It's hard to describe how it felt in early 2014 opening the box from Amazon Japan with new songs from Aiko herself, back from musical obscurity after nearly seven years at age 28. This time she brought a guy with a candy apple red Fender Jazzmaster (Keitaro), and rounded out the ensemble with a bassist (Munehisa), and drummer (Masaki). These were two songs that I put on endless repeat for a few days or weeks or months. This was again the real Aiko.
The title of the single is properly spelled with a stop or dot as . then Period in between a pair of ~ symbols so it tries to be unique but I can't search for that name or even 'royal blue period' without getting absolutely nothing related to this release. I got a hit from Spotify with 'royal blue wish a star' but that's it. Also, sometimes words can mean a couple of different things, you know. It's a completely obscure release which probably sold hundreds and there's probably a few boxes of them in the drummer's basement right now. It was about as underground as it gets. It was released by Alien Records and the item number is RBLUE-001. Don't hold your breath for the still-unconfirmed release of RBLUE-002, it probably isn't going to happen.
[EDIT 2018-07-27: Search "RBLUE-001" and find this preview of the songs I don't know if it's a safe site but it exists, http://mora.jp/package/43000033/RBLUE-001/]
The single included a DVD with a four minute music video of the A-side. There are shots of the band playing the song earnestly in a studio, and a sidewalk performance of Aiko and the guitar player to an audience of three guys. The video includes snippets of a drama named 'Bob and ...', yes really, 'Bob and ...' which is another name I have no luck searching. There is a nerdy guy [who is actually handsome, this is TV] on a bike who overcomes his tribulations in some way and may or may not get the attention of Tachibana Yurika, a lovely gravure model who also stars on the show.
Since I can't search anything I have no idea what this show is or how the song ties in, nor whether the show itself is one episode of a series or just a one-off. It looks about as interesting as a show that features music from an independent one-shot band led by a well-meaning but still very obscure former idol singer. I apparently found this while searching for Aiko's name in Japanese [I do that regularly, this is still S.P.A.K.A.] and found a video site that had a preview video (short version of the MV) and a link to Amazon Japan as a place to purchase the cd. I bought three copies just in case two of them break.
Four years have passed since then and all relevant information has been taken down from the internet. We are left with only the packaging to figure out what the heck was going on, as Aiko tried to relaunch her singing career and Keitaro hoped that standing next to one of the most beautiful girls on the planet would finally get him noticed. Aiko is a good singer and Keitaro is a very tasteful guitar player. They work well together. The A-side is an upbeat song and the B-side is a ballad; the two songs show the range of the band and they're pretty good.
'.~Period~' is a song reminiscent of old Aiko songs like 'Traveller' and 'ring!Ring!!RING!!!' but more laid back and there are no backup singers going "HAAAAAAA!" like in those songs. Aiko sings very clearly with a comforting and pleasant demeanor, which has always been the case for her. J-pop songs only have three topics: 1. love is great, 2. love sucks, and 3. do your best. This song falls in the last category and it sounds very hopeful and inspiring.
'Wish a star' is a ballad that features a piano part that is uncredited, or maybe not, and it builds from a light melody into a pretty rocking song. At the bridge Aiko really rises to the occasion as she sings a part with tricky intervals and some reasonably high notes, for her anyway. After I had heard this song a few times I finally realized what was different about these songs and her old idol catalog: post-production wasn't keen to make her voice sound shimmery and perfect like back in the Avex days.
The band and Aiko must have decided to keep the recording sounding more natural, because they chose to present themselves as more 'real' like an alternative rock band. But more likely the budget for studio time was a lot less than the old label; it's just easier to mix and master the recording without all the bells and whistles we got from the idol 'Kayo Aiko'.
So we get a much more natural sounding vocal on both of these songs as a result, and this proves at least one point: Aiko has a really good voice. She's never been the most amazing singer on the planet. Looks and image were very important to her performances (and sales) as an idol and they were a big part of why Avex promoted her from 2003 to 2007 and sold twelve singles in that part of her career. On the other hand, Aiko wasn't one of those idol singers who only put out three or four singles then never released anything else. Avex knew that Aiko was a talent that had good looks and all that stuff, but they clearly thought she had a good voice as well, or they definitely would have cut her off a lot sooner.
While it's easy to point out the positive aspects of the songs, as I often do, it's also kind of depressing that this release is pretty much it for the time being. Royal Blue made almost no impression on the listening public and as far as I know the band didn't continue, with or without Aiko.
However, there is one other reason that this release is unique in the Aiko catalog. She wrote the lyrics to both of these songs. So the lack of follow-up is kind of sad, as this is a talent she had never displayed before and might not again. Like I've said, these are good songs and I wouldn't expect her to be as prolific as Prince or as eloquent as Bernie Taupin but if you're an Aiko mega-fan (and you should be) all we can do is wonder what she might have done with that particular talent.
Looking into more technical details, the credits are shown in the picture below. Aside from having some issues with layout (commas and spaces), the guitarist is credited as 'guitar, manipulate' which makes me wonder exactly who or what he manipulated for this recording. It's possible that he is the piano player, as the root in 'manipulate' is Latin for 'hand' and no one may have bothered to look up the word for 'piano'. Otherwise this is a pretty straight forward recording without synthesizers or sound effects, so I can't figure out what else it would mean.
In the section hilariously misspelled as 'Special Tanks' Aiko gives a shout out to her dogs Cocoa, Cream, and Jyon which is as expected. She also mentions 'Yu' which is Hasebe Yu from 'dream'. She also thanks 'and you' which is actually me, because I bought this cd.
Getting this cd was a really nice feeling, knowing that Aiko still even existed after so many years. I really can't figure out why this even happened, whether they were an existing band that hooked up with Aiko somehow or maybe someone from the show made it happen entirely. The credits include nine names at the top of the credits labelled as "support" so it appears it was financed from a grassroots campaign.
What I know is that Aiko was making music again. After she performed for all the screaming wota she could have gone away entirely. Instead she chose to sing again and make a statement affirming that she likes making music, with no contractual pressure to do so unlike the idols who hustle on major labels. She wants to be known as a musician; she and I have a shared interest. I would not know this for sure if it hadn't been for those previous seven years of hearing absolutely nothing. I have always enjoyed the music most of all and it's good to know that Aiko does, too.
But the title of '.~Period~' now seems oddly appropriate. Full stop? Not me, but I guess I'll have to talk about something else.
