We’re running it back!
What’s up, all you fine Japanese music fans! Welcome back to the J-Music Exchange/Rate! If you thought we forgot all about you guys this month, well think again! We’ve got you covered for your monthly album review fix in a surprise, extra-special edition of the series, as we’ve once again arrived at our anniversary month. Before we get into all of that though, if this is actually your first time here and you’re not entirely sure what this series is all about, please give the following primer a quick read—
The Exchange/Rate is a tandem album review series conducted every month by yours truly alongside my good friend and fellow Japanese music fan Al (from Omunibasu). Each month we decide on a specific theme with which our reviews would revolve around. We then pick out albums from our respective libraries which we think best coincides with that theme. We will then give the album we chose to the other person and vice versa (exchange), after which we then listen to and subsequently review the album we were given (rate). This project has not only allowed us to explore music beyond our libraries, but it provides an opportunity for us to see our favorite albums from a different point of view. It is our hope that this series is able to do the same for you and that you either find a new artist to try out and/or we offer you a fresh take on one of *your* favorite albums
Though the series originally began back in June 2018 (geez louise), the Exchange/Rate didn’t actually become a regular monthly publication until May 2020, which makes this month our sixth anniversary of doing the darn thing! First and foremost, a huge shoutout of course goes to my brother-in-arms Al. Without him, this series quite literally would not exist; not just as it exists today, but conceptually as well. So, from me and hopefully all of you reading this too, massive thanks to my guy for joining me on this shared journey of musical discovery these past six years. With that said, after more than half a decade of handing each other albums every single month, we figured now would be as good a time as any to look back on the road we’ve travelled to get here. More specifically, we’re revisiting some of the albums that didn’t quite fare so well the first time around; releases that, for one reason or another, ended up receiving some of the lower scores in Exchange/Rate history. After all, six years is a long time. Tastes change, perspectives shift, and sometimes an album that didn’t click with you the first time finds a way to connect years later. So for this anniversary edition, we’re giving a pair of those albums a second chance and seeing whether time has changed our minds.
Just for fun, Al and I actually didn’t tell each other beforehand which albums we’d be picking from our past reviews, so he’s finding out what my choice is at pretty much the exact same time as all of you guys!
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Hayami Saori (早見沙織) is a renowned seiyuu, having lent her voice to a multitide of notable roles for anime over the years such as Oregairu’s Yukinoshita Yukino, Oreimo’s Aragaki Ayase, Mahouka’s Shiba Miyuki, Anohana’s Tsurumi Chiriko, just to name a few. She has since debuted as an artist with her debut single “Yasashii Kibou” in 2015, which was used as the opening theme for the anime Akagami no Shirayukihime, to which she also provided a voice for in the titular Shirayuki.
＜ＪＵＮＣＴＩＯＮ＞
(Spotify link to the full album here)
CDJapan Affiliate Link(s):
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＜T ｒａｃｋｌｉｓｔ＞
０１・Let me hear
０２・メトロナイト/metoronaito
０３・夏目と寂寥/natsume to sekiryou
０４・夢の果てまで/yume no hate made
０５・白い部屋/shiroi heya
０６・祝福/shukufuku
０７・interlude: forgiveness
０８・SUNNY SIDE TERRACE
０９・Bleu Noir
１０・little forest
１１・Jewelry
１２・Bye Bye
１３・新しい朝/atarashii ashita
１４・温かな赦し/atataka na yurushi
When Al first brought up the idea for this month’s theme; revisiting albums that we had previously rated on the lower side here on the Exchange/Rate; there were honestly a couple of different directions I could’ve gone with it. However, after digging through some of my older reviews, the album that immediately stood out to me was none other than Hayami Saori’s JUNCTION. Now, to be clear, when I say “low-rated,” it’s very much relative to how I’ve historically scored albums on this series. This wasn’t a case where I outright disliked the album or anything like that. In fact, what actually prompted me to revisit JUNCTION in the first place was that I distinctly remembered praising it quite a bit in my original review back in September of 2020. So imagine my surprise when I went back and saw the actual score I gave it at the time (lol). It genuinely made me stop and wonder: wait… why DID I rate it that way again?
