01. It's a JAZZ Thing!!
02. It Don't Mean A Thing
03. Take Five
04. Give Him The Ooh-la-la
05. In A Sentimental Mood
06. We Are In Love
07. When You Wish Upon A Star
08. Summertime
09. Sway (Quien Sera)
10. Misty
11. My Foolish Heart
12. More Than You Know
13. You & Me
Produced by Matsuo Kiyoshi
I have mentioned about "Delicious," a jazz album by a Japanese pop singer JUJU before. In fact, well, she released a continuation of "Delicious" in 2013. I'm sorry that I didn't know. I have no reason to apologize... Anyway, "Delicious ~JUJU's JAZZ 2nd Dish~" is it. The title is so long that I want to call it Delicious 2. I ask for your kind understanding.
Last time I mainly talked about JUJU's vocal. So this time let me mention about Matsuo Kiyoshi, a total producer of the Delicious series. He is a high-class producer who worked as a brain of many pop singers like Utada Hikaru and Hirai Ken.
So it's almost difficult to comment on him, a top-ranking musical producer. The Delicious series have his liner notes, however. I consider that I can say something about him with reading them.
According to his interpretation, one theme of "Delicious 2" is to emphasize swing jazz. I see, it includes songs with big bands more than the old "Delicious." I listened to them and slapped my thigh.
What did I mean? I said JUJU was too young to be a jazz singer last time. Probably, Matsuo understood enough, too. Then, it's supposed a proposition of "Delicious 2" was how he could back it up. I think that the way he took is making the background thick with big bands for covering greenness of her vocal. Or there's no reason to emphasize swing jazz. As Murakami Haruki named a book of his so, and as Matsuo cited it in his interpretation, It Ain't Got that Swing (If It Doesn't Mean a Thing).
This album is like a film starring an idol who has poor acting ability. In such a case, the director mostly uses true stars on supporting roles and stages well for making the audience guess it is not as bad as it was considered. That is one method of making a movie though I don't positively watch.
Therefore, to say frankly, I don't think this album is nothing but a masterpiece. Actually, the 2nd dish had a poorer sale than the 1st. Quality is not always proportional to the sales, but I cannot help guessing JUJU was too young to be a jazz singer.
2014, the next year, Matsuo worked in collaboration with JUJU again. He wrote "Last Scene" a pop song for JUJU. I am fond of the song although my saying so might be nothing now.