Kinda hard to believe that it's starting to approach 20 years since I first heard of Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, the urban firebrand singer whose voice could be a match for Superman. My first impression of her was that of a fairly terrifying force of nature with an iceberg-melting glare who could pull off some catchy punkish pop.
But it seems in recent years, Shiina has been embracing her inner jazz chanteuse. And it's not just a particular type of jazz from a certain decade. I think she did her tribute to 1920s flapper-era jazz with the playful "Juudam"（ジユーダム）, for example.
However, with "Jinsei wa Yume Darake" (Ma Vie, Mes Reves), it feels like French jazz with a swinging 1960s element. I mean, it sounds so much like some of the standards that I used to watch and hear on American variety shows as a baby that I actually expected the hired pedestrians in the music video to suddenly go into dance mode.
"Jinsei wa Yume Darake" wasn't released as a single but is the first track on Shiina's 2nd album of self-covers, "Gyaku Yunyuu - Koukuukyoku"（逆輸入 〜航空局〜...Reimport vol.2 Civil Aviation Bureau）which was just released less than a week ago.
I did mention that her latest album was one of self-covers. And so it was that "Jinsei wa Yume Darake" first saw the light as a campaign song for a Kampo Life Insurance commercial performed by actress Mitsuki Takahata（高畑充希）the year before. As the ad shows, the song was more of a grand musical number. Just kinda wonder what wonders could be done with AFLAC and that duck.
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