That curiosity only grew the more I thought about the context surrounding that review. As I’ve mentioned a few times now in past Exchange/Rate entries, a lot of those early reviews came from a very different period of my life as both a writer and as a listener. A non-insignificant amount of time has passed since then, and over the course of these past several years I’ve listened to a lot more Japanese music across all sorts of genres and styles. More importantly, I think my perspective on what I personally value in an album has also changed quite a bit. There are things now that I find myself appreciating more than I probably did back then; atmosphere, replayability, cohesion of mood, subtle vocal performances, the idea of an album simply being enjoyable rather than needing to constantly impress me with every track. Especially within the realm of seiyuu music and more pop-oriented releases, I think my standards and expectations have become… maybe not looser necessarily, but at the very least different.
And lastly, revisiting JUNCTION like this also gives me the opportunity to approach the album from a completely different angle structurally. Given the usual format of these reviews where I only spotlight four tracks at a time, there’s always the possibility that certain aspects of an album get unintentionally left behind in favor of the particular narrative I ended up building around it during that specific moment in time. Coming back to it now means I get the chance to highlight songs and ideas that I may not have previously given enough attention to the first time around.
So with all that said; let’s head back to the junction once more.
＜Ｓｏｎｇｓ ｏｆ Ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔ＞
０５・白い部屋/shiroi heya
To peel back the curtain a little bit more here; seeing as this particular installment of the Exchange/Rate naturally lends itself to some introspection, one thing I realized while revisiting my older reviews is that I’m actually fairly guilty of choosing which songs to highlight based less on whether they’re my favorites and more on whether they best support the overall point I’m trying to make about the album. That is to say, when I structure these reviews, I’m usually trying to build toward a central idea or narrative regarding my listening experience, and the songs I pick out are often in service of illustrating that point. Because of that, there have definitely been occasions where I ended up passing over songs that I might’ve personally enjoyed more simply because they didn’t fit neatly into the discussion I was trying to frame at the time. And honestly, I think my original review of JUNCTION is a pretty good example of that. Back then, I heavily focused on the idea of the album being this varied assortment of musical styles, tying it directly into the literal meaning of the word “junction” itself.
As a result, I intentionally chose tracks that sounded very distinct from one another in order to reinforce that reading of the album. In the process though, I ended up overlooking songs like Shiroi heya. What’s interesting about this track in hindsight is that it’s actually the first in a sequence of songs on the album where Hayami Saori leans into a much more subdued vocal approach. The arrangement is calmer, more intricate, and gives considerably more space for the emotionality of her voice to settle in naturally. And honestly? Revisiting it now, I think it’s one of the most beautiful moments on the entire album. At its core, the song is a fairly straightforward pop ballad, but what really elevates it for me is the way it builds emotionally over time, gradually layering its instrumentation until it reaches this genuinely gorgeous crescendo near the end. It’s the kind of track that I think I probably would’ve appreciated a lot more now than I did back in 2020, largely because I’ve become much more receptive over the years to albums and songs that prioritize atmosphere and emotional pacing.
０６・祝福/shukufuku
When I was first deciding on which album to pick for this installment of the Exchange/Rate, I actually made a mental note to myself not to highlight the same songs I talked about in my original review. I figured; might as well use this as an opportunity to shine a light on some of the tracks I didn’t get to discuss as extensively the first time around. And yet somehow, despite all that, I still ended up circling right back to Shukufuku. I honestly couldn’t help myself here because even now, years later, the song still stands out to me for the kind of track it is and for how convincingly Hayami Saori manages to pull it off. Something I do want to note here though is that, while I originally labeled Shukufuku as shoegaze in my older review, I think I’d like to retract that assessment a bit now with the benefit of hindsight and, frankly, several more years of listening to shoegaze afterwards (lol). I can absolutely understand where I was coming from at the time. The song does carry certain elements that people commonly associate with shoegaze; the layered guitars, the hazier atmosphere, the way the instrumentation sort of swells around the vocals. But revisiting it now six years removed from making that observation, I don’t actually think the song fully commits to that style in the way a true shoegaze track typically would.
