AYAKA: THE BEGINNING

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In 2009 Ayaka put her career on pause to deal with a health-related problem. Now she is back for what one might call the second period of her career, hence the album’s title, The Beginning. Not only did Ayaka write all of The Beginning’s songs herself, she produced the album and has released it on her own record label.

The album starts off with a soaring ballad, "はじまりのとき" (Google translation: beginning at). It begins softly with just Ayaka's voice and the piano but when the chorus kicks in it really kicks in with live drums and soaring orchestral strings.

Most of the songs on the album are more so adult contemporary than pop and roughly half of them are ballads. Still, there are some addictive pop songs among them. "Hello" is an upbeat pop rock song featuring rock guitars, bass, live drums, piano and a little bit of electro-tinkering. (I had to listen to it three times in a row as I wrote this review because it's that infectious.) "Magic Mind" has a punchy dance beat, though the tempo is a bit slow for pop, and it also contains some gorgeous orchestral strings and bits of emotive piano.

There really isn't a bad song among The Beginning's thirteen tracks and it's an absolute must if you love adult-oriented Japanese ballads. -Michael McCarthy