Why is that?

Because I am now own The Beatles in Mono box set.

All 11 Albums in the Box Set

Now, to be fair, I never said I didn’t want to buy the Beatles remasters. Far from it. My sticking point was the $300 price tag for the mono box set, and the near-$20 price point for the individual albums. However, recently — with the help of some coupons and the like — I was able to get 60% off the list price of The Beatles in Mono, so that the final price came out to just over $140 (with tax included). On top of that, retailers like Great Buy Best Buy have the individual Beatles albums for $14, so I also picked up copies of Abbey Road, Let It Be and Past Masters for around $50 (as those albums have songs on them that were never mixed into mono, so they aren’t part of the mono box set). All told, I spent just under $200 for all of the remastered Beatles album (bar Yellow Submarine, which I’ll get to in a sec), which is still $60 or so less than buying the box set containing all the albums in stereo.

Sgt. Pepper replica sleeve, CD and inner paper sleeve

Pricing aside, I really like the box set. A lot. Each of the mono albums comes in a replica LP sleeve, including a replica paper inner sleeve (including the groovy swirly pink inner sleeve that came packaged in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; the Sgt. Pepper Cut-Outs are even included!). The CDs themselves come in a plastic CD sleeve (yes, in addition to the inner paper sleeves) and the replica album covers are exact in their reproduction, right down to the ads for EMITEX Record Cleaner on the back covers. On top of that, each album comes packaged in a resealable plastic bag to protect it from wear and tear, and are collectively housed in a single box for further protection.

Additionally, each CD label replicates the original LP label of each album — thus, most of the CDs have a Parlophone or Apple Records label…except for the (originally U.S.-only) Magical Mystery Tour album, which dutifully gets a Capitol Records logo (I love when the little details like that are reproduced).

Okay, enough gushing about details (for now). Included in the set are the following albums:

Please Please Me
With the Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night
Beatles for Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles (aka The White Album)
Mono Masters

Yellow Submarine was also available in mono when it was first released in 1969, but it wasn’t a true mono mix — the stereo mixes were folded down into one channel — so it is not included in the set. However, the four “new” songs from that LP (“Only a Northern Song,” “All Together Now,” “Hey Bulldog” and “It’s All Too Much”) were mixed into mono for inclusion on a planned EP in 1969, and those mono mixes are now available on the Mono Masters disc for the first time ever. So unless you’re a completionist or really like George Martin’s instrumental tracks from the album, you don’t really need Yellow Submarine if you buy this box set. You will need to get Abbey Road, Let It Be and Past Masters though, if you want the full set of Beatles recordings.

The back cover of Revolver

The Mono Masters two-disc set is the box set’s equivalent to the Past Masters set, with a couple of key differences. First off is the inclusion of the Yellow Submarine tracks I listed above. Second, Mono Masters excludes the songs “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “Old Brown Shoe” and “Let It Be” because those songs were never mixed into mono (which is why you need Past Masters).

So, after all that, is it a worthwhile compilation? Well, yes and no. Yes because everything the Beatles recorded up through 1967 was mixed almost exclusively with mono in mind — stereo was often an afterthought in those days, and very little care was given to stereo mixing (this led to some amusing instances like “She’s Leaving Home,” from Sgt. Pepper, where the stereo version is a full ten seconds longer than the mono version because the stereo master was not sped up like the mono one). Even once the Beatles starting paying more attention to stereo recording, there can still be key differences between mono and stereo mixes (“Don’t Pass Me By,” like “She’s Leaving Home,” was sped up in mono, while Helter Skelter in mono is nearly a full minute shorter than the stereo mix, because it doesn’t fade back in after the first fadeout like in stereo — which also means the mono mix doesn’t include Ringo’s famous “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” shout at the end of the song). Also, sometimes the stereo mixes from the early years include mistakes — like Paul’s voice cracking on If I Fell, or John screwing up the lyrics in the last verse of Please Please Me — that are not present in the mono versions.

Odd occasions like that aside, though, there isn’t that much of a gulf between stereo and mono, despite what some hard-core fans and audiophiles will assert. Certainly, a casual or non-obsessive fan would be better served just grabbing the regular editions of the remasters, or even sticking to their old 1987-vintage releases. The sound on the new remasters is improved — a bit louder, and some spots where there were sound dropouts on the old CDs have been fixed. But you still get some of the extreme stereo panning from the old releases (vocals isolated on one channel, etc.) — and heck, the first four Beatles albums were released in mono to begin with back in ’87.

Ironically enough, in the post I linked to in the opening paragraph, I felt sorry for the hypothetical Beatles fan who had to have the CD box sets and The Beatles: Rock Band on the day of release, just for the sheer amount of money it would cost. Well, it took me a year, but I now own The Beatles: Rock Band (and all DLC released for it) and now The Beatles in Mono (plus the albums not in said set). However, I spent just under $140 on The Beatles: Rock Band (compared to a MSRP of $250) and $200 combined on my new Beatles CDs (compared to a $260-300 MSRP of the discs, depending on stereo or mono). And I also didn’t buy everything at once, which didn’t put as big of a bite on my wallet as it would have had I run out to the stores to get everything at once on 9/9/09. I guess there’s something to be said about learning the language of the deal.

Oddball Verdict: REALLY nice, but still not worth $300.

Romances sans paroles Album Cover

Released on July 15, 2009, Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ is the soundtrack album to the documentary film about Shoko Suzuki, entitled Mugonka~Romances sans paroles~. The album was released on Shoko’s own label, Bearforest Records (which is actually her second private record label; two previous releases — Love is a sweet harmony and Absolutely Alone in Kyoto Jittoku — were released on Shoko’s Angel Records label) and was preceded by a single, “I’ll Get What I Want (Chou Tsuyoko na Onna)” (which is the theme song for Mugonka). Interestingly enough, the single was released only on a 45 RPM vinyl single and cassette single.

As there are only six songs used in the entire film, the rest of the soundtrack album is filled with various live performances, taken from one of three live dates: December 21, 2008, February 14, 2009, and March 22, 2009. Most of the live cuts are Shoko solo, though the four tracks from March 22 feature Moonriders member Masahiro Takekawa on violin and trumpet, and Takeshi Shibuya on keyboards and backing vocals. Additionally, Takekawa plays violin and mandolin on “Do You Still Remember Me?” (the b-side of “I’ll Get What I Want”), and Larry Fujimoto plays bass on “I’ll Get What I Want.” Other than that, it’s Shoko’s show all the way (she plays keyboards, drums and guitar on the various tracks).

In a slight oddity, this is probably the first record I’ve ever seen where an inanimate object is thanked in the liner notes. It’s true: the Sony TC-D5 stereo cassette recorder is thanked by Shoko in the album’s notes, for “revitalizing passion & curiosity.” Several of the tracks on the album are of near-demo quality (audible hiss, etc.), because these were recorded on the TC-D5.

As for the documentary itself, it roughly covers a year in Shoko’s life, beginning in late 2008. Much of the footage is self-shot; i.e.. Shoko filming herself in her home and talking. The film starts with Shoko’s 20th anniversary concert (Sept. 2008), and the rehearsals surrounding it. You then see Shoko working on a new composition in its various stages (“I’ll Get What I Want”), including lyric writing (where you can see Shoko has YouTube bookmarked on her laptop). Next, she meets up with Shinji Harada (whom Shoko backed on tour before becoming a recording artist) and Moonriders guitarist Keiichi Suzuki (who, if at all, is known among some people my age for composing music for the video game EarthBound) for rehearsals — Harada and Suzuki are to be special guests at a (then) upcoming Shoko concert.

After a musical interlude (featuring the performance of “Tribute to Izumi Shikibu” on the soundtrack), the film focuses on Shoko’s father, who had died several months before. Shoko travels to find the place where her father lived (and ends up finding the business he ran, which appears to be a bar of some sort), and then writes and records a new song — seemingly inspired by her relationship with her father — “Do You Still Remember Me?” Another tragedy then strikes Shoko, as she finds out that Shoji Fujii — the man who taught her how to play the drums, and who also played most of the drum tracks on her debut album — died of a heart attack at the age of 54. The soundtrack album is dedicated to his memory.

The rest of the film is dedicated to the recording sessions for “I’ll Get What I Want,” which — in its completed version — closes the film.

The DVD release of Mugonka~Romances sans paroles, released in April 2010, comes with a bonus DVD of live-in-the-studio solo performances by Shoko. It also comes with the PV for the song “Namae wo Yonde~When You Call My Name,” the B-side of Shoko’s April 2010 single, “My Sweet Surrender” (which has yet to be released on an album).

Despite being an independent release on a private record label, Romances sans paroles~bande orginale du film~ charted for one week on Oricon’s album chart, peaking at #205. The album’s single, “I’ll Get What I Want,” did not chart; indeed, it was not even eligible for Oricon’s singles chart, due to being released only on vinyl and cassette formats.

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)

I’ll Get What I Want (Chou Tsuyoki na Onna)

The film’s theme song, and single. A fairly simple tune carried — at first — by Shoko’s piano and a simple drum machine beat, it then is fleshed out with live drums and bass. It also features a whole bunch of cymbal crashes by Shoko. The best song on the record.

BONUS: Sequence from Mugonka~Romances sans paroles.

Kaze ni Orenai Hana (Live)

A solo live performance, with Shoko on Wurlitzer. Intriguingly, some of the lyrics are in English; the first verse is in English, and some of the later choruses are as well. I like this song to begin with, but I personally think it sounds better stripped of most of its instrumentation like this.

I’ll Get What I Want (Chou Tsuyoki na Onna) – piano solo

As the title says, it’s an instrumental played on piano. A bit of audio hiss is present, because this was recorded on Shoko’s TC-D5 at home. This track was featured in Mugonka.

Mizu no Kanmuri (Live)

Another solo live performance of an older Shoko song, with Shoko playing piano.

My love, my love (Live)

Shoko plays Wurlitzer on this live track. I think I prefer this stripped down version to the original found on RadioGenic.

The Goldberg Variations Theme: Aria

Composed by Bach, whom Shoko spends some time in Mugonka discussing. Another track that was recorded at Shoko’s home on her TC-D5. This recording is also present in the film itself.

Tribute to Izumi Shikibu (Live)

One of the few new songs on the record, it was also featured in Mugonka, during the film’s only featured live performance (there are other bits of live footage, but the sound is mostly excised). The track — about the legendary poet Izumi Shikibu, obviously — has not been recorded or released elsewhere.

Boukyaku (Live)

Again, a solo live performance; here Shoko plays a slightly distorted electric guitar. Counting DVD releases and limited edition CD releases, this is the fifth different version of this song Shoko has released.

That is okay, however, because it is an awesome song.

Love Child (Live)

Another live song — featuring slightly lesser sound quality (as it is another track that was recorded with Shoko’s TC-D5). However, it also contains a nice audience pariticipation bit. Shoko is on piano here.

Do You Still Remember Me?

The main B-side of the “I’ll Get What I Want” single, and features Masahiro Takekawa on violin, mandolin and backing vocals. A very pretty song.

BONUS: Sequence from Mugonka~Romances sans paroles.

I Say a Little Prayer (Live)

A cover of a song Shoko originally covered on Shoko Suzuki Sings Bacharach & David. Masahiro Takekawa and Takeshi Shibuya provide backing here. At one point, Shoko slightly messes up the lyrics.

Braun-kan no Kokuhaku (Live)

One of my favorite tracks on the record, with Takekawa and Shibuya again backing Shoko. I believe this is a cover of a song by the band Ippu-Do, and was written by Masami Tsuchiya. However, the liner notes say the track was written by Shoko, and that “Do You Still Remember Me?” was written by Masami Tsuchiya. Yet, the Mugonka DVD liner notes state that “Do You Still Remember Me?” was written by Shoko.

Thus, the CD liner notes are probably in error. Regardless, it’s still a great song.

