I mainly listen to old good musics, but Ichico Aoba (青葉市子) is truly exceptional. Her music does not belong to any specific times. I have billion words for describing and praising her, but here I try to make myself content to introduce her briefly.
Kamisori Otome is her first album published in 2010. Kamisori Otome (剃刀乙女) is a symbolic expression you should not identify the correct meaning, which literally means "Razer Girl." In this album, she as a 19-years-old-girl reveals her own unique world perfectly, only with a junior size guitar.
- 不和リン
- ココロノセカイ（The World of Mind）
- ポシェットのおうた（Song of Pochette）
- 重たい睫毛（Heavy Eyelashes）
- 路標（Directing Post）
- 光蜥蜴（Lightning Lizard）
- 遠いあこがれ（Far Longing）
- 腸髪のサーカス
All songs except (7) are written by Ichiko Aoba. As the title of the album, the ones of these songs cannot be correctly translated. (1) "Fuwarin" is a combined expression of the word Fuwari (フワリ), which is a mimetic one to describe something floating like clouds, and Fuwa (不和), which means inhamorny or friction. (6) "Hikaritokage" literallly means "Lightning Lizard," as shown above. But at the same time it can be read as "Hikari to Kage," that is light and shadow. As the first word of (8) "Chohatsu no Sahkasu," "Chohatsu" is coined by Aoba and so difficult to interpret; seeing the title, you should be confused and even have some grotesque impression because Cho (腸) means bowels while Hatsu (髪) means hair. Sahkasu is a circus.
Frankly speaking, in my opinion, the lyrics by her are sometimes too naive and unsophisticated, just as well as her illustrations contained in the booklet added to the album. However, these things never threaten the beauty and values her songs show; I, and perhaps you too, recognise in every work of her that she stands on the own worldview which would never be changed by any shallow fashion. This kind of artists who really know what they should do are precious in Japan today.