More than anything else, Shukufuku really leans toward a broader alternative rock approach. The structure is much cleaner and more deliberate than what you’d usually expect from shoegaze, and the emotional progression of the song feels far more grounded than immersive in the genre-specific sense. If anything, I think I was subconsciously trying to concretize my overall thoughts on the album at the time by assigning clearer genre identities to individual tracks than perhaps they actually warranted. Which, honestly, is probably inevitable whenever you’re trying to write about an album that intentionally jumps between so many different styles and moods. Of course, none of that is to say the song is any better or worse for not being shoegaze. If anything, I still find it both incredibly enjoyable and genuinely impressive on Hayami Saori’s part. The thing that continues to stick with me most is how naturally she adapts herself to this kind of denser alternative rock instrumentation despite primarily being known for softer, more delicate vocal performances. And honestly, maybe that lingering ambiguity surrounding Shukufuku is part of why it’s remained so memorable to me all these years later. It’s a song I clearly understood enough to latch onto immediately back then, but not quite enough to fully articulate yet. Revisiting it now feels less like correcting an old opinion and more like finally understanding why the song stayed with me in the first place.
０９・Bleu Noir
On the subject of highlighting songs that I didn’t get to talk about in my initial review, Bleu Noir is probably one of the bigger omissions in hindsight. Part of that is because it finds itself in a section of the album where a lot of the attention naturally gravitates toward some of the more stylistically adventurous tracks, but listening back to it now, there’s something to be said for a song that simply executes its chosen sound exceptionally well. From the smooth basslines that carry the song forward to the tasteful wah guitar accents sprinkled throughout the arrangement, everything about Bleu Noir feels effortlessly jazzy and cool. Helping matters immensely is the song’s hook, which remains one of the catchier moments on the album despite being attached to a comparatively laid-back arrangement. Of course, a large part of why that works comes down to Hayami Saori herself.
Throughout JUNCTION, one of the more fascinating aspects of the album is hearing her adapt to so many different styles, and Bleu Noir gives us perhaps the strongest showcase of her more mature vocal qualities. Her performance here is noticeably sultrier than what listeners might typically associate with her, with a smoky and velvety texture to her delivery that fits the song’s late-night jazz club atmosphere remarkably well. Rather than overpowering the arrangement, she moves through it almost like another instrument, weaving in and out of the bass and piano lines with an ease that makes the whole thing feel wonderfully natural. And just when the song has fully settled into its groove, the arrangement opens up to give the piano room to shine, resulting in one of my favorite moments on the entire album in its instrumental break. The piano melody is lovely on its own, but it’s the addition of Hayami’s vocal ad-libs floating around it that really elevates the section. It’s a small touch, but one that adds so much character to the track.
１０・little forest
If there’s one song on JUNCTION that benefitted the most from this revisit for me personally, it would probably be little forest. One of the unexpected joys of returning to albums years later is discovering that the songs you end up gravitating toward aren’t always the same ones that originally caught your attention. That was very much my experience with this song. What struck me immediately upon revisiting it was just how deceptively simple it is. The track opens with little more than Hayami Saori’s voice accompanied by an electric guitar, and there’s something incredibly effective about that restraint. The arrangement feels spacious, almost wide open and vast, akin to something I’ve talked about in the past with songs by artists like Kamishiraishi Mone and bands like Suzuki Mikiko-zu, where they create almost like expanse for the vocals and the instrumentation to fill and thrive in.
The addition of the backing vocals is also absolutely gorgeous, lending the song a warmth that wasn’t immediately apparent from the opening moments. Soon after comes the trumpet accompaniment, which I had somehow completely forgotten about over the years despite it being one of the track’s defining features. The way it drifts in and out of the arrangement adds so much character to the song, transforming what initially feels like an intimate acoustic performance into something that almost resembles a late-night jazz club session. That jazz influence is really what ended up winning me over this time around. Not because the song is overtly jazzy in the traditional sense, but because it captures the same feeling I often associate with some of my favorite jazz performances in that sense of spontaneity. There’s an organic quality to everything happening here, from the gentle interplay between the instruments to Hayami’s vocal delivery. In particular her singing here feels remarkably unguarded on this track. Not unpolished, of course, but raw in a way. Listening to it again now, I find myself appreciating that quality more than I ever did. And honestly, that’s probably the biggest surprise of this entire revisit. Going back into JUNCTION, I expected to gain a deeper understanding of the songs I already loved. What I didn’t expect was to walk away with an entirely new favorite.