I’ll Get What I Want (Chou Tsuyoki na Onna) (Live)

Footage from this performance plays at the end of Mugonka, though the audio is taken from the studio recording of the song. Once again, Shoko is backed by Masahiro Takekawa and Takeshi Shibuya (the latter providing backing vocals as well).

Mugonka

A pretty track played on piano accompanied with wordless singing by Shoko — again with slightly degraded sound quality because it was recorded at Shoko’s home on her cassette recorder. In the film Mugonka, this track plays after Shoko travels to find her father’s home and business.

BONUS TRACKS (B-sides, rarities, etc.):
One of Us
Heat of the Moment
Mitsumete Hoshii (Take a Look at Me Now)
The three extra B-sides from the cassette single release of “I’ll Get What I Want” (the 45 only had “Do You Still Remember Me?”; the cassette also had karaoke versions of “I’ll Get What I Want” and “Do You Still Remember Me?”). One of Us was originally released by Joan Osbourne in 1995. Heat of the Moment was a top 5 hit for Asia in 1982 (and, personally, one of my favorite songs when I was a child). Mitsumete Hoshii is the Japanese title of the Phil Collins song “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now),” released in 1983.

Saraba Siberia Tetsudo
A cover of a song originally recorded by Eiichi Ohtaki; Shoko’s version appears on the Ohtani tribute album A Long Vacation from Ladies. Universal Music Japan put up a sampler of the album here; Shoko’s track is audible from 3:43 to 4:11.

MISCELLANEOUS (Live performances, TV apperances, etc.)
Official Mugonka~Romances sans paroles~ trailer
Mugonka~Romances sans paroles~ Special Trailer
Suzuki Syoko Guitar Short Film
Suzuki Syoko Drum Short Film
All promotional materials released to help promote the original theatrical release of Mugonka~Romances sans paroles~.

Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ is still in print, and avaiable from most overseas music sellers. The “I’ll Get What I Want” single — both the 45 and cassette single — are only available to residents of Japan through Shoko’s web store. The Eiichi Ohtaki tribute album is also still in print.

Oddball Verdict: Not for everyone, but has many good songs.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
Love, painful love (2000)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Sweet Serenity (2008)

Sweet Serenity Album Cover

Released September 10, 2008, Sweet Serenity was Shoko Suzuki’s 20th anniversary album. Also, for the first time since Love, painful love in 2000, Shoko released an album distributed by a major record label — Sony Music Direct, a subsidiary of Sony (with whom Shoko began her career under), released the record as (presumably) part of a one-off deal (seeing as how every Shoko release since then has been an indies release). Beginning in 2007, Sony Music Direct began releasing Shoko’s older Epic/Sony material, culminating in the three box set (6 CDs, 3 DVDs) collection SHO-CO-SONGS series, featuring everything Shoko released under Epic/Sony between 1988 and 1999; in that time they also released this album.

I also should point out here that Shoko had another release between Suzuki Syoko and this album; a vinyl-only live EP release, titled Syoko Suzuki Absolutely Alone in Kyoto Jittoku 2007.12/30,31. In fact, that EP saw the first official release of both “Father Figure” and “5 years,/And then…”, both of which are also on Sweet Serenity. The Absolutely Alone… EP also had two other songs as its B-side — a new recording of “Itsuka Mata Au Hi made” (originally from Atarashii Ai no Uta) and another version of “Celluloid Heroes” (originally done by the Kinks, and first covered by Shoko in 2002 and first mentioned in this review). The EP was produced in limited quantities, though, and is no longer in print.

Interestingly, Shoko is very much a proponent of the vinyl format. In addition to the Absolutely Alone… release, Shoko’s next single after the Sweet Serenity album (which I’ll get to in the next review) would be made available only on vinyl and cassette formats; additionally, she often writes and talks about her vinyl collection (like her autographed copy of Sweet Baby James by James Taylor, or her copy of Alive II by Kiss). She will also occasionally host record listening parties at various clubs, focusing entirely on vinyl LPs. As someone who still retains a fondness for LPs, I think this is pretty nifty.

But I digress. Sweet Serenity is dedicated to Shoko’s father, who died before the album was released; this is also reflected in some of the song titles, such as “Father Figure” (the parental theme is explored further in “Rose Pink no Cheek (my mama said, so)”). Also, for the first time since Love, painful love, Shoko plays a majority of the instruments on the album — she tackles drums, various keyboards, and even guitar (making this only the third studio album ever on which she plays guitar). Longtime acquaintance Shinobu Kawai shows up on a couple of tracks, while there are a bunch of other cameo appearances by the likes of Seiichi Yamamoto, Tokyo Local Honk, and members of Moonriders and Sentimental City Romance. Additionally, Shoko produced the entire record, and arranged everything save for “Sweet Serenity & Chocolate milk-tea” and “Father Figure” (the former was co-arranged by Hirokazu Ogura, the latter fully arranged by Ryuji Yamamoto).

It’s also not really important, but the disc itself is a Super Audio CD. Thankfully they are playable on standard CD players!

Unlike Shoko’s previous album, there is less of an emphasis on unusual arrangements and instrumentation — instead, this album is loaded with mostly straightforward songs featuring all sorts of stylistic variety. The record starts off with a fast acoustic blues number, then goes through hard rock, pop/rock, mid-tempo pop, country ballads, gospel and piano ballad in only 35 minutes or so. Also, perhaps because the record is a bit on the brief side, the opening track is repeated in a short reprise at the very end. All in all, though, there’s a very good chance that there’s something that will catch your attention.

For the first time in many years, Shoko was not responsible for writing any songs for any artist other than herself in 2008 — though she did arrange and produce a new version of Kazemachi Jet for Maaya Samakoto’s album Kazeyomi (Shoko also plays keyboards and sings backing vocals on the song). Kazeyomi was released in January 2009 and subsequently peaked at #3 on the Oricon album charts (the album also features Saigo no Kajitsu, the first single composed for Maaya back in 2007).

Perhaps due in part to the publicity from Shoko’s 20th anniversary, Sweet Serenity became Shoko’s highest charting album since Love, painful love — it peaked at #91. It also charted for two weeks, becoming Shoko’s first album since Shishousetsu to spend more than one week on the Oricon album chart. She also made plenty of appearances on radio shows and the like — in addition to a fairly busy live schedule — which may have also contributed to the album’s success

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Sweet Serenity & chocolate milk-tea

An upbeat, acoustic blues number, with only Hirokazu Ogura’s acoustic guitar backing up Shoko’s lead and harmony vocals. Shoko doesn’t usually do blues numbers, so it’s kinda cool to hear her take on it (and yet another example of the diversity present in her discography).

Electric Fingerz

The album’s one loud, guitar rock song (around the time the album was released, Shoko referred to this song as “baka rock” — “stupid rock”). The lyrics of the song are fairly risque — I’m sure you can use your imagination to figure out what use “Electric Fingerz” might have. The backing band — in addition to Shoko’s drums and electric guitar playing — includes longtime associate Shinobu Kawai on bass and backing vocals, Jack-tati member Hiromu Kihara on additional electric guitar, and former Bordedoms guitarist (and ROVO founder) Seiichi Yamamoto playing the song’s guitar solos.

Oh, and because I keep track of such things, this song features the Shoko fill!

Mada 30dai no Onna

A wonderful mid-tempo pop/rock song, featuring instrumental and vocal backing by the band Tokyo Local Honk. Shoko does not drum on this song — the only song with drums she does not do so. Instead, she plays the Wurlitzer and acoustic guitar. One of my favorite tracks on the record; just a beautiful song, really.

Rose Pink no Cheek (my mama said, so)

In keeping with the record’s diverse nature, Shoko slots in a slower country & western ballad here with lovely harmonies (all sung by Shoko). If you’re not a country fan, you might not like the song…but I think it’s very pretty. Nobutaka Tsugei (guitarist in the band Sentimental City Romance) plays the pedal steel part.

Father Figure

A slower pop number dominated by Shoko’s keyboard playing, and also Moog and clavinet work from Ryuji Yamamoto. It is also the longest song on the record, clocking in at five and a half minutes.

Hontou wa Kanashii Kankei

A really bouncy pop number with some fairly impressive motor-mouth singing from Shoko throughout, where she’s singing so fast you’re waiting for her to take a huge breath at the end of each verse. Shinobu Kawai is once again on bass, and a Beatles-esque trumpet (think “Penny Lane”) is played by Moonriders member Masahiro Takekawa (who also adds cello and violin). Another favorite of mine.

Gyaku Propose (Kari.)

A slower ballad that starts out with just Shoko singing and playing the piano (along with some percussion in the background), but eventually turns into a gospel-flavored singalong at the end. Takuo Yamamoto adds clarinet and saxophone.

5 years,/And Then...

A sparse piano + vocal ballad, not unlike some of the similarly-styled songs on Suzuki Syoko. Shoko’s vocals here are very haunting, and possibly her best on the record.

Sweet Serenity & chocolate milk-tea (Reprise)
A brief reprise of the title track, less than a minute in length.

Sweet Serenity is still very much in print, and available from pretty much any overseas music retailer. I think even Amazon has it listed for sale, if I’m not mistaken (but if you ever try importing something like this from Amazon, you have my deepest sympathies).

Oddball Verdict: A little short on running time, but a very excellent record regardless.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
Love, painful love (2000)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)

BONUS: Photos from Shoko’s 20th anniversary concert, September 2, 2008 at C.C. Lemon Hall, Shibuya, Tokyo (click for full version):

Suzuki Syoko Album Cover

Shoko Suzuki’s self-titled album, released on January 25, 2006, was her first studio album in over five years (Love, painful love was released in September 2000), and her first studio album as an indies artist. The music within is often a bit more abstract than what she had released in the past, perhaps owing in part to her association with the experimental rock band (and then-labelmates) ROVO, which is lead by former Boredoms guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto (Yamamoto doesn’t appear on this album, but he does show up on Shoko’s next album). The violin of ROVO’s Yuji Katsui, in particular, is present on many of the album’s tracks.

Though Shoko had kept a low profile on the record release front since leaving Warner Music Japan in 2000, she was still touring extensively and occasionally recording. Indeed, the Suzuki Syoko album was in development for years before it finally saw release — “Keiyaku (Spellbind)” first appeared on Shoko’s previous release, the live I was there, I’m here, while “Ai no Namae” also dates from around that period (and first popped up as a demo on a free CD released in early 2003). Two singles preceded the album, each released a year apart — the double A-side “Blonde”/”Passion” single came out in April of 2004, and after staying away from the recording studio for a full year, recorded and released the “Love/Identified” (that’s only one song title, not another double A-side) single — which featured “Nani ga Shitai no?” as a B-side — in April 2005. Additionally, “Boukyaku” and “Love is a sweet harmony” were available as demo versions on a special CD available during Shoko’s tour in Spring 2004.

This means well over half the album was written and/or recorded at least a year (or more) before the album proper was finished and released. But amazingly, the record is not disjointed in any way; if anything, the album has a cohesive sound belying its lengthy gestation period (wow, that’s perhaps the most pretentious sentence I’ve ever written), mostly due to the fact that most of the songs are built around Shoko’s voice and piano playing. For the first time Shoko plays keyboards almost exclusively, leaving the other instrumentation (if any, as many of the songs are simply Shoko and her piano) to her musician friends.

The songs can be roughly split up into three groups: songs predominantly featuring Shoko and her piano, songs where Shoko is backed up by members of ROVO, and songs where Shoko is backed by Carnation, a more conventional guitar/bass/drums rock band. The ROVO-backed tracks probably stand out the most, due to Yuji Katsui’s unconventional violin (often aided by equally-unconventional cellist Hiromichi Sakamoto — who is not a member of ROVO) blaring out over clattering rhythm tracks that play in anything but a standard tempo (indeed, it’s often Shoko’s piano that holds down the rhythm in these songs). The three tracks featuring Carnation — including a remake of “Radio no Youni” — are much more standard rock songs, but are also very good (and include “Boukyaku,” one of my absolute favorite Shoko songs). The pieces highlighting Shoko’s piano playing and vocals range from slow and dramatic (“Blonde,” “Michi”) to poppier fare like “Keiyaku (Spellbind)” and “Ai no Namae.”

