrics, save for the chorus), the track manages to incorporate the standard dance-track elements (such as a “thumping” beat, provided here by drums and a clap-track instead of bass) and mix them in with Aki’s piano and a bit of harpsichord. The result is a song that sounds like it could be played in a club but doesn’t pound one’s brains out with the beat and sounds real and organic instead of completely processed. The addition of the piano (upon which Aki slides down masterfully during the song’s bridge) and Aki’s clear, un-tampered vocals are two of the aspects that deliver this aura. It’s well-done and stylish and again proves that Aki can tackle multiple genres well.

The disc also includes a bonus track, a solo-piano (or hikigatari) version of HOME, most likely included because of the allusion to the song in the A-side. Stripped of all backing except the piano and Aki’s vocal, the song takes on a wistful, longing feel, possibly even moreso than that felt in the original, as the new vocal track shows Aki warmly wrapping her voice around the piano part and emoting in places she didn’t before. It’s fitting, beautiful, and brings the disc to a close in a wonderful way.

Angela Aki is a woman who’s come a long way, and she deserves every bit of success she’s had. While the title track of this release isn’t her best, the disc as a whole is a wonderful collection of tunes that show her in different lights all around, so the small weaknesses of one track are easily forgotten. It’s not quite five-star material, but it’s near-perfect. Highly recommended.

Angela Aki: "SAKURA-iro"
[ CDS | ESCL-2950 | ¥1,223 | 2007.03.07 ]
[ CD DVD | ESCL-2948~2949 | ¥1,575 | 2007.03.07 | Ltd ]

CD:
01. SAKURA-iro [ 5:20 ]
02. On & On [ 4:53 ]
03. Power of MUSIC [ 4:27 ]
04. HOME -piano version- [ 5:34 ]

DVD:
01. SAKURA-iro (PV)
02. HOME (Live; 2006.10.12 in Zepp Tokyo)
03. SAKURA-iro (Making)

[ http://www.angela-aki.com ]

Other Angela Aki Reviews:

ONE (2005)
HOME (Single) (2005)

Recommended: Yes