TIME HAS COME
リヴァイヴァルを謳った安室奈美恵のニュー・アルバムは、豪華なクリエイターたちとの刺激的な手合わせを詰め込んだ『_genic』。フォトジェニックでライヴジェニックな彼女の、現在進行形を見よ!
バラード・コレクションの『Ballada』を間に挿み、オリジナル・アルバムとしては『FEEL』以来およそ2年ぶり。常にチャレンジングな姿勢を作品そのものに反映させながら自身のモードを開拓してきた安室奈美恵のニュー・アルバムは、意味ありげな『_genic』という表題からして引き込まれる、（またしても!）彼女らしい意欲作となった。〈クラシカルなダンス・ビートやR&Bグルーヴなど80～90年代のリヴァイヴァル〉を作品のテーマに掲げた結果、シングル・ヒットした“BRIGHTER DAY”など昨年のリリース曲をすべて収録せず、全曲を今作のために選ばれた新曲（＋初出のスペシャル・トラック）で固めるという試みをやってのけるのも、己のイメージやヴィジョンを作品に忠実に刻まんとする彼女の本気度の表れに他ならない。
もちろん〈リヴァイヴァル〉といっても〈懐かしのスタイル〉のようなものに回帰しているわけではない。そもそもこの10年ほどのトレンド自体が往年のサウンドの再解釈とモダナイズを繰り返している側面は大きいわけで、ここで彼女が表現するのも2015年モードとしての安室奈美恵だ。『Uncontrolled』（2012年）から顕著になってきた流れをさらに推進し、今回は海外のプロデューサー／ソングライターが大半を占める布陣。ほぼ全編が英語詞メインの内容ながら、それでも自身の持ち味から乖離することなく、〈らしさ〉をキッチリ刻み込んでくるのは頼もしい限りだ。いわゆるEDMで押す作りからは当然ながら一歩進み、とりわけ印象的に耳残りするのは“Scream”や“Fashionista”におけるニューウェイヴィーな音使い。
広く耳目を集めそうなのはソフィーらしいバブルガム・ベースに跨がって初音ミクとコラボした“B Who I Want 2 B”だろうが、トリッキーな飛び道具に終わらず、それも全体のエッジーな流れのなかでキャッチーに響いてくるのが素晴らしい。
不敵にバウンシーなSKY BEATZ製の“Stranger”がそこに埋もれていないのも収穫で、ひたすらアグレッシヴに風景を切り替えながら駆け抜ける全体の流れの良さはトータル・アルバムならでは。その力強いストライドがあるからこそ、本編ラストの唯一アコースティックな“Anything”も親密さを増して迫るのだろう。その後に控えるデヴィッド・ゲッタとのスペシャル・トラックも含め、安室奈美恵に歌われることのよく似合う楽曲が過不足なく揃った……言うなれば〈安室奈美恵ジェニック〉な力作だ。
TIME HAS COME
Namie Amuro’s _genic
By: Hiromi Go
The new album by Namie Amuro, one of the most popular female acts in Japan, advocates [revival] as the theme, tightly packing in the exciting team-plays with the number of fabulous creators. The album, “_genic” is a piece that proudly exhibits the photo-‘genic’ and live-‘genic’ ‘present progressive form’ she is in now.
With the ballads collection Ballada sandwiched in between, this is the latest album that comes after 2 years from her previous original album, Feel. Amuro is known to be always pioneering her own style by reflecting her challenge-welcoming approaches into her works, and this album is luring even from the meaningful title, “_genic”, ‘once again’ making it an aspiring piece that lives up to the expectations one would have to her. [The revival of the music from the 80s to the 90s with elements of classical dance beats or R&B grooves] was employed as the theme of the piece, and by doing so, the artist ventures into the decision of excluding every single song released and became hits last year (2014), such as the big hit “Brighter Day”, and established a solid lineup of tracks consisting only of newly recorded songs picked specially for this album (plus a specially arranged re-recorded track). This simply demonstrates how real she is with her business, pushing hard to engrave her own image or vision into her works.
Of course though, the term [revival] here does not refer to regression to the golden oldies. From the beginning, this decade-long trend itself has a significant aspect of reinterpreting earlier sounds and modernizing them, so what she is trying to express now, is Amuro the artist in her 2015 mode. Further promoting the style that was becoming prominent from the album Uncontrolled (2012), this time she invites a number of producers / song-writers from overseas, accounting for more than half of the production team. The way in which she maintains her distinctness even though most of the tracks are sung mainly in English, is simply compelling. She has naturally taken one step forward from the supposed EDM-oriented production style, and what remains in the ear and leaves a notable impression in particular, is the new-wavish sound arrangements, heard in tracks such as “Scream” or “Fashionista”.
The collaboration track with Hatsune Miku, “B Who I Want 2 B”, would be more catchy to the eye and ear with its very SOPHIE-ish (SOPHIE: UK electronic music producer) bubblegum bass sounds, but not simply relying on such trickiness or gimmicks, the album beautifully plays out the catchiness in the overall sense of edginess of the album.
Finding that the audaciously bouncy track “Stranger” by producer / composer SKY BEATZ is not buried in the lineup is a gift too, and the way the whole album sprints through, non-stop, aggressively changing the landscape, is breathtaking, something only concept albums are capable of. And because of these bold, strong strides taken, the only-acoustic track “Anything” that closes this album, stirs the soul with intense intimacy. Including the special track with David Guetta lined up behind it, this is an album consisting of tracks so suit and appropriate to be sung and performed by Namie Amuro, that too in just proportion. A great masterpiece which is, to say, simply “Amuro Namie-genic’.