During this entire period, Shoko continued to work as a songwriter for other artists; indeed, in 2005 she began perhaps her most successful extended collaboration when she began writing songs for singer/voice actress Maaya Sakamoto. Since then, Shoko has written several singles for Maaya, and written a handful of album tracks for her as well. Other artists Shoko wrote songs for include the band Local Bus, and singers Naoyuki Fujii and Takui Nakajima. Additionally, in 2005 Shoko took time to produce a mini-album (Haru no Nioi) for Saki, a singer-songwriter who has since written songs for idol Yu Nakamura and idol group Idoling!!!; it was the first time Shoko had produced for anyone other than herself.

As Suzuki Syoko was an independent release (through the indie label wonderground music), it didn’t chart very highly — it reached the Oricon album charts for one week, peaking at #132. Yet most independent releases don’t chart that well in Japan, and it should be noted that both of the albums singles charted in the lower reaches of the singles chart — the first such time Shoko charted two singles from the same album.

On a more personal note, this was the first non-compilation Shoko Suzuki album I ever owned, and was the catalyst for me becoming a huge Shoko fan (the fact the album reminded me of Tori Amos — of whom I was a huge fan at the time — might have had something to do with it).

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Ai no Namae

The record starts off with this piano ballad, a re-recording of a song that had appeared on a special giveaway disc three years before. Of note is the stripped-down, unpolished sound of the track — at one point Shoko’s voice cracks, something that probably would have been fixed on past albums (or had an outside producer been responsible for the recording).

Love is a sweet harmony

Another stripped-down song, with only Shoko’s singing (including all harmonies) and piano playing. I believe most of the songs with just Shoko solo with her piano (such as this and the preceding track) were recorded at her home.

The lyrics of this song are entirely in English.

Nani ga Shitai no? (naked mix)

Originally one of the B-sides of “Love/Identified.” The single version has a slightly different mix, but the difference is is fairly negligible. The first appearance of the members of ROVO is here, with Yuji Katsui on electric violin and Yasuhiro Yoshigaki on drums; cellist Hiromichi Sakamoto is also on hand. This song, like the following, has a bit of a cluttered sound, with the drums often playing random fills instead of keeping time, and the stringed instruments sometimes are used to produce sound effects instead of playing any discernible melody — though these ideas are taken to a much further extreme on the following track.

Passion

Probably the most avant-garde song on the album; somewhat surprisingly, Shoko released it as a single (a double A-side with “Blonde”). Yuji Katsui and Hiromichi Sakamoto are both present on this track (on violin and cello, respectively), and there are two drum tracks: one by Shoko herself, the other by ex-Tipographical drummer Akira Sotoyama (Shoko also plays piano and harpsichord). The noise-rock tendencies of “Nani ga Shitai no?” are played out in full here, with neither drum track playing any sort of regular beat — indeed, both drum tracks are independent of each other, each one playing something different thoughout the song, including lots and lots of seemingly random fills (as noted above, Shoko’s keyboards hold down the rhythm for the most part). The violin and cello also contribute greatly to the dense arrangment, with Sakamoto’s cello in particular being used to generate lots of weird sounds and effects during the choruses.

Like “Love is a sweet harmony,” the lyrics of this track are in English.

Keiyaku (Spellbind)

Another simple piano song, with Shoko’s vocals and keyboards being augmented with a subtle French horn part by Hiroyuki Minami. This song was first released on I Was There, I’m Here in 2003, and this version sticks very closely to that live recording. One of my favorite tracks on the record.

Radio no Youni

For this and the following two songs, Shoko is joined by the rock band Carnation (Masahiro Naoe on guitar and backing vocals, Mamoru Ota on bass and backing vocals, and Hiroshi Yabe on drums and backing vocals). First is a re-recording of “Radio no Youni,” which was originally the lead-off track on Shoko’s RadioGenic album in 1993. For this re-recording, the emphasis was placed on the song’s rockier elements, dispensing with any keyboards or complex backing vocals, leading to a rougher, unpolished rock sound. I prefer this version to the original, though I like both.

Frederick

The second track with Carnation is a cover of a song originally written by Patti Smith and released on Smith’s 1979 album Wave (the song was apparently written for Fred “Sonic” Smith, former lead guitarist for the MC5). Shoko is on piano here.

Boukyaku

Shoko plays piano again on this gorgeous song, which is — for me — the high point of the record. There is a bit more of a focus on Shoko’s piano and harmonies here, while the guys in Carnation tone down the rock a bit in favor of a more subtle backing. Just a wonderful song, and it was later included on the 2007 compilation SHO-CO-JOURNEY.

BONUS: A live concert clip of Shoko performing this song in 2006, taken from the I don’t play no instruments/I wanna play my instruments DVD (which was also released in 2006).

Love/Identified

The A-side of the album’s second official single, and a bit more straightforward rock than “Passion” and “Blonde” were. George Okamura plays guitar, bass and co-produces, while Hiromichi Sakamoto is on cello, and both of ROVO’s drummers — Yasuhiro Yoshigaki and Youichi Okabe — are on hand. Somewhat like “Passion,” neither drum track keeps the beat; the rhythm is mostly kept down by Shoko’s piano and Okamura’s electric guitar.

The version released as a single is slightly different mix-wise (but like “Nani ga Shitai no?”, it’s barely noticeable unless you really listen for it), and the ending is different: instead of the final guitar chord fading out like on the album, the single version ends with a quick, slashing guitar chord after where the album mix fades out.

Blonde

Along with “Passion,” one of the double A-sides that made up the album’s first single. Mostly Shoko and her piano, though Yuji Katsui is on hand with his electric violin, and late in the song some subtle drum rolls are added (played by Shoko, though the album’s liner notes omit this credit; Shoko is credited with drums on the single, though). The inspiration for this song was Marylin Monroe, who was even thanked in the liner notes for the single.

At nearly seven minutes in length, this is Shoko’s longest single A-side to date.

Michi

The record ends much as it began, with a song featuring only Shoko’s singing and piano playing. Another very pretty song.

BONUS TRACKS (B-sides, rarities, etc.):
Daddy, I'm Home

The B-side of the “Blonde”/”Passion” single, done in the style of much of the album — Shoko singing alone while playing a keyboard (a harpsichord in this case). The lyrics are entirely in English. However, even though the lyrics are in English, the printed lyrics given on the single’s sleeve are written in Japanese. A very pretty song.

I Need U2B Mine

This and the following four songs were available on an exclusive CD packed with a tour program offered during Shoko’s spring 2004 tour, “bleeding heart, shaking tree 2″ (the first “bleeding heart, shaking tree” tour was in 2000, in support for Love, painful love). The recordings were all either demos or live recordings, and most of the songs have yet to be officially recorded and released by Shoko on either a standard single or album.

The lead-off track on the CD is “I Need U2B Mine,” a pretty good mid-tempo pop song with Shoko on keyboards and vocals (and a titled spelled like a Prince song, even). Like a number of Shoko’s songs from this period, the lyrics are entirely in English.

Manatsu no Yoru no Koto

A live recording of an otherwise unreleased song, kind of similar to “Aisuru Koto wa Tsumi janai” (which this song’s release pre-dates by a year) in that it’s a fairly long, piano-based number with powerful vocals from Shoko.

Boukyaku (Woodstock version)
The first version of “Boukyaku,” with Shoko performing solo with an electric piano. Notable because when Shoko plays this song solo in concerts, she usually plays acoustic or electric guitar as accompaniment instead of piano (as seen in the video clip of this song above).

Love is a sweet harmony (demo)
Not very different from the version released on Shoko’s self-titled album; the only real difference is the quality of the recording, which is not as good as the official release (which is why I didn’t bother with a sample).

A-kata no Koibito

The final track on the five-song bonus CD, and my personal favorite. It’s a pretty brisk rock song with Shoko singing all the vocal parts and presumably playing all the instruments (though, interestingly enough, the song lacks a drum track). This might have made a good single.

Aisuru Koto wa Tsumi janai

The second B-side of the “Love/Identified” single (along with “Nani ga Shitai no?”), and a live recording — at over seven minutes, it’s one of the longest songs Shoko has ever released. This is apparently a fairly old song — I’ve seen reports of Shoko playing this song live as far back as the tour for Snapshots in 1995. In addition to Shoko’s vocal and piano, KYON (credited as “Dr. KYON” on the sleeve) is also on piano, and Tomio Inoue plays bass.

Kotoba (Live version)
This and the following three tracks were released as bonus tracks on the 2007 compilation SHO-CO-JOURNEY. “Kotoba” was originally released on Hourglass in 1991, and this live version (recorded in 2005) sounds almost exactly like the original. Very pretty.

Swallow (Live version)
Here, Shoko is on electric piano and joined by Carnation’s drummer Hiroshi Yabe on pedal steel guitar(!). To be honest, the pedal steel part is kind of random sounding…I don’t think it fits in too well. Overall, though, I slightly prefer this version of “Swallow” to the original, which has never been one of my favorite songs.

Tokyo de Umareta Onna (Live version)

An otherwise unreleased song, recorded in 2005, and featuring Shoko on electric piano. I really like this song, and think it would be nifty is Shoko would release a fleshed-out version (of course, I’d love for her to do that with pretty much all of the demos and stuff she released from 2003 on).

Michi (live version)
This live version was recorded in 2006, and sounds pretty much exactly like the regular album version.

Ma-akana Aki
A children’s song Shoko contributed to the Lingkaran for Baby various artists CD in 2007. I don’t own the CD, and thus have never heard this song. I’m listing it more-or-less for the sake of completeness, I guess.

MISCELLANEOUS (Live performances, TV apperances, etc.)
Soshite nao Eien ni
Tokimeki wa Namida ni Makenai – Both of these performances are taken from a 2004 concert that forms the basis of the concert/documentary DVD Life,/Music&Love, which was released in 2005. In the former performance, the band includes Yuji Katsui on elecric violin, Hiromichi Sakamoto on cello, and Yasuhiro Yoshigaki on drums.

Mata Kai one
Kaze no Tobira – These two performances are taken from the same 2006 concert as “Boukyaku” above, which was later released on DVD. The former song is a cover of a track by Akiko Yano, who covered “Natsu no Maboroshi” in 1995, and whose daughter recorded a song written by Shoko.

The Suzuki Syoko CD is still in print, and available from pretty much any online retailer that sells Japanese CDs; the same is true of the SHO-CO-JOURNEY album. Also, both the “Blonde” / “Passion” and “Love/Identified” CD singles are in print if your are interested in owning the B-sides on those singles. The tour booklet with the bonus CD from Shoko’s 2004 tour used to be available from Shoko’s web store (but only if you live in Japan), but it was taken down a while ago. Lastly, the Lingkaran for Baby album is still in print.

Oddball Verdict: One of my favorites, but unlike most other Shoko Suzuki albums.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
Love, painful love (2000)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Sweet Serenity (2008)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)

I Was There, I'm Here Album Cover

After a break of almost exactly three years since her last record (Love, painful love), I Was There, I’m Here was released on September 21, 2003. It was Shoko’s first live album, and her first record released as an indies (non-major label) artist — this and several of her following releases would come through indie label Wonderground Music.

The tracks for the album (for the first two discs, anyway; I don’t have a first pressing with the bonus CD, so I can’t definitively say when those songs were recorded) were recorded over a four month span at the same venue — Minami Aoyama Manda-La in Tokyo. The first four tracks on disc one were recorded on February 20, 2002, with the rest of the disc’s tracks recorded on April 20, 2002. The first nine tracks on disc two were recorded one month later (May 20), with the remaining songs being recorded on June 23.

