Matsushita Nao’s piano forte
First and foremost - I am probably a terrible judge of piano albums. Eventhough I played the instrument for the good part of a decade (up to Grade 5 in fact), I absolutely loathe the instrument and have zero idea what makes a pianist good or bad beyond not pressing the wrong keys. Now that that’s out of the way…
Let’s face it - if this was anybody else we were talking about and not ‘Matsushita Nao - model, actress, presenter’, she wouldn’t even get to release a CD of piano music, a niche market where only Sakamoto Ryuichi and Hisaishi Joe possess names big enough to sell records. That’s not to say she’s rubbish - obviously Matsushita does have some chops, having graduated from Tokyo College of Music, but there are thousands of other more talented musicians out there who earn less than a tenth of what she gets and a lot of flak & bile gets sent flying her way as a result.
Matsushita’s debut album dolce was a delight - mostly light pop, occasionally delving into classical and jazz. Made with the help of established composers and musicians such as pianists Matsumoto Toshiaki and Kubota Mina, composers Matsutani Suguru, Oshima Michiru & Haketa Takefumi as well as guitar maestros Gontiti, dolce showed off her talents as a pianist and helped earn her a gig with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. She composed just two tracks (chocolat & Wanko) on that album, but both showed much promise and hinted that maybe, she could write a decent tune too.
A year on from dolce saw the release of her sophomore effort poco A poco, and it was a bit of a disaster. Somebody (maybe Matsushita herself) thought it’d be a great idea to stick her in front of a mic and record some vocals, perhaps reasoning that ‘Hey, Nao’s a great pianist and has perfect tone, surely she can sing!’ and that was the moment the record was destined to failure. I watched her performing one of the singles Moonlight~Tsuki Akari~ on TV (Music Station it was, I believe) and it was an awkward, fumbling display that had me cringing - singing was flat and shaky and it ended up affecting her playing. I steered clear of poco A poco as a result, which was a wise move as only 2-3 tracks are listenable - the rest are bordering on hideous.
So it was with great relief that I heard that 3rd album pf would be fully instrumental, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Nao would be composing all the tracks. Having gotten a taste of writing her own material on last year’s soundtrack for the movie Chest!, Matsushita decided she’d like to produce a whole album of self-compositions, and spent 4 months in the middle of 2008 developing ideas and writing for the album (in between drama & model shoots).
The result is a fairly varied album - Matsushita notes in interviews that she had certain ideas for certain songs: Ceu Azul is supposed to be ‘bossa-nova (done) my way, and not too close to (Antonia Carlos) Jobim’. Mostly that she was aiming for a ‘visual feel’ to the songs, like how the nostalgic Natsu no Omoide (Summer Memories) was written envisioning childhood days in a quiet village, watching the sunset from the top of a hill.
f is pitched as the ‘lead track’ on the album (no promotional singles were released), and it’s easy to see (hear?) why - the swirl of 4 layers of piano lines, looped rhythm patterns and strings (arranged by Mott the Hoople’s Morgan Fisher) makes the song exhilarating and exciting at every turn. Matsushita deems it the most technical track on the album; and the solo reprise that closes the album was self-arranged & mixed using vacuum tubes to supposedly give it an analog feel and ‘warmer’ sound.
Other tracks that left a good impression on me include the uplifting VOCE, which contains excerpts from the traditional Irish song Sliabh Na Mban, the aforementioned Ceu Azul, Carnival Night, another bossa nova track, and the melancholic Ashiato. There are missteps - the overcooked Balloon has a screechy violin that belongs in a ’50s horror movie, Hoshi (composed for her current drama Honjitsu mo Hare. Ijou Nashi is terribly slow and dull, as is Memories - which feels too long even at just 1 minute and 46 seconds.
Overall, pf makes for a pretty interesting listen - it’s not terribly deep or engaging stuff, but good to pass the time during that train ride or to put on in the background while working. I do imagine that quite a few people would dismiss it as muzak though - piano records really aren’t for everyone.
Matsushita sees herself mainly as an actress with the music coming second and it should probably stay that way - I admittedly do enjoy seeing her on the screen more than hearing her on a record. We’ll have to wait and see if anymore albums are forthcoming, but I certainly wouldn’t mind - as long as they lock the microphone away!
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