4/5
Heard It In A Pasta Life.
Tower Records, Tokyo. The cover of every major music magazine in Japan is graced by the face of this J-Pop star sensation. 'Rockin' On Japan' on a bicycle like a Neptune. 'Nylon' Japan in a 'Spring Closet'. 'Commercial Photo' with a perfect portfolio. Or both sides of 'her' in the shutter. And 'Talking Rock' to 'PMC' so much more in 'Musica'. As a matter of fact all the way to 'Ginza', she's on every shelf you see this month like her new album coming right off the moment it's put on. Just like on the front of your 'TV Bros' with a plate of spaghetti bruh. This is Aimyon and I 'Heard That There's Good Pasta'. So you should twirl your fork and not your hair and check it out like a restaurant recommendation. Because this is the biggest thing in Japan right now like a Haruki Murakami novel or the latest anime Gaijin. Let her be your guide shining in this lonely night like neon from Tokyo to Kyoto, lost in translation like a Phoebe Bridgers song for another album of the year like Haim for these 'Women In Music' in a 2020 that needs their way to save the day. 'Pasta' is one of the best albums in the world since Maggie Rogers 'Heard It In A Past Life'. Everyone under the land of the rising sun is thinking about her like the 4'o clock in the mornin' zonin' echo's of a South Korean K-Pop singer KATIE, about to be bigger than BTS like Blackpink. But this is J-Pop and the amazing Aimyon is about to be even bigger than all that with her third album. Following the 'Marigold' singers 'Excitement Of Youth' and stunning sophomore set, no slump, 'Momentary Sixth Sense'. Alive with talent like her 'Tamago', 'Nikumarekko Yo ni Habakaru' and 'Ai wo Tsutaetaida toka' extended plays. Past the bar of her no ceiling talent. Now hear all about it.
Nishinomiya's very own. A 25 year old already on the top of her game, only a quarter of a century in. One hundred percent. Following in her audio engineer father's studio steps in making music over French accordion. Moving in and out to an acapella, acoustic end over surrounding traffic note that showcases more talent than karaoke bars in Tokyo on a Saturday night, Aimyon brings a sense of hope to the worst year on the optimistic opening of 'remember the days we're talking rubbish in the twilight'. Were with nuanced nostalgia we can remember the good days when we made small talk in the background of big landscapes. As she sings, "love doesn't solve everything" and "I may be able to do anything with money" but, "I want to live a comfortable life" for a world swiping through broken hearts and promises, with a debt of real meaning and moving, just trying to find a place to call home. On the beautiful 'Harunohi' she laments love of "memories and memories on a bench on which you sit" at a "Kitasenju Station platform silver ticket gate", before smoking that all out on 'Cigarette' like 'On This Day We Say Goodbye', as stubbing love out she sings, "The muddy past. It's the days of clinging. With muddy feet. Climb a mountain without a goal. Being in love." Many shattered hearts this year are going to repair themselves with gold over this one like cracked ceramic. Reminding themselves that their struggle is what makes them strong in the end. Just like after every dark night, there is the light of a 'Morning Sun', singing like the birds until she gets all she deserves.
Showers and shadows of the moving music video to her stunning single 'Naked Heart' shows Aimyon baring all her soul for us to see in a Pennywise attracting yellow slicker. "How long will it stay like this?" She asks through the hurt." "I'm going to be alone. I gradually hate myself. I envy someone," she admits. All before revealing that she's, "in love now. With a naked heart." The purest measure of that deep devotion. On the sweet 'Marshmellow' with J-Pop punk guitars girl group Scandal would be proud of and a groundbreaking stop-motion photo video Aimyon sings, "Riding a comfortable rhythm. Run on the land you have never seen. I envision a wild idea. With a delusion that is almost like a dream. Sleeping beauty and Mashimaro Hill", for the ultimate Japanese Summer song after Sakura season, post Autumn leaves when the sun does. But it's still clear on the beautiful 'Her Blue Sky' for a country that treats day and night very differently in its pastel to neon, atmospheric light. Just like the amazing anime of the same name it scores and soundtracks. 'The Smell Of A Midsummer Night' is a dream too with guitars as bawdy as Shakespeare for this soon to be globetrotter when the 'rona gets to steppin'. Singing about "a lost kitten who is confused by a map that is irrestible", that "melts into the brain miso" like Ryu Murakami. Soupy lyrics like "it smells like a midsummer's night and has the same scent as the paint. Various color love starts to dance I am one of them tonight" keep us cooled as the weather here in Japan drops the need for our fresh A.C. But the 'Potpourri Leaf' like leaning in to smell those flowers is not lost in Bill Murray or Scarlett Johansson here. Its lyrics sound as beautiful as any here Googled into English. Like the Route 66 sounding ride of 'Chika', rolling to an "Escapist excursion. Inside the inner part of my heart". Or you could say, "エスカピストの遠足。 心の奥." Or something of that nature. Still in classic closing, the at her most beautiful, 'Living Like That' is truly atmospheric. All the way to the acapella "la, la, la's", ad-lib fading out and bookending this classic album that blooms in pasta yellow flowers for the pollination of its purple reign. Japan like the rest of the world has been through it in this coronavirus crucified calendar that began with that cruise ship here in Yokohama and has seen us lose everyone from the Black Mamba to the Black Panther as Black Lives Matter. And right now Tokyo was supposed to close out their 2020 Olympic Games, but taking the podium and offering hope like Hokusai flowers to the crowd with her holy trinity, this is Aimyon's ceremony. 'Marigold' takes the gold. Take Aim. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Naked Heart', 'Her Blue Sky', 'Living Like That'.
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