01. GAIA ~Chikyu no sasayaki~
Awesome, awesome, awesome opening track.
After a prolonged intro, the song finally kicks in...and it's a rockin' tune with a surf tinge to it. It's just another one of those things that makes more sense than it should. Akina Nakamori singing over surf music. You can give her any type of song and she just kills it.
02. Sunflower
Another incredibly solid track. The layered music almost clashes with the singing, but it all just kinda works in a really wonderful way. This one is upbeat jazz with a vocal track more suited for something much slower. It's a very good song.
03. Genshi, onna wa taiyo datta
This one is actually a single...and the only one directly from this album. In this case, however, this is the album version. The single edit has different vocals.
Intensely catchy is a good way to describe it. There is probably a good reason for that as this track is heavy on the fast strings and faux-claps. Yep. This one is a Latin themed song. I love it! Nakamori has done some of her finest work with the genre.
04. TSURAI • TSURAI
A upbeat jazzy track that probably would have fit in just as well on UNBALANCE + BALANCE. 1995 is probably the very last year something like this could have been pulled off. That said, it's muuuuch better than some of the lesser tracks on UNBALANCE + BALANCE.
05. Shitataru jonetsu
Following a pretty epic sounding intro, this is a pretty chill jazz track. It's great...but the beginning is kinda bigger than the song that follows it. When the music from the intro picks up in the middle, it's just as weird.
06. Itai koi o shita
This one is a slow song. Getting back to Sunflower, this is the type of song that the vocals would sound more at home at in mind. Maybe if it were a little more lively. Kinda weird, right? When I sit here and think about it...it kinda works.
07. Necessary
This one is another slow song. I actually prefer this one over Itai koi o shita, though. It's like a 90s version of one of her 80s songs. The saxophone is the giveaway.
08. Muku
A lively song with a lot of the sunshine that permeated in the earlier songs on this album. The biggest strengths this album has it with it's brass and it's bass. Muku has it all on display. Great song.
09. Dakara nan'na no
A great rock song to go out on. It's a bit too bright to compare it to anything on STOCK, but it's just as peppy.
OVERALL: While UNBALANCE + BALANCE has some incredible songs on it...THIS is return of Akina Nakamori. It has all of the hallmarks of her 80s album (great intro/outro, varied mix of styles) while being definitively 90s. I highly recommend this album. It's very well put together if just a little bit short. If you're fortunate enough, you might be able to score the "+4" version, which includes both singles of the era...one of which is the awesome Tokyo Rose. Can't wait to talk about that single someday...
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