Interestingly, I Was There, I’m Here was not the only live album Shoko recorded in 2002. Shoko’s Christmas concerts that year (performed at Kichijoji Star Pine Cafe in Tokyo, and taking place on December 20, 24 and 25) were recorded and released three years later as Suzuki Syoko in “Love is a sweet harmony” w/E-cups (E-cups being a female vocal group, members of which sang on Candy Apple Red and toured with Shoko in the 1997-98 period). However, that particular live album won’t be reviewed by me, as I don’t own it — it’s extremely difficult to purchase the record if you live outside of Japan. Sorry!

But back to I Was There, I’m Here. Much of the album is Shoko solo, accompanying herself on either on acoustic guitar or piano, often sounding like a Tori Amos solo concert. But there are the occasional guests to fill out the sound a little bit. Singer and guitarist Masahiro Naoe (of the rock band Carnation, which would play a large role in Shoko’s next studio record) appears on “Koibitotachi no Tsuki,” playing guitar and adding vocals; Yuta Saito (who had appeared on both Shishousetsu and Atarashii Ai no Uta) shows up to play keyboards and add backing vocals to “Circle” and “Uchi”; Takuo Yamamoto (who also appeared on Atarashii Ai no Uta) adds saxphone and clarinet to “Amai Yoru,” “Fune” and “Moon Dance Diner de”; while former Super Junky Monkey bassist Shinobu Kawai and ex-jaco:neco drummer GRACE join Shoko to form a potent all-girls rock band on “25sai no Onna wa,” “Izon to Shihai” and “Soshite nao Eien ni.” Both Kawai and GRACE had previously backed up Shoko during the “bleeding heart, shaking tree” tour in support of Love, painful love in 2000, and Kawai in particular would continue to contribute heavily to Shoko’s work (both recording and live) in the coming years.

The track listing on the live album is a mixture of Shoko’s back catalogue, select covers of songs by other artists, a handful of self-covers of songs Shoko wrote for other artists, and even several brand-new songs. Among the cover tunes were songs by Unicorn (Tamio Okuda’s former — and now current — band) and American singers Edie Brickell and Linda Ronstadt, while the self-cover songs include tracks Shoko had written for artists like Kyoko Koizumi, Kumiko Yamashita (though technically, Yamashita’s version of “Happy Someday” was released after this album was recorded — but well before it was released) and Mari Kaneko. Due to the stripped-down nature of the show, several of Shoko’s better-known songs get fairly radical rearrangments due to the piano often being the only accompaniment (most notable on songs like “Radio no Youni,” “River’s End” and “Shelter,” which were all originally guitar rock tracks). It’s interesting to me to hear these re-styled songs, since usually live albums are kind of boring to me.

Though Shoko concentrated mostly on live work in the immediate years following Love, painful love, she still continued to write and demo songs, and very occasionally record new material as well (as evidenced by the several then-new tracks on the record). “Keiyaku (Spellbind)” would eventually pop up again on Shoko’s next album, while both “Amai Yoru” and “I was there, I’m here” would never appear on any other proper Shoko release.

Well…kind of, anyway. “Amai Yoru” — or rather, the demo of the song — was released along with two other tracks on Kuukan no Kanshouku~Suzuki Shoko no Sekai, a supplemental CD that came with an issue of CD Journal magazine in January 2003 (eight months before I Was There, I’m Here was finally released). The other two tracks on the set were a demo version of “Ai no Namae” (a re-recorded version of which would lead off Shoko’s next studio record) and the otherwise unreleased rock track “holdmethrillmetrustmeloveme” (featuring Shinobu Kawai on bass and backing vocals), which has never been released anywhere else (aside from a live performance on a DVD; it’s a shame, as it’s one of Shoko’s best rock songs). Needless to say, Kuukan no Kanshouku~Suzuki Shoko no Sekai is pretty rare.

The early part of the 21st century saw Shoko writing more for other artists. In addition to “Happy Someday” for Kumiko Yamashita, the 2001-2003 period saw Shoko write lyrics and/or music for Puffy (“Angel of Love” from Nice.), former Say a Little Prayer vocalist Rie Taguchi (“Little Girl,” “Virginity”), Hello! Project artist Rika Ishii a.k.a. Peachy (“Yumemiru Chikara”), rock band Local Bus (several songs), and Miu Sakamoto (“Kuuchu Teien”) — of note is the fact that Sakamoto’s father is world-famous musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, and her mother is Akiko Yano…who herself covered Shoko’s “Natsu no Maboroshi” in 1995.

No singles were released from I Was There, I’m Here, and the album did not make the Oricon record charts at all.

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Disc 1
Natsu wa Doko e Itta

Shoko’s debut single, played here by Shoko on finger-picked acoustic guitar and harmonica. Since the original recording was fairly stripped down to begin with, this live version sounds fairly similar to the original record.

Happy Someday

As noted above, this song was released by Kumiko Yamashita a few months after Shoko recorded this live version (though Shoko hasn’t released the song otherwise). Shoko accompanies herself on piano here, and the lyrics (written by Shoko) are all in English. This is quite a pretty song.

Tada no Koi Dakara

Original version from Shishousetsu. This version sounds fairly similar to the record, as that was mainly Shoko and her piano as well.

Koibitotachi no Tsuki

Masahiro Naoe guests on guitar and backing vocals here, with Shoko on piano and lead vocals (and harmonica during the solo). The original was largely piano-based as well, so the sound is similar, but less filled out (no drums, etc.).

Mukudori

A self-cover, as the song was originally released by Mari Kaneko. Shoko’s version has her once again playing piano and singing. A bit of a melancholy song that somewhat resembles a Tori Amos track.

Circle

Originally released as a single in 1988 by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (known mostly for their hit “What I Am”). Shoko is joined on this track (and the next) by Yuta Saito, with both perfomers playing keyboards. One of my favorite selections on the record.

Uchi

Written by Tamio Okuda, and originally released by Unicorn on their 1991 album Hige to Boin. Yuta Saito adds backing vocals, and both he and Shoko play keyboards again.

Anata ga ita Kisetsu

Originally written by Shoko for Kyoko Koizumi and released on Koizumi’s afropia album in 1991. Shoko’s version here is just her perfomring solo, adding Wurlitzer for accompaniment.

Yasashii Ame

“The ballad” — as Shoko refers to it — and a #2 hit for Kyoko Koizumi in 1993; it is still Shoko’s most well-known composition. Shoko plays Wurlitzer on this track, and at a slightly quicker tempo than her own previous recordings of the song.

Prive

Originally from Shishousetsu. Shoko really shines on piano here, especially as the complex orchestration from the original has been removed (obviously, since it would be hard for Shoko to play all that orchestration and other backing track bits all by herself…).

Adios

This song, written by Jimmy Webb, was originally recorded and released by Linda Ronstadt on her 1989 LP Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. Shoko’s solo piano version is much more stripped down than Ronstadt’s more fleshed out arrangment (which featured backing vocals by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys), and I actually like it better than the original.

Disc 2
Sweet Thing

Originally from Hourglass. The original version was very piano-heavy to begin with, so this live version doesn’t sound radically different (lack of drums and strings aside).

Radio no Youni

Starting here, the second disc features a handful of Shoko’s songs that were originally upbeat and/or hard rocking but here are played solely on piano. Shoko apparently retained some affection for this track — which was first released on RadioGenic — as she would feature a re-recorded band version on her next studio album.

Amai Yoru

One of the previously unreleased tracks to make it onto the album. Shoko still occasionally plays the song live, but has never released a proper, studio-recorded version. This particular recording features Takuo Yamamoto on saxophone.

Fune

Yamamoto is also on this track, which was originally released on Love, painful love. Shoko plays the solo on a kazoo (!) and glockenspiel, and also shakes a tambourine at times during the song.

Shelter

Another hard-rocking track transposed to a solo vocal and piano performance; it actually works very well as a dramatic piano-based song. The studio version was released on Candy Apple Red.

Denpatou

Shoko reaches back deep into the past for this song, originally from Mizu no Kanmuri. It is one of only a handful of tracks on the album dating from before 1991 — for whatever reason, Shoko avoided playing too many songs from her very early years on this CD.

Kikyou

This piano ballad originally saw release on Atarashii Ai no Uta. This piano & vocal performance sounds very similar to the demo version of this song that was released as a B-side on the “Atarashii Ai no Uta” single in early 2000.

River's End

Like “Shelter,” this originally hard-rocking track came from Candy Apple Red. And also like “Shelter,” the piano re-arrangment of this song is really, really good.

Moon Dance Diner de

Another track originally from Mizu no Kanmuri. This live version sounds very close to the recorded version, especially with Takuo Yamamoto on saxophone.

I was there, I'm here

Another new track with Shoko accompanying herself on piano, and sung entirely in English. No studio recording of the song was made (or at least, one has never been released), and I’m not sure if Shoko still plays it live or not. I like it a lot; it’s a fun song.

Keiyaku (Spellbind)

The final new track, and the only one of the album’s new songs that would be re-recorded in a studio setting — Shoko would feature it on her next album. The re-recording adds a subtle french horn part and Shoko’s backing vocals, but otherwise sounds extremely similar to this live version. One of my favorite Shoko songs.

25sai no Onna wa

Shoko is joined by Shinobu Kawai and GRACE here; Kawai is on bass and backing vocals, GRACE is on drums and backing vocals, while Shoko plays Wurlitzer and sings. This funky track is originally from Atarashii Ai no Uta, and this live version is actually my preferred version; it’s a little funkier and not as polished as the studio recording.

Oddly, while this song’s composition was credited to both Shoko and Yoshiyuki Sahashi on the Atarashii Ai no Uta CD, here it’s credited solely to Shoko.

Izon to Shihai

The second track with the Shoko/Shinobu Kawai/GRACE lineup; Shoko switches to piano. There’s an extended coda with Shoko adding an amusing new verse (sung entirely in English) about a vampire lover (?) that ends with her screaming “You BASTARD! I’m through!” among other things. The original version of this song is from Shishousetsu, but this live recording is less Rolling Stones-sounding than the original, and a bit more sinister and funky sounding (perhaps because the piano is the dominant instrument instead of a slide guitar).

Soshite nao Eien ni

The second disc closes with this track, originally from Shishousetsu. Shoko switches to electric guitar at this point (her Bonnie Raitt model Fender Stratocaster), resulting in the only grungy guitar rock song on the album. GRACE drums, and Shinobu Kawai is on bass on backing vocals — she misses a note or two here and there, but the sheer energy of this recording is amazing.

Disc 3 (First pressing bonus only)
Sugar Daddy Baby
Originally from Love, painful love.

My love, my love
Originally from RadioGenic.

Kaze ni Orenai Hana
Originally from the best-of collection Harvest.

BONUS TRACKS (B-sides, rarities, etc.):
Celluloid Heroes

Actually the first piece of music Shoko released after becoming an indies artist, which appeared on a Kinks tribute album (Kinky Boot) in February 2002. The Kinks’ original was released as a single in 1972, and later appeared on their Everybody’s in Showbiz album the same year. Shinobu Kawai plays bass on this track.

Kuukan no Kanshouku~Suzuki Shoko no Sekai
A three-song CD that was given away with CDJournal magazine in January 2003, featuring the following songs:

Ai no Namae (demo)
This particular track would be revisisted by Shoko on her next studio album, where it was performed in an almost identical manner. As such, I’m not offering a sample (seriously, it sounds almost exactly the same as the officially released version, aside from the limited sound as a result of the recorder Shoko used to make this demo).

holdmethrillmetrustmeloveme

The true find from this CD, one of Shoko’s best rock songs. It features Shinobu Kawai on bass (and probably backing vocals), and may also feature Grace on drums (though that’s just idle speculation on my part; the only reason I know Kawai is on the recording is because she says so on her web site).

Apart from this rare release, this excellent track has only been played live. Shoko first started playing it on her late 2000 tour, and will still occasionally play it live (sometimes with only an acoustic guitar as accompaniment).

Amai Yoru (demo)
The demo version of this song is kind of scratchy, and sounds as if it were recorded on a cassette recorder (a couple of times Shoko’s voice overloads the mic input), and lacks the saxophone from the live version, but otherwise sounds extremely similar to the live recording (and as such, I thought it unnecessary to offer a sample).

