ANRI - Summer Farewells (2011)

Summer Farewells has one central theme: the feeling of breaking ties. Whether it's a relationship or the swiftness of summer as it approaches autumn, the album is as happy as it is bittersweet. For example, the intro track is a reminiscent track, while the second last track, "Happy End でふられたい" is about coming to terms with the end of a relationship.

Musically, Anri got into the sphere of Joey McCoy, a backing singer for some of Anri's previous albums. He was also a member of 1986 Omega Tribe for a few years. The collaboration between Anri and McCoy is almost perfect as the music they made felt genuine. McCoy's most evident involvement is on "Moon In the Rain", a blatant American R&B ballad that is perhaps one of Anri's best vocal performances to date. It could easily belong on Coool.He also produced "Cafe 25 Vingt Cinq" which is a classic funky city pop song. (I think it references a Vietnamese cafe, but honestly, I don't know.)

In many respects, this album felt like a callback to Coool with a lot of shameless funk, boogie, and dance music that Anri just loves making. She clearly loves making this kind of music. The collaboration between her and McCoy was a match made in heaven. Further, Anri's involvement in this album is more extensive than anything prior. This will only get bigger with her next album, Boogie Woogie Mainland, having full composer credits on all songs.

Japanese funk and boogie lost her city pop queen for a year. But thankfully, she came back musically stronger than ever. There are no misses on this album. It is truly a near-perfect Anri album.