Hourglass
5th Album
Epic/Sony ESCB-1252
Released 12.1.1991
Track listing
- Sweet Thing (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Hourglass (words: Yasuo Sugibayashi/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Little Wing (words: Yasuo Sugibayashi/music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Happiness (New Arrangement) (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Kotoba (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Hanataba (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Todokukashira (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Love Child (words: Yasuo Sugibayashi/music: Hiroaki Sugawara)
- Silent Dream (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
- Farewell Song (words & music: Shoko Suzuki)
After becoming familiar with the album, it strikes me -- oddly enough -- as a precursor of sorts to the Suzuki Syoko album: lots of piano-based songs with powerful vocals, along with the occasional divergence into pop/rock. This album also strikes me as a major step up from the last one -- for the first time Shoko is firmly in control of most everything, and the results are spectacular. Suddenly the production (mostly courtesy of Hiraoki Sugawara, who makes his debut on a Shoko record) sounds less dated and more timeless. The single "Sweet Thing" slowly builds up with strings and choral vocals, before suddenly the drums and guitar kick in and send the track soaring into power ballad land -- it's probably my favorite single up to this point in her career. "Happiness" (one of Shoko's best upbeat rock songs) appears here with a sparser arrangment than the single, and does away with the earlier version's singalong fadeout (or rather, substitues it with a different chorus during the coda) -- I like both versions, but I like the new arrangment more. Elsewhwere, "Todokukashira" is a gorgeous piano ballad, and is probably my second favorite song on the album (behind "Happiness"). Also, after laying low instrumentally the last couple of albums, Shoko is back in full force here, playing drums and keyboards. In addition, she writes the majority of the song lyrics for the first time, although the record does feature the first song Shoko released that she didn't help write -- "Love Child," which is a bouncy R&B-styled song. Unfortunately, Hourglass didn't do quite as well on the Oricon charts as Shoko's previous records (which mostly charted just outside the Top 30; Hourglass barely made the Top 50), and apparently Epic/Sony decided that Shoko was better served with outside writers and producers helping her in the recording process.
This album is out of print on its own, but is available in its entirety on the SHO-CO-SONGS collection 2 set.
Favorite songs:
Sweet Thing
Happiness (New Arrangment)
Kotoba
Todokukashira
Love Child
Credits:
Shoko Suzuki: vocals, background vocals, acoustic piano, keyboards, drums, hi-hat, snare, gran cassa, raindrops, percussion
Hiroaki Sugawara: keyboards, bass, drums, programming, background vocals
Masato Nagahata: acoustic piano
Takeshi Kobayashi: keyboards
Yoshiyuki Sahashi: guitar
Hirokazu Ogura: guitar
Hiroki Komazawa: steel guitar, acoustic guitar
Kenji Takamizu: bass
Takamune Negishi: bass
Yasushi Ichihara: drums
Hitoshi Kusunoki: drums
Yutaka Odawara: drums
Yoshinori Kadoya: programming
Takerou Sekijima: tuba
Masami Shinoda: saxophone
Mayumi Tachibana: cello
Kaneko Asuka Strings: strings
Produced by Shoko Suzuki and Keiko Shinozaki
Arranged by Hiroaki Sugawara (M-1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9)
Takeshi Kobayashi (M-3, 7)
Masato Nagahata (M-10)
