Anna Takeuchi discovers the power of positive pop

No one got here out of 2020 feeling significantly cheery, even probably the most upbeat of Japan’s pop acts. For Anna Takeuchi, nevertheless, all that pandemic-era uncertainty quickly changed into creative readability.

She resolved to make her guitar-based pop “extra” — extra upbeat, extra optimistic, extra aggressively cheerful. The result’s “Tickets,” Takeuchi’s second full-length album, which was launched by way of Teichiku Music final month. It’s a set of 13 deliriously pleasant tunes that discover the younger creator dabbling in gospel vocals, skittering beats and synth melodies. Loads of J-pop artists make comfortable music, however few elevate their craft right into a full-blown manufacturing like Takeuchi does throughout this assortment.

“I’m a constructive and customarily optimistic individual,” the 23-year-old tells The Japan Occasions. “Even when I write a tragic music, I wish to make certain on the finish there’s a little bit of hope.”

It’s truthful to say that “Tickets” is without doubt one of the finest Japanese albums of the 12 months up to now, a excessive mark for an ongoing vibe shift in J-pop. After going by means of a usually glum couple of years marked by equally glum hit singles, 2022 has seen each pandemic-era restrictions and musicians’ spirits lifted: Burgeoning celebrity Kaze Fujii scored a chart-topper with “Love All Serve All,” an album rejecting unhappiness in favor of self-confidence, and the boy band Snow Man embraced goofiness and lighthearted humor on the spring hit “Brother Beat.”

Japan is studying to dwell with COVID-19, and the sonic temper is altering accordingly. Nothing captures this higher than “Tickets,” which comes full with a unfastened “journey” theme hammered residence by way of bookending tracks that current the songs in between as a much-needed trip.

Central to the album’s buoyancy is Takeuchi’s strategy to the fabric. Whereas acoustic guitar serves as the inspiration and he or she largely delivers her vocals in a standard singing fashion, she ceaselessly pivots to rapping to maintain the melodies contemporary. Parts of dance music sneak in to supply additional pep, from the aforementioned synth in “+creativeness” to echoes of French contact in “You + Me =.” Takeuchi says she’s by no means been hung up on style or the particulars of the place a musical fashion comes from. “For me, it’s all simply a part of my bigger musical expertise,” she says.

Part of that have is her publicity to Ok-pop, which she credit for getting her to attempt her hand at rapping.

“I believe it’s fascinating that they at all times have a strong construction for the rap,” she says. “They at all times have a member who solely does the rap half, and (the songs are) all divided up in a selected method.”

She credit her personal early publicity to completely different sorts of music for this curiosity in selection. Takeuchi was born in Los Angeles, although she solely stayed within the metropolis till the age of 5. (Her reminiscences of Southern Californian life: “I bear in mind consuming some sizzling canines, or choosing up acorns out entrance of my house. That’s … what I bear in mind,” she says, laughing.) After that, she relocated to Kyoto, the place her mom impressed a deeper curiosity in music by way of playlists she had on shuffle.

“She at all times liked to hearken to music, and her lists have been genreless and timeless,” Takeuchi says, recalling the presence of Earth, Wind & Fireplace, Backstreet Boys, Bruno Mars and a mixture of Japanese and Korean pop.

Takeuchi then picked up the guitar in junior highschool and by her third 12 months she started taking part in small gigs within the Kansai area.

“The very first present, in Osaka, was after I realized I wished to do that extra significantly,” she says. Within the years after, she took half in numerous auditions earlier than discovering a method into the trade.

As soon as in, Takeuchi launched three EPs of guitar-based breeze in fast succession, and appeared on the 2018 version of the South by Southwest music convention and pageant in Texas. Her full-length debut, “Matousic,” arrived in March 2020 — proper because the dwell music trade hit the brakes as a result of pandemic. Ever the optimist, this gave Takeuchi time to consider her strategy to songwriting.

“With ‘Matousic,’ I wished to make an album that was near listeners,” she says, “like garments … one thing supportive.” (“Matou” is Japanese for “to put on” or “be wearing.”) Nonetheless, she couldn’t shake the sensation she was holding again.

“I wished to jot down one thing cute … like pure cuteness,” she says, manifesting this need right into a music titled “Ice Cream.” “However I spotted whereas I used to be engaged on the music, I used to be limiting myself. Like, I advised myself my cuteness degree ought to solely go so excessive, by no means past. I wished to take away that restrict.”

With restrictions off the desk, Takeuchi went additional in experimenting with wordplay on “Tickets.”

“I attempt to make the listener come again to the music and uncover that means … and make them snicker,” she says, citing the music “Wo Ai Me” for instance. The title takes the Chinese language time period for “I really like you” (“wo ai ni”) and makes a slight alteration to redirect the article of affection. “I at all times make certain to incorporate small particulars,” she says.

Working example, one of many actual standouts on “Tickets” is the monitor “Te no Hira Kasanereba,” the primary music she wrote for the file and one which has just lately been launched in English as “Hand in Hand.” Takeuchi might have simply cruised to success on the principle funk melody, however she builds on prime of it, including small particulars like a musical sport of Jenga. Piano strains zip in, choirs carry the temper, and the tempo picks up a number of occasions earlier than taking off. Moreover, beneath the sonic components, Takeuchi says she was impressed by deeper themes and revelations.

“I took a gender research class at school and began to suppose, ‘Oh, it was once nearly women and men. These have been the one containers you would be put in.’” This led to one thing of an empathetic epiphany wherein she turned conscious of how stifling such a binary could possibly be for LGBTQ people. She determined to shift her personal body of reference in her songwriting, and that led to a extra common strategy to the themes on “Tickets,” with the video for “Te no Hira Kasanereba” that includes a same-sex couple, which continues to be a rarity so far as mainstream J-pop goes.

That unique need for one thing extra, a extra open-minded world generally, wound up being the driving drive that has made “Tickets” such an pleasurable hear. That and the catchy guitar solos, in fact.

For extra details about Anna Takeuchi, go to https://takeuchianna.com.

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