Junior Sweet by Chara

CDJapan link with audio samples

I got into J-pop a little over 10 years ago, not surprisingly at the same time I started to really get into anime as a hobby. At the time, I was still new to the internet, but thanks to Yahoo Groups, I was able to find some like-minded people who helped me find some singers I still follow to this day.

Chara is one of those people. Junior Sweet was released in 1997 and my local Kinokuniya bookstore had it in stock. I fell in love with it at first listen. Even after having listened to it over a hundred times over the last 10 years, I still love it. Her sweet, raspy vocals and the easy groove of her songwriting and musicianship makes this an album I can go to time and time again without worrying about getting bored with it.

Chara (real name Miwa Satou) released her first album, Sweet, in 1991. She released an album a year over the next three years: Soul Kiss, Violet Blue and Happy Toy. On the first three albums, her label was trying to sell her as an R&B singer. With the fourth, she took more direction of her own career, going for a more rock/pop sound. She took three years off to have a couple of children and to make the movieSwallowtail Butterfly for which she won the Japanese Best Actress award.

When she returned to the studio in 1997, Junior Sweet was the result. She had even more control of her career at this point. She wrote the songs, played keyboards and guitar, and of course anchored it with her quirky vocals. "Milk", the opening track, is a slice of pop heaven. It starts with her voice and an acoustic guitar which are then joined by the rest of the band and some subdued strings. Although a mid-tempo song, there is an insistent urge that pulls the listener along with it. "Time Machine" is a six minute opus, a down-tempo track that feels very personal. The title track is a delicious piece of groovy soul right out of the mid-'70s, complete with horns that sound like they came all the way from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Electric piano is prominent throughout the album. There's a great use of it in "Watashi wa kawaii hito to iwaretai" complemented with some sinister strings. "Doco wa ittandarou? Ano baka wa" has a great early '70s rock feel. The guitars sound like someone's been listening to their Gram Parsons' albums, and the electric piano really nails it. There isn't a dud on this CD. After releasing 11 studio albums on two different labels, a self-released album, a soundtrack, a live album, and three different greatest hits compilations, this continues to be her best selling album by a large margin. I love all of the CDs she's released. I buy the special editions when they're released, just to get the DVDs. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, she still looks damn hot for being 41. If you're interested in getting something different to add to your J-pop collection, or are curious about the cute Japanese girl with the quirky Billie Holiday-ish voice, this is the perfect place to start.

Lincoln Stax