Review Summary: Yanagi Nagi the experimental, meet Yanagi Nagi the popstar.
This review was 30, maybe 45 minutes away from reading very differently. Yanagi Nagi is at times one of my favourite artists; at others an excellent vocalist undersold by boring string arrangements and blown-out concepts. Consequentially, a new release is one always met by cautious optimism, and initially it seemed that the ‘cautious’ part of that approach was the more relevant. There was only a small degree of the experimentation evident in much of her earlier work, which led to (what I saw to be at the time) trite, uninteresting J-Pop; in short, a selling-out to the cut-throat world of the Japanese pop industry. Before tidying up the rag-ends and deciding what the best summary for it would be (something scathing and highlighting my bitter disappointment, no doubt), I made the decision to give it one more listen – one final chance to endear itself to me before I was doomed to maintain a negative outlook on it forever.
I'm glad I did, because 'trite and uninteresting' it isn't; just different from previous expectations.
The first thing that’s notable about
Follow My Tracks is how its first half in particular is simply a joyous place to be. Following the introductory (and title) track’s tentative yet endearing start, the next four bound along with an infectious vigour; the carefree, summer-like feel of ‘Camelback no Machi’ provides a surprisingly refreshing foil to the unashamedly boisterous ‘Harumodoki’, and ‘Parallel Elevator’ could win the title for ‘sweetest track of 2016’ without too many arguments.
Follow My Tracks’ focus on energetic pop isn’t a
total success – ‘imperial space pop’ number ‘Orarion’ manages to
just save itself from unpleasantly cheesy depths by virtue of a catchy, high-energy chorus, and significant in showing how far she has moved on from her background, ‘One-Room Travel’ is a rock-pop number that, while solid, fails to inspire anything more than inoffensive contentment. As
Follow My Tracks continues, the Yanagi Nagi imbued with melancholia starts to rise to the surface. With the exception of ‘Monochrome. Silent City’, a beautiful downtempo-influenced track in keeping with her earlier material, every lower tempo track is, while still undoubtedly poppy, flecked with slightly more bittersweet sentiment than their faster counterparts. ‘Kazakiri’ provides what is arguably one of her finest vocal melodies, while barebones closer ‘Dokonimo Ikanai’ is a stark yet peculiarly fitting end to an album that gives the impression of being increasingly exhausted with itself, its energy turning to more reflective soliloquy by its climax.
The chameleonic Yanagi Nagi found on
Euaru and Supercell’s
Today Is a Beautiful Day is certainly a fading apparition of itself; an undeniable shame, given the experimental genre-bending and poignant tone that was such a key part of her early work. After the change of perspective, it’s entirely forgivable to think that
Follow My Tracks is an easily digestible, fun J-Pop album, more suited to instant gratification than long-term enjoyment. In truth, it’s a meeting somewhere between the two and Yanagi’s vocal performance is what makes this so convincing. Her high-pitched, slightly childlike enthusiasm brings to life the big-tent magnificence of ‘Yorutenmaku’ and the youthful romps of ‘Parallel Elevator’ and ‘Rooter’s Song’; on the same coin, the delicacy of her voice is what makes tracks such as ‘Kazakiri’ and ‘Monochrome. Silent City’ such highlights. It may not have been the album I wanted, but it’s the album I’m glad we got.