I Was There, I’m Here is currently in print, and can be ordered through most places that sell imported CDs. One track (“Adios”) was also released on the 2007 compilation SHO-CO-JOURNEY. The Kinks tribute album is still available from some online retailers, I think, while Kuukan no Kanshouku~Suzuki Shoko no Sekai was technically never sold to begin with, and as such is not available for purchase now.

Oddball Verdict: Much better than the average live album.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
Love, painful love (2000)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Sweet Serenity (2008)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)

Love, painful love Album Cover

Original released on September 27, 2000 (held back from an originally announced release date of August 23), Love, painful love was Shoko Suzuki’s first entirely self-produced album, and also her last original album recorded under her contract with Warner Music Japan — and also, her final album as an artist tied to a major label. After the release of this album, Shoko would become an indies artist, releasing many of her recordings herself on various independent labels (aside from one exception, but that comes later).

Aside from being self-produced, the album is notable in that Shoko played every single instrument on the record by herself — something that Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren and Stevie Wonder had done to acclaim back in the 1970s, but something which female artists hadn’t really done up to that point (the album’s obi claimed this is the first record by a major-label female artist to be entirely self-performed). Regardless, one has to admit it’s a pretty impressive feat, and Shoko pulls it off quite well — the songs certainly have a band “feel” to them. Among the instruments she tackles are piano, harpischord, electric piano, organ, drums/percussion, acoustic & electric guitar, bass, banjo and glockenspiel. The track arrangments jump around from heavy guitar rock to jangly folk to piano ballads to syntheized ’80s-style electronic rock, displaying Shoko’s versatility and willingness to try different things.

Along with the album title itself, the (somewhat loose) theme of the record is also more-or-less stated on the album’s obi: 恋は苦しみ,愛は痛み (roughly translated, “Passion is anguish, love is pain.”). These are not cheery songs of love, but rather about the darker side of it — “Fune (Crippled little boat),” for example, is about a woman killing the man she loves, then setting out on a rotting boat to die with him, all the while saying what she did was “not a crime” (set to a jaunty folk tune, no less). The narrator of the single “paingiver” is both defiant and in despair, both claiming she cannot die — while at the same time saying she is lonely and wants to die. “Sugar daddy baby” is fairly obvious, about a woman and her relationship with her sugar daddy; “Fuan na Iro no Blue (It rains, as it ends)” recalls the story of the end of a relationship…and so on, and so on.

(This is completely hypothetical on my part, but I can’t help but wonder if events in Shoko’s personal life — notably, she divorced her husband around the time this album was released — helped inspire the album’s theme in any way.)

However, that’s not to say that pain and heartbreak are all there is to this album — it also notably features Shoko’s self-cover of “Watashi no Nozomi,” a song she had written for Yumi Yoshimura (of Puffy) back in 1997. Shoko’s version is slowed down a bit, so as not to sound quite as peppy as Yoshimura’s original, but it remains one of the few happier moments on an otherwise dark album. There is also one cover tune, Shoko’s version of Yasayuki Okamura’s “Ikenai Kotokai.”

Of note is the fact that there was a contest held in conjunction with this album (perhaps in an attempt to goose interest?). The CD’s final track is a demo of an otherwise unreleased song called “Love, painful love”; the track is just over a minute long, with Shoko scat-singing while accompanying herself on piano. The contest was for someone to write their own lyrics to Shoko’s tune, then send them in to Warner Music Japan. The prize, obviously, would be to have your lyrics sung by Shoko on a future album. However, to my knowledge, nothing ever came of the contest — certainly, Shoko has never released a proper version of “Love, painful love” (with lyrics by her or anyone else).

2000 wasn’t an awfully productive year for Shoko’s outside songwriting interests, and for whatever reason she limited herself to lyric writing only. She ended up writing the lyrics for a handful of songs for Soy, and a track apiece for actresses Yoshino Kimura (“15bun no Kyori”) and Ryoko Shinohara (“Rhythm to Rule”).

Love, painful love charted quite a bit better than Atarashii Ai no Uta had — it peaked at #57, but it only stayed on the album chart for one week. Unlike the last record — which had two singles released from it — “paingiver” was the album’s lone single, and did not chart.

Shoko would not release a single for another four years, and her next studio album was six years away.

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Like many of Shoko’s older albums, the songs on this record have both a Japanese and English title (and the English is not necessarily a simple translation of the Japanese title).

Suika (I turned 17 today)

The record starts off with this pretty awesome guitar rock song, which seemingly takes its cue from ’90s alternative rock by starting with a soft verse before heading into a head-bashing (and somewhat repetitive) chorus, before going back to quiet verses to end the track. I love this song.

A slightly different mix of this song — subtitled “sweet bleedingheart mix” — was released on the 2002 best album friends, lovers, my journey home. There really isn’t much of a difference between the remix and the original, other than the guitars have a slightly fuller sound to them, and as such no sample of the remix is needed.

paingiver

The album’s single, and another really good rock song. The song’s PV, filmed in Los Angeles, showcases Shoko tackling all of the instruments on the song (and also has an excessive amount of stock-footage explosions).

Trivia: the PV for this song would be the last one Shoko would film until 2010. (!)

Fune (Crippled little boat)

A cheery sounding, yet quite morbid, folk song. Shoko shows off her talents on banjo here. Singing a song about killing your lover never sounded so bright and happy!

Watashi no Nozomi (Ambition)

As noted earlier, Shoko originally wrote this for Yumi Yoshimura of Puffy. This self-cover is a bit slower than the original, but is still just as good (if not better; I personally prefer it to Yumi’s version).

Sugar daddy baby

A very minimal song, with an electric piano and a simple drum pattern dominating the arrangment (there is some electric guitar in the background, but it’s mostly for flourishes here and there). This was the first song from the album to be released; it was first available as a coupling track on the “Atarashii Ai no Uta” single taken from the previous album (and thus potentially started Shoko’s entire self-produced/self-performed project that resulted in this record).

Gimmie Some Life

This track is notable because it is a rock song that has no guitars on it — neither electric, acoustic or even bass guitars. What it does have is a huge, booming drum track and heavily distorted piano and harpsichord tracks. Despite the lack of guitars, this is one of the heaviest sounding tracks on the entire record (Shoko really lets loose on the drums).

Fuan na Iro no Blue (It rains, as it ends)

A truly gorgeous ballad carried by Shoko’s keyboards and vocals (and a nice, if subtle, bass guitar part). Potentially my favorite song on the album.

Sickness

Pure synthesized ’80s rock right here. Need I say more? It’s possibly the catchiest track on the record.

I think Chief Oddball might like this track a little bit.

Ikenai Kotokai

The one song on the record not written by Shoko, it was originally released as a single by Yasuyuki Okamura in 1988. While the original is definitely recognizable as a pop song out of the 1980s, Shoko’s version is totally stripped down, with only vocals and an acoustic piano (a style she was already embracing in concert, and would also use to great effect on her next studio album).

The track has also been covered by the likes of MEG (whose version was produced by Okamura) and Sharam-Q’s singer Tsunku (who might be more well-known as the guy who foisted Hello! Project and its approximately eighty-five billion idol groups on the world at large).

Love, painful love (Demo)
I already explained the story behind this track in the body text above! It’s literally Shoko playing a piano and singing “Love, painful love, da da da da” a few times before fading out.

I really wonder if anyone won the songwriting contest. Not that anyone else cares!

BONUS TRACKS (B-sides, rarities, etc.):
Aitakute Aitakute

The non-album B-side of “paingiver” which continues Shoko’s then-recent trend of releasing cover songs as non-album B-sides (see also: “Never My Love” and “Hold me, touch me”). The original version — by Mari Sono — was released in 1966 (and performed by Sono at the 16th edition of Kohakku Uta Gassen on New Year’s Eve 1965). Interestingly, the song takes its melody from “Teami no Kutsushita,” a song by the singing duo The Peanuts that had been released in 1962.

Shoko’s version is very haunting and beautiful. It’s a shame this has never seen wide release on a collection album or anything of the sort.

Ikenai Kotokai (Live at Akasaka Blitz, Dec. 3, 2000)
Like “Suika,” an alternate version — this time a live recording — of Shoko’s cover of “Ikenai Kotokai” was included on the best-of album friends, lovers, my journey home. This live version is almost identical to this studio version, except Shoko waits a couple of extra beats before resuming the verses after the bridge. Again, no sample of this version is needed since it sounds almost exactly the same as Shoko’s original recording.

Love, painful love has been out of print for some time. Roughly half the tracks are available on the friends, lovers, my journey home compilation, and “Aitakute Aitakute” was only available as the B-side of “paingiver” (and is thus also long out of print).

Oddball Verdict: Brilliant.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Sweet Serenity (2008)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)

Shoko live at Akasaka Blitz, Dec. 3, 2000

Atarashii Ai no Uta Album Cover

Atarashii Ai no Uta, released December 10, 1999, saw Shoko reunite with Yoshiyuki Sahashi, her original producer (and with whom she hadn’t worked in any capacity since RadioGenic in 1993). After the retro ’60s rock style of her previous three albums (all of which were co-produced with Hiroaki Sugawara), Atarashii Ai no Uta would see Shoko embrace more of an ’80s-style of pop/rock music, something along the lines of music she began her career singing (albeit with more of a rock edge).

For the first time in several years, Shoko was not fully responsible for the drumming on this album. She plays drums on roughly half the tracks, with the rest featuring drumming by L.A. studio musician Russ Kunkel. Indeed, a good chunk of the record was recorded in Los Angeles with well-known L.A. session musicians, including a handful of backing vocalists (recalling Shoko’s work on Sings Bacharach & David (several musicians from that album also play on Atarashii Ai no Uta). Elsewhere Shoko plays some piano and percussion, but largely it’s studio musicians playing the bulk of the instruments.

While most of the songs on the record are written by Shoko alone, Yoshiyuki Sahashi does get co-composition credit on four tracks (Kuyakusho ni Ikou, Kodomo no Jikan, 25sai no On’na wa and Minami ni Drive-shite). Additionally, while most of the songs were arranged by Sahashi, the bluesy “Rinji Yatoi no Fitzgerald” was arranged by KYON (who had appeared on both Snapshots and Candy Apple Red). It is presumably because of Sahashi’s influence that this record is more ’80s-sounding than any of Shoko’s then-recent albums, though the album’s ballad-type songs trend more toward a Carole King/Tori Amos-style piano pop sound.

1999 was also a notable year for Shoko songwriting-wise. Perhaps most importantly, she wrote two songs (and co-wrote a third) on Puffy’s Fever*Fever album. Additionally, Shoko added drums and backing vocals to the album, which went to #3 on the Oricon charts in the summer of 1999. Other artists Shoko wrote for during the same year were Rie Tomosaka (“Futari no Seijanai”), Soy (“Oshiete”), Naoyuki Fujii (“Yurushite Kudasai”), heaco (“Kon’na Watashi wo Waratte”), Nana Kondou (“Konkyo wa Naikedo”), and Maki Yano (“Ai yori Tooku”).

Perhaps frustratingly for Shoko, Atarashii Ai no Uta became one of her lowest charting albums ever, entering the Oricon charts at #85 and staying there for only one week. Despite that, this became Shoko’s first album since RadioGenic to have more than one single released from it (though neither single entered the singles chart at all). For her next — and last — original album for Warner Music Japan, Shoko decided to do everything herself, a bold step forward indeed. A glimpse of what was to come was included on the album’s second single, “Atarashii Ai no Uta” — the B-side “Sugar Daddy Baby” featured Shoko performing all the instruments on the track and producing by herself.

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Like many of Shoko’s older albums, the songs on this record have both a Japanese and English title (and the English is not necessarily a simple translation of the Japanese title).

