Nakamura Kaho is like a vocal Fred Astaire on her brilliant new album
Sometime this year Hosoda Mamoru’s latest film Belle will be released in Dutch cinemas. It’s an anime I’m hearing good things about and I like Hosoda’s previous feautures, like Mirai and Summer Wars. The voice of the main character (in the Japanese dubbed version) is singer-song writer Nakamura Kaho’s, who also sings a couple of songs in the film and is being lauded for it (I hope this will not be a Japanese Frozen or a Beauty and the Beast).
I am a big fan of Nakamura’s. Her album Ainou was one of my favorites of the year 2019. I wrote then that she “mixes folk, electro, disco and neo-soul into poppy songs with a certain cabaratesque quality”.
Yesterday her new album was released, NIA and she still has that eclectic quirkiness that I loved so much on Ainou. I’ve had it on repeat the whole day through and I’m listening to it now. I think there’s more depth to the songs on NIA and an almost manic energy and more jazziness.
There is some easy-listening on the album, but the most interesting songs are the ones like in the video above, intricately composed, polyrythmic, manic acts with Nakamura uttering her lyrics like a vocal acrobat, a Fred Astaire, but with sounds, swaying and tripping and traipsing, sometimes stumbling like a clown. She’s very good at that and quite unique.
Anyway, a gem of an album – my only complaint is that at 37 minutes is far too short – and heartily recommended by yours truly. (PB)
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