＜Ｗｈａｔ Ｉ ｔｈｉｎｋ ｏｆ ＪＵＮＣＴＩＯＮ＞
In my original review of JUNCTION, and as I mentioned earlier at the start of this revisit, I largely centered my thoughts around the sheer variety of musical styles present throughout the album and how they collectively served as a showcase for Hayami Saori’s versatility as a performer. And to be fair, I still think that’s true. Even now, years later, one of the most impressive things about JUNCTION remains how comfortably Hayami is able to navigate so many different musical spaces. Whether it’s the understated balladry of Shiroi Heya, the alternative rock leanings of Shukufuku, the cool jazz atmosphere of Bleu Noir, or the intimate lounge-like presentation of little forest, she rarely if ever sounds out of place. If anything, revisiting the album only reinforced how adaptable she really is as a vocalist.
What surprised me though was remembering the conclusion I had originally arrived at. Back then, one of my primary takeaways was that hearing her execute so many different styles so convincingly almost made me wish she had simply committed to one of them. The logic was fairly straightforward; if she sounds this good doing all of these different things, imagine how much stronger the album could have been had it fully focused on the particular style that suited her best.
Looking back now, I don’t necessarily disagree with that thought. What I do think, however, is that I was perhaps missing part of the bigger picture. The thing I neglected to account for, likely due to both inexperience and simply having listened to far less music at the time, is that not every style is going to resonate with every listener equally at every point in their life. Some genres, arrangements, and approaches simply require time for an appreciation of them to develop. In revisiting JUNCTION, I found myself connecting with songs that barely registered with me the first time around, while simultaneously gaining a deeper appreciation for tracks I already enjoyed. The album itself hadn’t changed; my relationship with Japanese music as a whole had.
Thinking about it that way completely reframes how I view JUNCTION, and perhaps even albums like it in general. Rather than seeing them as mere “grab bags” assembled to demonstrate versatility, I now find myself appreciating them as something closer to all-ages releases. Albums where listeners, regardless of where they happen to be in their musical journey, can find something that speaks to them. Maybe the jazz track catches your attention. Maybe it’s the alternative rock song. Maybe it’s the ballad. Maybe it’s something else entirely. The point isn’t necessarily that every song appeals equally to every person, but rather that there’s enough here for different listeners to find their own point of entry.
And in that regard, JUNCTION succeeds remarkably well. More than anything, what this revisit taught me is that sometimes an album isn’t waiting for you to understand it all at once. Sometimes it’s content to meet you wherever you happen to be at that particular moment in your life and offer something different each time you return. Five years ago, I heard an album showcasing Hayami Saori’s versatility. Today, I hear an album that trusts its audience to discover what resonates with them in their own time. Honestly, I think I like that interpretation a lot more.
＜Ｍｙ Ｒａｔｉｎｇ＞
４.２５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ ５
＆
８.５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ １０
My original rating for JUNCTION back when I first reviewed it was a 3.5 out of 5.0 and a 7.0 out of 10.0. Now, granted, these ratings have always been fairly loose and arbitrary to begin with. If you’ve been following the Exchange/Rate for long enough, you’ve probably already figured out that the number itself is usually less important than the thoughts surrounding it. That being said, what I would like to emphasize here is that I genuinely did enjoy JUNCTION more during this second go-around. Not dramatically so. It’s not as though revisiting the album completely shattered my original assessment of it or caused me to discover some hidden masterpiece that I had somehow overlooked all those years ago. Rather, what changed was my appreciation for many of the things the album was already doing. Songs that I previously glossed over ended up becoming some of my favorite moments on the album. Certain stylistic choices that I once viewed primarily as showcases of versatility now feel more purposeful. More importantly, I think I’ve simply become more receptive to the kinds of music that JUNCTION was presenting in the first place. Perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway from this entire exercise. Revisiting an album years later isn’t always about determining whether you were right or wrong the first time around. Sometimes it’s simply an opportunity to measure how much you’ve changed as a listener. In that regard, JUNCTION ended up being the perfect album for this month’s theme.
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What are your guys’ thoughts on Hayami Saori’s JUNCTION? When was the last time you listened to this album? Have your thoughts on it changed since then? Likewise, what are some albums you’ve been thinking about revisiting lately? Let us know down in the comments; we’d love to hear about them!
Before I let you guys go, don’t forget to check out which album Al ended up revisiting for this month’s J-Music Exchange/Rate over at the Omunibasu Substack if you haven’t yet already. Given that we deliberately kept our picks a secret from one another this time around, I’m just as curious to see how his revisit turned out as you probably are (lol).
Happy listening!