Kono Ai wo (This love)

The album’s first single, a breezy piano pop number that sounds reminscient of circa-1991 Tori Amos. Yuta Saito plays the piano and programmed the drum track. As noted above, despite the relative success of Shoko’s previous single (and album), this time around her singles did not chart.

BONUS: The song’s PV, with some dual-screen trickery. There’s also a live performance of this song taken from Shoko’s “Writer” tour in early 2000.

Kuyakusho ni Ikou (Let's go to the city office)

Perhaps the bounciest song on the record, and one that’s somewhat reminiscent of the similarly upbeat pop songs on RadioGenic. This is also one of the tracks that was recorded in L.A.

Mou Ichido (Hi, hello)

A really good ’80s-style rock song, with prominent synths and a good backbeat from Shoko. Yoshiyuki Sahashi plays guitar hero on this one, with some nice extended soloing during the track’s fadeout. One of my favorite songs on the record. Chief Oddball — ’80s music lover extraordinaire — also likes this song.

BONUS: Live version from 2000, again taken from the “Writer” tour.

Itsuka mata Au Hi made (I'll be seeing you)

One of the few outright ballads on the album, and probably the best. It’s largely acoustic, and features some lovely harmonies from Shoko. It also showcases sax work by Tokuo Yamamoto, who would continue to work with Shoko in the coming years.

BONUS: Another live performance taken from the “Writer” tour.

Ai wa Amakunai (Love is tough)

Another solid, upbeat pop/rock number. One of my favorite songs on the record.

Kodomo no Jikan (I was a child)

A pretty, albeit very short, ballad — it clocks in at just under a minute and a half. I actually kind of wish Shoko had made the long at least a little longer, since I like it a lot.

25sai no Onna wa (25)

A really funky rock song, and another one that was recorded in L.A. I really like this song; Shoko doesn’t venture into funky grooves too often, so it’s nice to hear her stretch out in that direction once in a while.

Hakyoku (Breakin' up)

This upbeat rock song is yet another of my favorites on the record. Apparently once again, my love for the harpsichord in pop music comes to the fore (though that’s not the only reason I like the song).

Minami ni Drive-shite (Drive)

A mid-tempo, jangly pop song with a prominent (and kind of out-of-place) synth line. Recorded in L.A., and features pedal steel guitar work from noted session player Greg Leisz (whom I first became aware of through Matthew Sweet’s records in the late ’90s).

Rinji Yatoi no Fitzgerald (Blues in G)

A sort-of oddity, in that it’s an acoustic blues number that’s unlike anything else on the album (or much of Shoko’s catalogue, really) — the production even emulates an old time, sort-of jazzy 1920s sound. Features backing vocals from Shoko, Yoshyuki Sahashi and Takuo Yamamoto.

BONUS: Another track from the live “Writer” tour — featuring Shoko on spoons!

Kikyou (Fisherman's wife)

A fairly standard piano ballad, but a really good one. Another track recorded in L.A., and once again Greg Leisz is featured on pedal steel.

Atarashii Ai no Uta (Brand new love song)

In contrast to most of the rest of the record, the title track utilizes a throwback, orchestrated ’60s sound. The album version of this song includes a hidden bonus track, a short instrumental that sounds like it might be an orchestral version of this song (this hidden track is only on the album; the single and any compilation that contain “Atarashii Ai no Uta” excise it). This song was also recorded in L.A.

Shoko also filmed a music video for this song — nothing fancy, just shots of Shoko (in a fur coat) standing and singing amidst scenes of the city (with everything toned yellow for some reason). Alas, the video is no longer up on YouTube.

Edit 5/3/10: Here is the PV.

BONUS TRACKS (B-sides, rarities, etc.):
Hold me, touch me

B-side of “Kono Ai wo.” An acoustic cover of the Paul Stanley song (which was the single taken from his 1978 solo album), produced by Yoshiyuki Sahashi.

Kikyou (demo version)
One of the two B-sides of “Atarashii Ai no Uta.” It sounds very close to the released version, but without any additional instrumentation aside from the piano (and it’s for this reason I didn’t bother putting up a sample; it’s actually very close to the version on I Was There, I’m Here, which will be reviewed soon…hopefully).

MISCELLANEOUS: (Live performances, TV apperances, etc.)
Yasashii Ame
Kaze ni Orenai Hana — Both of these performances are taken from Shoko’s “Writer” tour in 2000, and are from the same broadcast as the other live clips in this post. They both are solo performances with Shoko accompanying herself on electric piano (I actually prefer “Kaze ni Orenai Hana” performed in this manner, and Shoko would later release a similar version on the Romances sans paroles soundtrack in 2009).

Atarashii Ai no Uta is out of print, but a handful of songs from the record are available on the friends, lovers, my journey home (as is “Hold me, touch me,” which is otherwise unavailable, as the “Atarashii Ai no Uta” single also went out of print years ago). The title track is also available on the 2007 compilation SHO-CO-JOURNEY.

Oddball Verdict: Perhaps the best 1980s rock album released in 1999.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Love, painful love (2000)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Sweet Serenity (2008)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)

Shishousetsu Album Cover

Shishousetsu, released August 26, 1998, was Shoko Suzuki’s first album under her record contract with Warner Music Japan, with whom she signed after leaving Epic/Sony Records in 1997. Like her previous two albums there is an appreciable rock and roll influence; however, this is balanced with orchestrated pop, ballads and even a country number, making for a fairly diverse album (and more-or-less setting the pattern for many of Shoko’s future releases, which all tend to have a fair bit of diversity to them).

Once again, both Hiroaki Sugawara and Takeshi Namura are along for the ride (the latter even leaving his A&R position with Epic/Sony in order to take a similar job with Warner), but not in the same fashion as on the previous two albums (where the trio recorded and performed as a band). The three of them — with Shoko on drums, Sugawara on guitar and Namura on bass — appear together on only one track, “Atashi no Basho de.” Otherwise, Sugawara is a driving force on the record, playing guitar, bass, keyboards, arranging strings and programming.

However, despite his considerable input on the record, this would prove to be Hiroaki Sugawara’s last apperance on a Shoko Suzuki album. His influence on Shoko’s musical development is pretty significant, as arguably without Sugawara, Shoko’s music wouldn’t have made the turn from pop balladry to a more rock sound. The reasons why this was his last work with Shoko are beyond me, but Shoko’s next album would see her return to her original producer (Yoshiyuki Sahashi), and after that she started self-producing, which she still does to this day.

This record is probably more notable to a casual fan because of its main guest star: rock legend Tamio Okuda. Okuda co-wrote and appears on two tracks, “Tashikamete Ite yo” (the album’s single) and “Akai Mi ga Hajiketeta” (the single’s B-side). Takeshi Namura plays bass on both of these tracks, his only other appearances on the album. Yuta Saito, who worked with Okuda on many things — including almost all of Puffy’s albums up to that point — is also on hand, playing keyboards on the two Okuda songs. Additionally, Shoko and Tamio Okuda’s paths would cross again the next year, when both of them wrote songs for and appeared on Puffy’s Fever*Fever album.

In addition to Tamio Okuda’s appearance, Shishousetsu received another boost when “Tashikamete Ite yo” was chosen to be the theme song to the televised drama Koori tsuku Natsu, which aired on YTV from July to September of 1998. The double exposure of the song — Tamio Okuda’s apperance and its theme song status — likely helped it to become Shoko’s highest charting single ever as an artist, which was probably welcome news for her new record label (and perhaps Shoko herself, after her most recent singles had failed to chart).

Shoko continued to write for other artists in this period, as well; 1998 saw her reunite with Kyoko Koizumi for a duet on the latter’s KYO album, which reached the top 30 in late 1998. Other artists Shoko wrote songs for at this time include SOY, Naoyuki Fujii and Seiko Ishii.

Chart-wise, Shishousetsu represented a bit of a rebound after Candy Apple Red, staying on the charts for 2 weeks and reaching a peak of #45. Along with “Tashikamete Ite yo” charting, it was the first time since 1993 that Shoko charted a single and an album in the same year. Things were definitely looking up for Shoko, especially after the way her tenure with Epic/Sony had ended.

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Kanzen na Ai

The record opens with a lush, orchestrated pop song driven by a sitar part from guest musician Tadahiro Wakabayashi. The track is a bit of a departure from the material on Shoko’s previous two albums, featuring a light pop sound that harkens somewhat to Shoko’s pre-Snapshots material. Of course, the song also runs for six minutes, so it’s not too much of a stereotypical light pop song.

Also popping up at one point in the song is a slowed down Shoko fill. Hooray!

Prive

Another polished, orchestrated pop song, one carried by Yuta Saito’s piano and a lush string backing.

This was supposed to be the album’s single; it was given a catalog number (WPD6-9176) and a release date (June 5, 1998) before being canceled at pretty much the last second, and “Tashikamete Ite yo” was released in its place.

Damatte Waratte Soba ni Iru Onna

The first “rock” song on the record, unusual in that the dominant stringed instrument on the track is a banjo. The result is not nearly as weird as you might think, though, and this is one of my favorite songs on the record. Features some forceful vocals from Shoko.

Atashi no Basho de

A mid-tempo, country-ish pop song. Shoko’s vocals and harmonies really shine here. Nobutaka Tsugei, who played banjo on the previous track, is responsible for the pedal steel guitar part on this song.

Tashikamete Ite yo

Despite Shoko’s recent forays into guitar rock, and Tamio Okuda’s own reputation as a rocker, their collaborations on this album are both mid-tempo pop. In addition to Tamio Okuda playing guitar and singing backing vocals, Yuta Saito plays keyboards and Takuo Yamamoto plays saxophone behind the rhythm section of Shoko and Takeshi Namura. As noted above, this was the album’s single, and reached a peak of #50 on the singles chart.

Note: Had I published this review a few weeks ago there would have been a YouTube link to the song’s PV right here. However, the person who had it up on their YouTube page had their account suspended. I could probably upload it to YouTube myself (all of Shoko’s Warner-era PVs are available on the 2002 compilation Friends, lovers, my journey home) but I don’t want to get hit with the copyright warning from Warner Music Japan.

Edit 5/3/10: Here is the PV.

Akai Mi ga Hajiketeta

The B-side of “Tashikamete Ite yo,” and Tamio Okuda’s other apperance on the album. This track is a bit more upbeat than its A-side, and features Yuta Saito on accordion.

Izon to Shihai

A really good blues-rock number, somewhat reminiscient of something the Rolling Stones might have recorded on Let It Bleed. The track stays mostly quiet until exploding into full-on rock mode at the end. In recent years, when playing this song live, Shoko will often extend the song with rewritten codas (as heard on I Was There, I’m Here in 2003) or spaced-out jams (as seen on the Life,/Music&Love DVD, where the track runs for nearly ten minutes).

Yoshihiro Matsuura plays slide guitar on this track.

Tada no Koi Dakara

A slower ballad featuring Shoko on piano accompanied by string and brass sections. A very pretty song.

Koi wa Yume no Hana

A slow-paced country ballad, with Nobutaka Tsugei on steel guitar and mandolin. The only track on the record with a drum track that Shoko does not play drums on (Hiroaki Sugawara is credited with programming).

Shoko would occasionally return to country ballads in the future, most notably on “Rose Pink no Cheek (my mama said, so)” on Sweet Serenity in 2008.

Nikki

A mid-tempo rock number led by Yoshihiro Matsuura’s slide guitar and some nice vocal harmonies from Shoko. One of my favorite songs on the record.

Soshite nao Eien ni

The record ends with one of my favorite Shoko songs ever; a straight-ahead rock song driven by Shoko’s drums and harmonies, and Hiroaki Sugawara’s relentless electric guitar. Interestingly, they are the only two musicians on the track (Sugawara also plays bass).

BONUS TRACKS (B-sides, rarities, etc.):
On August 21, 1999 (bumped from an initial release date of April 1), Sony released its second Shoko Suzuki compilation, Atashi no Tabiji, which features songs from Hourglass through Candy Apple Red. Additionally, the record featured four bonus tracks, including two demos, a live cut and an actual outtake. Interestingly, at least two of those four bonus tracks were recorded in 1998 — during or around the time Shishousetsu was recorded…and well after Shoko had left Epic/Sony. I was always under the impression that this would mean that Warner Music would own those masters (as they were recorded under Shoko’s contract with them), but apparently that’s not the case in this instance.

