After her mysterious turn with 「不思議」which marks her first mature album, she follows it up with a 180 deg turn into exploring womanhood, with an album full of potential hits, but none released as a single.  山下達郎さん famously criticised her rendition of「駅」in Mariya’s million selling self-cover album 「Request」but retracted his comments later by saying that it was the arrangement rather than the singer.

「駅」is probably one of Mariya’s most covered tracks together with 「元気を出して」, which coincidentally was also originally recorded by 薬師丸ひろ子 in her debut album, and not released as a single. Mariya sings it with a free soul, having moved on totally from her ex-lover with 「駅」, but Akina’s version is painstaking, and in my humble opinion, a better rendition and interpretation of the lyrics, especially the bit where she realises that her ex-lover’s true love was her.

Recently, I started wondering about 山下達郎さん’s comments, and wonder if his comments had more to do with Akina not releasing any of the songs given to her by Mariya as singles, rather than his issue with her treatment of the song in「Crimson」. Mariya is a respected and accomplished songwriter and she brings clout to the singers who usually release her songs as singles, but Akina had chosen only to include it in an album. Did they believe that she showed disrespect this way? Should they have given 「駅」to Teresa Teng, because they thought it would make a nice 歌謡 song?

In my opinion, she should definitely have released 「駅」as a single, but then, I believe Akina preferred 「約束」because she performed that in 夜ヒット, and it would have made a better single than 「Fin」. Anyway, one can’t rewrite history but I think this performance below, which is one of my favourite Akina performances ever shows what a beautiful rendition Akina’s 「駅」is.

竹内まりや – 【駅】

「ゴールデン☆ベスト AKINA EAST LIVE INDEX-XXIII」
価格：￥3,000[税込]
発売日：2011/05/11
商品番号：WPCL-10946/7
レーベル：ワーナーミュージック・ジャパン

hey guys, here are some shots i’ve taken on my iPhone. alot of these were taken discreetly (i was either at the concert venue, or cd stores) so please pardon the quality. i hope this helps you to “visualise” a lil bit of the action going on around Diva’s release, and the Empress Live concert.

i recount the number of conversations i’ve had with Kenji when blasting Namie Amuro albums in the car lamenting the fact that Akina should do a kickass dance album, with a current sound, as i believe with my heart and soul that she still has it in her to deliver something like that. i mean, she’s the original J-pop Dance Diva, no?

i can’t remember the last album from her which has brought me to sucha level of euphoria. Femme Fatale? no. Stock? no. Destination? well, i love that album of hers, but it’s not even close.

it’s a totally different sound. She HAS NOT done this sound before. No other previous album comes close. Her singing technique (not a single strained note in this album i swear – she sings with her normal register, very low but extremely comfortable range), diction, sound, English pronunciation (has she been going for English lessons?) – all changed. it’s like rediscovering a brand new Akina all over again.

from the get-go, you’ll be surprised track after track. 10 songs, not a single one you’d skip. not a single favourite you can pick out immediately. throw in 2 kickass, mindblowing remixes (they can go straight into any clubs with no further work required!! DIVA Michitomo Remix stands at a whopping 7:44 minutes and is the BEST REMIX in the entire Akina career, dripping with thumpa-thumpa finesse; Heartache Michitomo Remix is actually a remix of HEARTBREAK with different lyrics infused with a refreshing clash of chinese strings Guzheng) – you have one heckavu statement. the DIVA is back alright. this is a wonderful juxtaposition against Mood Kayou, and Folk Songs 2. this girl’s got range.

suffice to say, i’d spun Destination in my car for a good half a year before taking it outta my CD player. gawd knows how long DIVA is staying in it this time.

i’ll give a track  by track review later, together with the concert review, this evening. we’re running outta time here, but I wanted to share this quick and dirty review with you guys rightaway!!!!

Update:

Ok guys, sorry this took longer than expected. I had wanted to upload this before we left for the concert, but was experiencing stubborn problems with my application. anyhowzah, here’s a sampling of some highlights from DIVA!!! bon appetite! and please, you’ve gotta turn up your speakers, k? =)

hey guys, i’ve managed to locate 2 higher resolution images of the cover art for DIVA. this gives a clearer idea what those “wavey” bits are. not 100% sure but the other bit could be her hand or something. as the album may carry a more foreign/western sound, perhaps the idea is to create a “westernised” version of Akina. still doesn’t quite look like her, and the shading around the nose makes it crooked, or is it just me?

OMFG!!! just heard a preview clip and Akina’s “DIVA” (a track Akina is greatly pleased with) sounds like a mega cross-breed of Britney, Madonna, & Namie Amuro!

She sounds as different as she looks on the cover, and suddenly the cover makes sense! the album is produced by a “popular overseas creative team” (no names released yet) the recording was apparently extremely difficult for Akina, and we can expect alot of English. i hope she pronounces them correctly and no more “NORS WEARS SOUSEN EAS” but judging from the preview clip, the woman has been practising hard!! Song titles look mega tempting, what with “X Lady”, “With”, “Give Take”… – reminds me of Femme Fatale!!

This is definitely a new sound from Akina, very current, and now I can’t wait for more. 脫胎換骨！！

Updates:

the album is going to carry a varied range, including R&B, Dance, new experimental “high tempo” remixes, and “emotional track numbers”, Here’s the tracklisting for the limited edition press:

【初回盤】
01.　GIVE TAKE
02.　DIVA
03.　thinking of you
04.　REVERSE
05.　逢えなくて
06.　X lady
07.　HEARTBREAK
08.　with
09.　茜色の風
10.　Going home

DVD収録
01.　DIVA -michitomo remix-
02.　Heartache -michitomo remix-

the 2 remixes will be done by a Japanese photographer + musician (composer, arranger, producer, remixer) – Michitomo. here’s his website and here are some of his works. if the remix he did for Big Bang’s “Candle” is anything to go by, i’m having it my way – club, disco, dance!! the limited press also includes a remix of a song not available on the normal press “Heartache”. which leaves me thinking – is she going to release “Heartache” as a single? finally, a limited edition worth buying without batting an eyelid!

PSYCHED!!!!

Akina, if you’re reading this – thank you for stalking our blog, and thank you for giving us what we want! LOVE YA!!!! good luck with the opening show tonight!

question: why are the remixes on a DVD and not CD? is she going to have MV for them? i very scared now…

Update:

For those who can’t preview the clip, I’ve made a video. enjoy!

The album cover for 「DIVA」 has been revealed on the AN Fun Site (as advised by our VAMP reader Wei. Thanks!).

I like the fierce image of Akina in an anime like fashion and it looks like it is going to be a rock album or maybe even a disco one (if Danny gets his way).

I love the fonts this time, and I think the covers look very promising! Looks like Akina’s back in cruise control …