01. Eien no tobira
This track is entirely reminiscent of some of her work a decade prior. The orchestra backing the light strings is a winning combination. The big difference this time around is the experience in Nakamori's voice. A incredibly beautiful song to start off with, but it may not be the power-track that a lot of her previous albums launch with. For that we have...
02. Aibu
Yes! This is Nakamori's first collaboration with super-producer Tetsuya Komuro of TM Network/TMN/90s JPOP fame. I would also consider myself a super-fan of Komuro's work, so this is a match made in heaven.
TK provided a pretty solid dance track for Nakamori as well. Granted, his songs tend to sound alike a lot of the time, but I absolutely love this one. The funny thing is, the two of them made a TV appearance to perform this song...and it's somehow even better than this album/single version. The TV version is just a little bit more complete. TK even provides some backing vocals.
Goddamn...I wish Nakamori and Komuro worked more together. Up until very recently it could have been a possibility. Tetsuya Komuro announced his retirement in January 2018.
Seriously, this is a solid song. The beat is just so slick, Nakamori is her usual perfection, and it has the usual TK over-production. I wouldn't say that this is my favorite single of Nakamori's from the 90s (this was a Double A-Side with Kataomoi), but it's waaaay up there.
03. Kuroshoubi
This is the type of song that I figured would dominate this album. It's 1993 and everyone was into this soft jazz that only required 50% real instruments. It's great, though. It's certainly much livelier than anything from CRUISE.
04. YOU ARE EVERYTHING
Here is another type of sound that I thought would dominate this album. The uptempo jazz diddy. Great song...and totally of it's time. It's kinda surprising that this album was actually recorded in Japan... It kinda has more of that New York sound that Nakamori had relied on more than once in the past without ever leaving the country on this track.
05. Hikari no nai mangekyou
Very short track with...not much to it. Just some brief choir-esque singing.
06. Nemuru yori nakitai yoru ni
Another slick jazz track. While it would have been a little more pliable with some more real instruments...it's of the time. I can't fault it for that. That said, I like it a lot.
07. NORMA JEAN
An almost remix of Aibu. I like the music on this one, but the singing is just a little bit flat. It sounds like a lost TM Network song. Yeah, Tetsuya Komuro is back on this one obviously. I'm going to go on a limb and say that the lashes of Aibu were intentional. Then again...TK did repeat himself a lot.
08. NOT CRAZY TO ME (LP Edit)
Behind Aibu, this might be the stand out track on the album. NOT CRAZY TO ME is just a jam. I'm sorry, TK, but this beat is just a little bit too laser tight. The producer in question on this track is Ryuichi Sakamoto who is...legendary. Without rattling off any of his work, I can say that you've probably heard or seen his work in some capacity. I mean, he even showed up in a Gaki no Tsukai Batsu Game where Hamada has to go to NYC to retrieve a pen from him that he borrowed from Matsumoto. Heh. Good times...and I may have gotten off track just a bit...
I highly recommend this track is you really want just a solid song to kick back to. It's just structured so perfectly...
You may notice that this is an "LP Edit". Not a whole lot was added over the single version. The beat was filled out just a little bit more along with some smatterings of vocalization.
09. Kagerou
This album kinda ends on the same note that it began. This is the only truly mellow song on the album, though.
There is a little bit of a hidden track tacked on to this. It's the music box version of Kuroshoubi.
OVERALL: While I love basically all of the songs on this album...it's kind of a mess thematically. At only nine tracks, it's also criminally short. This is Nakamori's first album after signing with Victor, and one that she produced herself. I actually have a lot of faith in her as a producer, but this is just a little bit too random. To make things weirder, there were more songs to add. The awesome, awesome EVERLASTING LOVE is absent and the subtle changes to NOT CRAZY TO ME weren't really necessary.
I should also say that the particular copy of this album that I own is the UNBALANCE + BALANCE +6. It features singles and their B Sides from the era. I probably wouldn't have been thrilled with the brief nine-track version of this album in 1993. It is full of good music, though, and is a fantastic return to music for Nakamori.
PREVIOUS: CRUISE
NEXT: la alteración
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