I was so excited about Anna Tsuchiya (土屋アンナ) so much so that when Amazon.co.jp alerted me of her 3rd album, I quickly dived in and made a purchase, when I was holidaying in Hong Kong. Much cheaper than to buy the imported version in a local music store. Much faster too. It takes ages for Japanese albums to appear on the shelf here in Singapore. I inquired. And learned that HMV Singapore is of a retail outlet status. Versus HMV Hong Kong, which is a distributer. Apparently, if the disc comes with a DVD – which is very common for Japanese music – HMV Singapore has to wait until the distributor distributes. I was used to blame the censorship board for the delay. Now I know better.
In her first two albums – Strip Me? and Nudy Show! – Anna Tsuchiya was behind the persona of the famous Japanese anime character Nana. A punk rocker. Playing catchy upbeat rock songs. “Rule” is her first album ventured outside ‘the voice of Nana’. And it probably comes with no surprise that “Rule” is slightly different from her first two. Her collaboration with the Japanese jazz instrumental band PE’Z has added one jazz track (“暴食系男子!!”) into her new album. Then there is a theatrical themed song. And one song (“Shout In The Rain”) with a sound texture that resembles the American rock bank Evanescence. That song also reminds me of the style of other Japanese singer Oliver Lufkin (from the same anime).
It took me a little while to get used to her new personality and her expanded music direction. I am delighted that her music has grown. The album comes with a DVD that contains 5 music clips. To be frank, I was hoping that my favorite tracks “Human Clay”, “Guilty”, and the slow song “Voice of Butterfly” would be featured as singles. They are really catchy.
To showcase one of my favorite videos, here is a slow song called “Believe In Love”.