Ringo Shiina -- Yami ni Furu Ame (闇に降る雨)

 

When I first heard about the initially terrifying and terrifyingly talented singer-songwriter Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）just around the turn of the century via friends, my impression of her at the time was that she wasn't one to cross...ever. Shiina seemed to have this thousand-kilometre glare in her performances back then that said "Hi! My hobby is vivisection!". But then, I discovered this YouTube video and realized that she can goof about like the rest of us.

But heck...back in those years, she certainly made an impression from her music, singing and visuals via those music videos. And so is the case with "Yami ni Furu Ame" (A Driving Rain in Darkness) which was a track on her March 2000 2nd album "Shoso Strip"（勝訴ストリップ...Winning Strip）. 

Looking at the translation of her lyrics at Anime Lyrics, I gather that she has been seduced by a darker entity of the real rather than the falseness of the light and happy. Fair enough, but dang, I love the music. With the strings in there enhanced by the music video images in that huge mansion (a treat for both Ringo fans and psychoanalysts), I can imagine this as being Shiina's rock version of Fashion Music, kayo kyoku's take on baroque pop...with some Beatles-like psychedelia with what sounds like a sitar.

And yet, I was surprised to read in the blurb for "Yami ni Furu Ame" on J-Wiki that Shiina stated that this was the song where she gathered all of the classic enka tropes for it! In fact, when she listened to the complete product, she declared that this was so Masako Mori（森昌子）. I guess that I'm going to have to listen to this some more. In any case, the originating album hit No. 1 for three weeks in a row and ended up as the 3rd-ranked album of the year.