Abunai Hashi (live)
This is a live recording of the song from Kaze no Tobira, recorded in 1998. It sounds virtually identical to the album version, except for a slight additional piano part that wasn’t on the original version. As such, I didn’t bother posting a sample.

Natsu wa Doko e Itta (Naked Love Mix)
A scratchy demo version of Shoko’s debut single, with the bonus of the lyrics being in English.

No sample here, either, because it’s a scratchy demo with rather poor sound quality — like, “recorded on a mono cassette recorder” sound quality (honestly, it probably was recorded on such a device).

Koibitotachi no Tsuki

The true find from Atashi no Tabiji, an outtake from the Shishousetsu sessions (which goes back to my “why does Epic/Sony own the rights to this recording?” bit from above).

This is a wonderful mid-tempo piano-led pop number, with nice harmonies from Shoko and Hiroaki Sugawara (I believe). I can’t see any reason why this didn’t make the cut on Shishousetsu proper, as it would have made an already-excellent album even better. Shoko has retained a fondness for this song through the years; a live version appears on I Was There, I’m Here, while a live in-the-studio performance is included on the upcoming DVD release of Shoko’s documentary, Mugonka ~romances sans paroles~. Additionally, a version of this song is slated to be released on Shoko’s upcoming single, “Sweet Surrender,” due out on April 8th.

Todokanai Mono
A very brief piano demo of an otherwise unreleased song. No sample because the track is barely a minute long.

Sadly, Shishousetsu is out of print. I purchased my still-sealed copy through Amazon Japan’s marketplace, but roughly half of the album’s songs later turned up on the Friends, lovers, my journey home compilation, which is still sold through some online retailers. Atashi no Tabiji is also out of print, but the four new tracks from it were re-released on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 box set in 2009.

Oddball Verdict: An excellent, diverse album.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
Love, painful love (2000)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Sweet Serenity (2008)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)

Candy Apple Red Album Cover

Candy Apple Red, Shoko Suzuki’s final album recorded for Epic/Sony Records, was released on March 1, 1997. In hindsight, Shoko leaving her record company seemed to be a foregone conclusion — the record company wasn’t happy with Snapshots, and Shoko presumably wasn’t happy with how they handled her career after Hourglass. So after recording this record, she jumped ship and signed with Warner Music Japan in late 1997 (though she didn’t leave the Sony fold completely, as her artist management company was Sony Music Artists, with whom she would remain signed until 2003).

Despite whatever hard feelings toward her record company were there on Shoko’s part (if any), she didn’t let it affect the quality of her music — Candy Apple Red is spectacular from start to finish. It continues in the rock-based vein of Snapshots, except it’s even harder-edged. The band is once again the Snapshots lineup of Shoko, Hiroaki Sugawara and Takeshi Namura (no longer referred to as “Snapshots,” though), augmented by the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra horns, several female vocalists (some of whom even share lead vocal duties with Shoko), and a few others. Though the record was also produced by the “Snapshots” trio, Sugawara alone is responsible for the arrangments this time out.

Intriguingly, Shoko (in the liner notes of the Life,/Music&Love DVD) wrote that, at this time, two albums that deeply affected her — musically and lyrically — were Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On and Bob Marley’s Live! Musically, Candy Apple Red bears little resemblance to either of those albums; it’s definitely more of a straight-forward guitar rock album. The few times it does step into R&B/funk territory, it’s more of a upbeat R&B/funk (as opposed to Marvin’s slow-jam-style funk and R&B), while there is no appreciable reggae influence to be found anywhere. Of the album’s songs, Shoko is solely responsible for five tracks on the album, while Hiroaki Sugawara gets co-composer credit on about half the album. “Gogo no Sakamichi de” and “Angel” have lyrics by Keiichi Sokabe and Megumi Ogura, respectively, and Natsumi Tadano co-wrote the lyrics of both “Shelter” and “Sangatsu no Sei.”

The album’s title came about due to Shoko’s then-recently acquired Fender Jaguar guitar — its color is named Candy Apple Red. The guitar was featured in the promo photos and album art for Candy Apple Red (the album) and “Angel” (the album’s single). That guitar, along with a Fender Statocaster she acquired later (I believe), has remained Shoko’s electric guitar of choice to this day (it’s also featured heavily in the cover art and promotional photos for 2008′s Sweet Serenity).

In addition to recording this album, the 1996/97 period was busiest for Shoko as a songwriter up to that point. Nothing she composed in this period matched the success of “Yasashii Ame,” but it was during this time she began a lengthy association with Puffy, which would see Shoko’s songs present on several major hit albums. Shoko’s “Watashi no Nozomi” appeared on Yumi Yoshimura’s half of Puffy’s solosolo album (featuring a solo disc by each member of Puffy), which hit #2 in the summer of 1997 (several years later, Shoko would record and release her own version of “Watashi no Nozomi” on her Love, painful love record). Aside from that, Shoko’s work was recorded by artists such as Emi Wakui, Akito Hayase, Mutsumi Inoue, Hikaru Nishida and Seiko Ishii.

Despite the phenomenal songs and musicianship on hand, Candy Apple Red did not set the album charts on fire. It stayed on the Oricon charts for 3 weeks, but only managed a peak position of #62. With that, Shoko’s tenure with Epic/Sony Records had come to an end; she had achieved success with them, but in the end she left for a new record label — A.K.A. Records, owned by Warner Music Japan. There, she would expand her musical palette even further, and even partake in some groundbreaking work…

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Candy Apple Red
The record opens with a brief, somewhat somber sounding brass piece, played entirely by the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra horns. No sample because the track is literally 40 seconds long, and a sample would be essentially the entire piece.

Kurushii Koi

The record immediately kicks into high gear with this funky rock track, which features horn work from (again) the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra brass section, and outstanding backing vocals from Yasumi Maeda and Reiko Sakai (from the female vocal group E-cups, who would continue to occasionally work with Shoko in the following years). There’s also a wonderful drum track (and lead vocals) from Shoko, and appropriately funky guitar work from Hiroaki Sugawara. On an album filled with amazing songs, this is one of my absolute favorites.

Sulky Cat Strut

A bluesy number, with Shoko’s effect-laden vocals and brushed drums taking center stage. Features some busy (and bouncy) bass guitar courtesy of Takeshi Namura.

Koi no Shotgun (Korinai Futari)

Another upbeat rock number with an awesome drum track by Shoko, and some nice slide guitar work by Sugawara. I wonder if Epic/Sony cut Shoko’s budget for this album, as all of the string parts on this record are played on a synthesizer (while on past albums she had actual string sections). It doesn’t make a difference (the songs are still awesome), but it’s something I’ve wondered about.

Gogo no Sakamichi de

A ’60s-inspired mid-tempo pop/rock number featuring another great bass line from Takeshi Namura.

Ecology Bag

Another ’60s-influenced song, one that definitely reminds me of circa-1967 Beatles (I think it’s the bouncy piano track and bouncy bass line in the verses that does it; for some reason they remind me somewhat of “Penny Lane”…or perhaps more accurately, “Doubleback Alley” by the Rutles).

Sangatsu no Sei

The most “out there” sounding track on the record. In spots it reminds me of “Strawberry Fields Forever” by the Beatles (mostly the mellotron-esque keyboard part at the beginning of the song); in others it makes me recall The Bends or OK Computer-era Radiohead. There’s a bit of nice synth work on hand here, mostly courtesy of the EMS VCS 3.

Kimi no Akai Shirt ga

Yet another ’60s-inspired song, with some Phil Spector-style girl group production touches here and there (like the tympani and castanets). Another one of my favorites on the record (though, again, pretty much the entire record is filled with great songs).

Shelter

The hardest rocking song on the album, and another favorite. Lots of loud guitar from Hiroaki Sugawara, and great vocals from Shoko.

Subete wa O.K.

Another girl-group-influenced track, featuring an actual girl group: “The Sexy Thresholds.” Well, okay, it’s not an actual group, but a name given in the album’s liner notes to the song’s four lead vocalists: Shoko, Yoshiko Goshima, Megumi Shinjou and Yoshiko Takahashi. The four vocalists split lead vocals and all sing backing vocals, and it certainly sounds like everyone involved with the song had a great time. Also: another killer bass line from Takeshi Namura (seriously, the man can play bass; have I mentioned that yet?).

Angel

The album’s single, a horn-driven light funk number (with horns, yet again, from the guys in Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra). Yoshiko Goshima, who sang co-lead vocals on the previous track, is also featured here as the “angel voice” during the song’s breakdown near the end. Like most of Shoko’s previous singles, this record didn’t chart.

Like Shoko’s other singles in this period, “Angel” received a PV, which was seemingly filmed mostly in Shoko’s home (more budget cuts from Epic/Sony?). Along with many shots of her Fender Jaguar, the video offers another surprise — Shoko (or Hiroaki Sugawara, I suppose, since she was married to him at the time) actually owns a Monkees-brand Gretsch 6123 (it’s first clearly visible at the 2:04 mark of the PV). The guitar, seen to the right being played by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees back in 1967, can be easily identified mainly by the Monkees logo on its pickguard. Aside from the mind-blowing revelation of a Monkees-brand guitar in a Shoko Suzuki video, I also giggle at some of the dinner table scenes where Takeshi Namura is just chilling there with his bass, while everyone else eats (and Shoko, uh, sings).

River's End

Another solid rock song with awesome vocals from Shoko; for some reason I really like the clavinet part.

Bokutachi no Tabi

This song is “Dedicated to the very soul of Taro Okamoto,” as the liner notes state. Okamoto, who died in 1996 before this album was released, was a famous artist; he is perhaps most known for his work Tower of the Sun made for Expo ’70 (the tower itself was the subject of a Shonen Knife song, on their Brand New Knife album). As for the song itself, it’s driven along largely by a mandolin line by KYON, and also a violin part by Hiroo Muto. Shoko’s lead and backing vocals are also very nice.

Candy Apple Red (Reprise)
A reprise of the first track; it’s essentially the exact same thing. As such, no sample again, because it’s a very short track.

BONUS TRACKS (B-sides, rarities, etc.):
Never My Love

The B-side of “Angel,” and actually a leftover from the Snapshots sessions. The song is a cover; the original was a hit for the Association back in 1967. In the liner notes for SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3, Shoko makes a point to note that the drum track on this song was not played on her trusty Ludwig kit; rather, she notes, a Yamaha YD9000 kit was used.

Kuroi Yoru

A demo from the Candy Apple Red era, unreleased until SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 in 2009. Since the track’s release, Shoko has occasionally played it live (and indeed, a live version of the song was released on Shoko’s “My Sweet Surrender” single in April 2010). It’s a fairly fast rock number, and pretty good.

Candy Apple Red is out of print, but is available (along with Snapshots) on SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3. “Never My Love” and “Kuroi Yoru” are also only available on that compilation currently.

Oddball Verdict: A brilliant record.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Snapshots (1995)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
Love, painful love (2000)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Sweet Serenity (2008)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)

Snapshots Album Cover

Snapshots, released June 21, 1995, is generally considered the album where Shoko Suzuki’s music went rock. Of course, this isn’t something on the scale of Dylan going electric, as Shoko had recorded rock songs as far back as her first album…and she would continue to showcase pop songs and ballads on her future works. However, her musical style definitely changed on this record: whereas Shoko’s previous albums were rooted more in contemporary pop and balladry, from here on out her style would be rooted more in a ’60s rock style, with numerous stlyistic divergences (country, jazz, blues, etc.) occurring from there. It’s sort of like how Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beatles are considered “classic rock” albums, but have numerous different styles — often non-rock — contained within (and really, that’s not a bad metaphor for Shoko’s career as a whole). I feel I should note that, from this point on, I consider pretty much everything Shoko released to be fantastically great. While there are bits of the eariler albums I might not care for too much, I pretty much have nothing bad to say about anything Shoko has released since 1995.

