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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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