Anna Takeuchi - MATOUSIC
Following a series of EPs, MATOUSIC is the first full album from singer-songwriter Anna Takeuchi (竹内アンナ) and serves as a faithful representation of her own personality and style. Featuring a little bit of everything from pop and rock to soul and electro, it's a strong and successful endorsement for being true to yourself.
To recap, Anna Takeuchi was born in Los Angeles but raised in Kyoto, and was surrounded by the music of the 70's and 80's in the family home. At the same time, she grew up in the digital world, so while she plays and composes using an acoustic guitar, she also makes extensive use of samplers and drum loops to enable powerful solo performances. The result is a progressive pop sound based on music fundamentals from classic rock and soul, but powered by her own voice and words (no ghostwriting), and all the fancy strumming and acoustic guitar solos are her own.
MATOUSIC is a portmanteau of "matou", which means "to put on" or "wear", and "music." In this sense, the diversity of sounds and styles on this album is like a wardrobe full of different outfits - you pick out whatever you feel like on a given day, and they are all the things that you've personally collected over time with various memories and experiences attached. Here, we are presented with Anna's personal collection, something old, something new, but nothing borrowed this time - despite her gaining international notoriety with intriguing takes on songs like TLC's No Scrubs, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation and Guns N’ Roses' Sweet Child O’ Mine found on her first three EPs, none of these are present on MATOUSIC. While that's a small shame due to the top quality of those covers, it's easily forgiven for keeping the focus on her as an original artist.
MATOUSIC picks up where the EPs left off, compiling her recent singles plus some new tracks for the album. That includes "Ride on Weekend", a luxurious 70's throwback with strings and horns which was used as the insert song for the TV drama "有村架純の撮休," the super catchy pop masterpiece "B.M.B", and the progressive electropop anthem "I My Me Myself." Despite being an acoustic guitar singer songwriter, there's practically no song where it's just her strumming a guitar and singing, whether its a wah pedalled electric guitar, rapping, or a stuttered beat, there's always something else going on to add interest instead of being sappy romantic ballads for days. And she sure can rock a nifty acoustic guitar solo - the world needs more of these.
As her first full album it’s a showcase of herself and her style, and there’s a strong theme of independence running throughout the songs, lines like “it’s my own way”, “just be yourself” and the whole “I my me myself” thing come up on more than one track. She’s clearly sticking to her guns, even when it may not necessarily be in her commercial interest. Since she has so many interests (including K-pop), there’s something for everyone but if you have a strong preference for a specific style you’ll be left wishing she spent more time in that direction. If you like shiny pop music, sometimes its too edgy, if you're a hipster, its sometimes too poppy. And even though her English is flawless, too much English would alienate her core Japanese fans, but too little of it holds back her international appeal.
Thankfully she doesn't care what you or I think, and most of this is mitigated by streaming, so you can just pick out the songs you prefer. And for the those of us who like everything she does, MATOUSIC is a veritable treasure chest that fully demonstrates her exciting potential, and as long as Anna Takeuchi remains true to herself, the future's looking just fine.