Sunwave Heart (studio album) by 武政真有美 [Oni]

First off, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't wary of a Japanese folk album; I'm pretty open-minded, but in a genre as reliant on lyrics as folk often is I thought it'd be a bit of a slog to have nothing but guitar and a language that I couldn't even begin to decipher to listen to for over an hour. Thankfully my fears were allayed early on by the instant familiarity of the upbeat melody of opener 'オニという花' and the at once beautiful yet playful vocal inflections that Oni makes great use of throughout the track, which are almost reminiscent of an easier-on-the-ear Ari Up. The six and half minutes of that first song simply flew by, and I knew I was in for a treat, despite my initial anxieties. The simple, elegant repeated guitar motif that introduced '黄色い星' had me even further hooked, and the Sandy Denny-esque vocals that Oni chose to utilise over the top of that were simply perfect. The way that song transformed into an urgent mid-'90s singer-songwriter homage before briefly falling back into that opening guitar refrain was totally unexpected, but an extremely pleasant surprise. The rest of the album was filled with similar highlights, including the atmospheric '緑の天使', which recalled the Red House Painters as it effortlessly, slowly built itself up to a non-existent (and, thankfully, entirely unnecessary) climax and then calmly slipped away; the blood-and-thunder strumming of 'ふりふり坊主' which would rival early Dylan at his most ferocious; the epic closer 'サンウェーブダンス', whose twelve minutes do not contain a single wasted second as Oni constantly flits back and forth between her trademark (well, on this album anyway) charming finger-picking/floaty vocals combination and her angry strumming barrages. Honestly, I've listened to this record a good half dozen times since The Poe recommended it to me, and I find it absolutely gorgeous. All my caution about listening to a Japanese woman with nothing but a guitar for an entire album could not have been more misplaced, and I am extremely happy to have found this record.