Kirinji -- Ai wo aru dake, Subete（愛をあるだけ、すべて）

I came for the "Jikan ga nai"（時間がない）but I ended up staying for the rest of the album. This CD with the cover of what looks like two teaspoons in love belongs to Kirinji's（キリンジ）13th album "Ai wo aru dake, Subete" (Just With Love, Everything...which seems to be the final line from "Jikan ga nai") from June 2018. Having fallen for the band's 2003 "Sweet Soul" e.p. single and the aforementioned "Jikan ga nai", I opted to get both of them for the Holidays.

Quite amazing how Kirinji has evolved its sound between its start as a fraternal duo in the late 1990s and its current incarnation as a full group including anchor/songwriter Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）, and singer-songwriters Erino Yumiki（弓木英梨乃）and Kotringo (the latter having left in 2017 after a 4-year stint). My introduction to Kirinji was through their 2000 "Aliens", a love song so tender that I could have cut it with a fork, and from listening to some of their early work including "Sweet Soul", I could have been forgiven if I had assumed that Kirinji was a specialist in contemporary AOR balladry.

Well, some time down the line, the band increased their membership and started going more for some catchy spacey disco beats along the path of Jamiroquai which got me further interested. "Jikan ga nai" was just the bait for me to get hooked (line and sinker) onto "Ai wo aru dake, Subete". The entire album has had me already playing it a couple of times with the power middle of the (baseball team) order starting from Track 2. "AI no Touhikou"（AIの逃避行...AI Flight of Freedom） has that cool spacey sound with plenty of bass groove as Horigome's lyrics read like a synopsis out of a movie for a couple of androids who have discovered the concept of love and have taken off from minders who don't particularly like their discovery. Cyber-Romeo and Cyber-Juliet, so to speak. Kotringo has apparently come back to help out on backing vocals according to the liner notes, and special guest DJ Itsuka from rap group Charisma.com makes her own contribution. Have this on the car stereo while bombing down the more futuristic lanes of Tokyo. "AI no Touhikou" was actually released as Kirinji's 16th digital download single from November 2017.

Track 3 is "Hi Zero Wa Game" (非ゼロ和ゲーム...Non-Zero Sum Game) is my new favourite song...maybe for the entirety of 2020! Rather bold prediction, I know, but man, this is one supremely catchy number even more than "Jikan ga nai". One commenter referred to it as very Doobie Brothers while I've compared it to Steely Dan, and since both bands have a very close connection with each other, I'm good with both descriptions. Out of all of the tracks, this has been the one that I've listened to the most. Another commenter was wondering what the song was all about. Even Horigome has playfully stated in the lyrics that even he isn't sure what all the caterwauling is about, spitting out "Go Google it!" in one of the lines.

Then comes "Jikan ga nai". I realize that it already has its own article but I just had to include the song here. Since I've written about it, it looks like the music video has garnered a lot of compliments due to the now-famous dancing salaryman, identified as choreographer Reijiro Kaneko. I'm a couple of years older than the guy and seeing him trip the light fantastic in the video has made me wonder about getting some more exercise in. But then, I see the Pringles...

Unfortunately, those are all of the videos that I could find representing the various tracks on "Ai wo aru dake, Subete", but you can check out excerpts from all of them in the summary video above. Yup, plenty of stuff for Doobie Bros./Steely Dan fans. And may I say that the secret sauce here is that splendid synthesis of the voices of Horigome and Yumiki?

The album peaked at No. 17 on Oricon. Now that I've gotten a lot of fun from "Ai wo aru dake, Subete", I would very much like to give Kirinji's latest album "Cherish" that came out late last year a try as well.

May 15, 2021: Because of some interesting developments over the past 12 hours that will be explained at the end of that article, we now have two articles on this album.