Interestingly, this album was not initially conceived as a “Shoko Suzuki” album. After the sessions that produced her previous mini album, Shoko decided to form a rock band with her husband/producer Hiroaki Suagawara and Sony A&R executive Takeshi Namura. The band, named “Snapshots,” featured Shoko on lead vocals, drums and occasional keyboards, Sugawara on guitars, keyboards and backing vocals, and Namura on bass and occasional guitar. The trio was assisted in the studio by a number of friends and colleagues, including the horn section from Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, keyboard player Tsuehiko Yashiro, and multi-instrumentalist KYON (who still works with Shoko to this day). Also, for the first time in her career, Shoko began collaborating on song compositions: a number of songs on the album were co-written by Shoko and Hiroaki Sugawara in tandem (while before Shoko handled almost all composing by herself). Additionally, one track was written and composed by former Utopia member Mark “Moogy” Klingman (somewhat fitting, as Shoko is a big fan of Todd Rundgren, Utopia’s leader), and another was composed by the rock band GREAT3 (who would release their debut single a couple of weeks after Snapshots was released) — oddly enough, this gives Shoko Suzuki a link to Shonen Knife, as GREAT3′s bass player (Kiyoshi Takakuwa) played bass on Shonen Knife’s 1999 single “Yamucharou de Mecha Umakarou” (a single which I purchased at the last Shonen Knife concert I attended).

For the first time ever, Shoko handles all the drum parts on an album; her apparent pride in her drumming extends even to the album cover, which prominently displays her beloved red Ludwig drum kit (one of the alternate back cover images has a snapshot of her and the kit, with the caption “Look!! it’s my ludwig ’62!!”). In addition, on the track “#7 Shuffle” she handles nearly all of the instruments (including guitar and piano), a bit of foreshadowing of her Love, painful love record five years down the road.

Of course, Epic Sony Records probably wasn’t keen on the whole Snapshots/rock band thing — after all, Shoko’s last full-length album for them had reached the top 20; it can be assumed Epic Sony didn’t like the idea of their rising pop star suddenly being hidden behind a drum kit in an untested, unknown rock group (as this was several years before the trend of female-fronted rock groups in Japan, like detroit7 and GO!GO!7188; heck, even Puffy wouldn’t debut for another year at that point, and Ringo Shiina was still a couple of years away from debuting. And the few female dominated bands around at that time — like Shonen Knife and Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her — never made huge waves commercially). So while the resulting record — which itself was named “Snapshots” — is credited as being produced and arranged by the band Snapshots (complete with a credit listing the band members), that’s the only mention of the band’s name anywhere on the record, which was otherwise credited solely to Shoko Suzuki.

As might be expected, Shoko’s change in musical direction was a bit difficult for her fans and her record company to take. One can imagine Shoko’s longtime fans, used to her usual pop and ballad stylings, getting hit in the face with the opening track, “Happiness?” — not the same song as her 1991 single “Happiness” — and wondering what the heck was going on. Grungy guitars, a prominent, pounding bass line (Takeshi Namura seems to be of the Paul McCartney school of bass playing, which is A-OK in my book), and Shoko’s effects-laden lead vocal were a pretty vast departure from what had come before on previous albums. Not only that, but Shoko’s visual image had drastically changed as well; whereas in old pictures she was often in pantsuits, long skirts, jackets and hats, suddenly the Snapshots CD booklet showed her buzzing around New Mexico in red miniskirts, navel-showing shirts, and high heels (Shoko has even written about how, at the time, she received many letters from her fans essentially saying they stopped being fans because of this album).

The end result was that Snapshots barely broke into the Top 40. This was seen as a huge disappointment by Epic Sony, especially following on the success of RadioGenic and Shoko Suzuki Sings Bacharach & David. If the RadioGenic experience hadn’t turned her off from Epic Sony completely, then their lack of interest for Snapshots cemented it. At the end of her contract — after one more fantastic album the following year — she would leave the only record label she had ever known up that point, hopefully for greener pastures.

THE SONGS: (Click on a title for a sample, where applicable)
Happiness?

As I kind of noted above, this song lets the listener immediately know they’re not in for the kind of album Shoko had put out before — heck, Shoko’s distorted vocals alone would have been enough to drive that point home. There’s definitely a late-’60s orchestrated rock vibe going on with this track. Definitely one of my favorites.

I may be the only person on the planet who thinks this, but Takeshi Namura is probably the best bass player to record with Shoko (either him or Shinobu Kawai, who pops up later). Like I noted above, he seems to come from the Paul McCartney school of bass playing, which probably colors my opinion somewhat; I love those fat, rubbery bass lines straight out of the late 1960s.

The SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 set came with a bonus DVD, on which are eight songs taken from a live performance on October 5, 1995. A few of the tracks feature the core Snapshots band — Shoko on drums and vocals, Hiroaki Sugawara on guitar, and Takeshi Namura on bass — complimented by a few others (such as KYON on keyboards); the other tracks see Shoko climb out from behind the drums and front the band. This live version of “Happiness?” leads off the live DVD tracks, and features Shoko on drums and vocals.

Tsuki to Snapshots

This is the first Shoko song I fell in love with (well, of her own work; I fell in love with Puffy’s “Koi no Line Ai no Shape” earlier). A great, fast-paced pop song driven by Shoko’s drumming and a prominent harpischord part (and as I noted in a past review, I loves me some harpsichord). In some ways, this song reminds me of Care of Cell 44 by the Zombies (one of my favorite songs of all time).

And speaking of Shoko’s drum part on this song: making its long-awaited return to a Shoko Suzuki album…it’s the Shoko fill!

Oddly enough, this song — though never released as a single — received a promotional video, filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, mostly in front of the Father Sky Mother Earth Gallery & Expresso Bar.

This is another track featured amongst the live performances included on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 DVD — once again Shoko plays the drums as Snapshots rock out.

Kinou Yume no Naka de

A fantastic mid-tempo rock song, accented by a mandolin line played by KYON. The arrangment of this song — slower, and slightly ballad-y while still remaining a rock song — shows the key difference between this album and Shoko’s previous stuff. On past albums, traditional rock instruments like the Hammond organ and distorted guitar probably would not have been used. Because really, it’s not so much that Shoko’s songs themselves had changed, but how she recorded and arranged them (and a big credit for that probably goes to Sugawara and Namura).

This song is also among the live performances on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 DVD; it’s kind of amusing because the band (well, mostly the drummer — who is not Shoko) kinda screws up the part where the song comes out of the instrumental break.

For the second song in a row, a Shoko fill is heard (though this one is slowed down slightly).

In the Kitchen ~ Close to You
I must admit, I don’t get what the point of this track is. It’s just the sound of someone (Shoko) in a kitchen frying up some food, while in the background a radio is playing; eventually a very short cover of Burt Bacharach’s “Close to You” (first made famous by the Carpenters in 1970; interestingly, Karen Carpenter — like Shoko — was a talented drummer and singer) starts playing. However, just as the song gets into it’s second refrain the next track suddenly begins.

No sample because: the track is not even 90 seconds long, and it’s not really a song — it almost more of a skit (which you can see in the “Close to You~True Romance” PV linked further down the review).

True Romance

The album’s single, and one of the first tracks recorded for the album (according to Shoko, this and its B-side were probably the first songs cut during the recording sessions). A catchy pop rock song with a definite R&B influence via the Philly-style strings in the background. The lryics for this song were written by longtime Shoko lyricist Masumi Kawamura, the last time (to date) she wrote lyrics for Shoko.

The single version of this song (only available on the CD single and SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3; it’s not even the version used in the PV) is slightly different than the album one. The performance is the same, but the track is mixed differently for each version. On the single mix, the drums are mixed way down and the Fender Rhodes & strings way up, while the drums are more prominent in the album mix. Since the two versions aren’t that drastically different, though, I won’t be supplying a sample of the single mix (awwww).

The True Romance promotional video, like that of “Tsuki to Snapshots,” was filmed in New Mexico. This one, however, was filmed in and around Las Vegas, about an hour east of Santa Fe (local places like Estella’s Cafe and the Kiva Theater can be clearly seen in the PV).

Umibe to Radio

Possibly the most upbeat song on the record. The track was composed by the band GREAT3, the members of which also provide backing vocals.

This is another track played live on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 DVD — check out Shoko the go-go dancer!

For an amusing comparison to how much Shoko loosened up over the years, compare her stage presence in the above video with the “Koi wa Tsumi” performance I linked to back in my review for Viridian.

Crying in the Sunshine

A big, brassy pop song dominated by the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra horn section. The track — sung entirely in English — was written by Mark “Moogy” Klingman, and features co-lead vocals by Hiroaki Sugawara.

#7 Shuffle

A really good rock song that goes in a bit of an unexpected direction with its jazzy instrumental break. Shoko plays most of the instruments on this track; Takeshi Namura plays bass, Hiroaki Sugawara plays synthesizers and Wurlitzer, and Yuhei Takeuchi plays the flute solo — beyond that, it’s all Shoko. That makes this the first track on any of her records where Shoko plays guitar.

Ajisai

At this point the record mellows out a bit with a couple of slower pop songs, sounding similar to the orchestrated pop style of the Sings Bacharach & David album (though not quite as slick sounding). This is another track featuring the horn section from Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchesra.

Friends

A slower, lounge-style song with some nice lead and backing vocals courtesy of Shoko. Also, a vibraphone!

Goin' Home

The one track that might not sound too out of place on Shoko’s previous records, a nice (mostly acoustic) pop song with a catchy refrain (and one that also contains the surely-by-now-famous “Shoko fill”).

Once again, this is a song that is featured live on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 DVD.

Yoru no Naka e

A wonderful song with mellower verses that build into a pretty powerful chorus. Some more nice vocal work from Shoko on display here.

Good Old Dusty Road

Shoko even eschews her usual album-closing ballad, opting instead for a bouncy rock number (with brass, once again, courtesy of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra). The horn section in the instrumental break reminds me a bit of “Black Messiah” by the Kinks (NOTE: I searched YouTube for a link to put here…that was a bad idea).

BONUS TRACKS: (B-sides, rarities, etc.)
Monochrome no Natsu

B-side of “True Romance.” A really great pop-rock song; before I really learned of the lyrics, the term “Monochrome Summer” (the translated title) struck me as something bad or painful to remember — akin to a colorless, drab summer (somewhat like “My Little Town” by Simon and Garfunkel — “And after it rains there’s a rainbow / And all of the colors are black / It’s not that the colors aren’t there / It’s just imagination they lack”). But the song’s not about that at all; instead, it refers to something like a sepia-toned photograph of a place you’d spend summers at, bringing back all sorts of nostalgic feelings when you look at the photo (that’s not exactly it, but you get the idea).

Isshoni

A demo made by Shoko before the album was recorded. It’s a pretty good track, but I’m not sure if it would have fit in on this album. This was released on SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 in 2009.

Snapshots — like pretty much every other Shoko Suzuki album from this period — is out of print, but is available (along with Candy Apple Red) on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3. “Monochrome no Natsu” is available on the aforementioned SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3 set, as well as 2007′s SHO-CO-JOURNEY collection. “Isshoni” is only available on SHO-CO-SONGS collection 3.

Oddball Verdict: An amazing record.

OTHER SHOKO SUZUKI REVIEWS:
Viridian (1988)
Mizu no Kanmuri (1989)
Kaze no Tobira (1990)
Long Long Way Home (1990)
Hourglass (1991)
RadioGenic (1993)
Sings Bacharach & David (1994)
Candy Apple Red (1997)
Shishousetsu (1998)
Atarashii Ai no Uta (1999)
Love, painful love (2000)
I Was There, I’m Here (2003)
Suzuki Syoko (2006)
Sweet Serenity (2008)
Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ (2009)