Ai Furihata -- Moonrise

 

I've been following a few songs by seiyuu/singer-songwriter Ai Furihata（降幡愛）for over a year now, and it was enough for me to pull the trigger and get her debut mini-album "Moonrise" from September 2020. It's a bit quaint when I wrote my first article on her "CITY" since I noted that it was still a few months before the release of that one.

Although I've never watched any of the anime which has included her in the voice actor cast, I still just want to note that Furihata played the role of cute-as-all-get-out Ruby Kurosawa（黒澤ルビィ）in "Love Live! Sunshine!!"（ラブライブ!サンシャイン!!）back in 2016. But from listening to "CITY" and "Cinderella Time"（シンデレラタイム） which happen to be the first two tracks on "Moonrise", this album isn't an aidoru one at all. It's more in the synthpop area or even loving tribute to City Pop or J-AOR of the 1980s. The music video for "CITY" really emphasizes that part. In addition, all of the 6 tracks were given their lyrics by Furihata with Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）providing the music and overall sound production for "Moonrise". The singer herself has given some brief remarks in the liner notes for each of the songs.

Track 3 is "Y no Higeki"（Yの悲劇...Y's Tragedy）, and it's a short and straight-ahead ska tune about a woman who's at her wits' end with her boyfriend's teasing. Not only do I get Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra vibes but even some old Chanels' doo-wop in there. According to Furihata herself, the number of times that the word "YADA" (I hate it!) pops up from her and the background chorus is 108. Feel free to confirm this if you have the time.

Next is the techno-Latin sound of "Love Song wo Kakete"（ラブソングをかけて...Put On A Love Song）, a pretty happy tune on the outside about trying to recover from a romantic breakup on the inside. Furihata mentions that she had noticed that she was only coming up with sad songs and although the lyrics are still in that vein, I guess that she consulted with Honma to see if he could at least make it sound cheerful. That he did since any listeners who don't understand Japanese wouldn't guess that this was anything but a happy-go-lucky tune devoted to the Caribbean. Instead, Furihata sings out a request for someone to put on a lullaby-sounding love song to get her to sleep.

As with "Love Song wo Kakete", my expectations were also kinda twisted inside and out with the next number "Poolside Cocktail"（プールサイドカクテル）. From that title, I had been thinking of something bossa nova or calypso regarding a calm summertime date by the pool. Even Furihata mentions how surprised she was at Honma's choice of melody for this one which is actually more on the technopop and spacey side of things. And yet, the singer's lyrics are still on the sad side as apparently that pool is the setting for unrequited love.

Both Furihata and I were on point here. When I first heard this final track "Out of Blue", I immediately got those 1980s ballad vibes a la Chicago or TOTO, and sure enough, the singer in those liner notes cited that she was going for that decade and that style of song. I almost thought that Peter Cetera was suddenly going to jump into the singing. With those lyrics, I can imagine Furihata looking tearfully at the setting sun while realizing that one can't go back home again temporally or spatially and that forward is the only path left.

"Moonrise" got as high as No. 18 on Oricon. It's not an instant classic but I think it's got a goodly amount of fun music that will grow on me over time.