Sweet 19 Blues
Sweet 19 Blues is the second studio album by Japanese singer Namie Amuro. It was released through Avex Trax on July 22, 1996. It is Amuro's first release with the label since leaving Toshiba-EMI, as well as her first album free of material associated with her previous band, Super Monkey's. Sweet 19 Blues was solely produced by Tetsuya Komuro and features a diverse group of collaborators, including Cozy Kubo, Akio Togashi, Takahiro Maeda, M.c.A.T, and Randy Waldman.
Sweet 19 Blues showcases popular music genres from the 1990s, including pop, dance, R&B, jazz, blues, and eurobeat. The record was noted for taking influence from contemporary African-American music, particularly the work of Janet Jackson, SWV, and Total. Its singles were rearranged for inclusion on the album, and spliced with interludes. Lyrically, Sweet 19 Blues revolves around romance and young womanhood, and is seen as a transition from Amuro's Japanese idol image.
Music critics gave Sweet 19 Blues positive reviews, praising the album's themes, overall sound, and production quality, while some were divided over Amuro's vocal performance. In addition, Amuro and the album received numerous nominations and awards. Commercially, the album was a huge success, reaching number one on the Oricon Albums Chart and earning a triple million certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan for selling over three million copies. Sweet 19 Blues was briefly the top-selling album by a solo artist, and one of the most successful releases in Japanese music history.
Sweet 19 Blues spawned five singles, all of which were commercially successful in Japan, with some ranking among the best-selling singles of 1996. In addition, several tracks from the album were used as commercial themes for various advertising campaigns across Japan. Amuro promoted the album through live appearances, which appeared on the VHS release, Namie Amuro World. She also embarked on her First Anniversary tour, which a live release was distributed in December. In retrospect, publications have regarded Sweet 19 Blues as a pivotal moment in Japanese music history, owing to Amuro's trendsetting fashion style and departure from Japanese idol culture.
Background
In the early 1990s, Amuro began her music career in her native Okinawa with the Toshiba-EMI idol group Super Monkey's, who made their move to Tokyo in 1993. Although the group's singles were not commercially successful, Amuro began to receive media attention for her work as an aspiring actress and model. They changed their name to Namie Amuro with Super Monkey's as a result, and released two singles under this iteration, including the breakthrough "Try Me " in January 1995. Their final two singles, "Taiyou no Season" and "Stop the Music", were primarily billed to Amuro, with Super Monkey's appearing on the back covers.Amuro's debut studio album, Dance Tracks Vol. 1, was released on October 16, 1995, under Toshiba-EMI, while her Avex Trax debut single "Body Feels Exit" followed nine days later. The other members of Super Monkey's reformed as MAX under the new label months prior. Dance Tracks Vol. 1 was solely billed to Amuro and includes re-worked versions of each Super Monkey's single. The material in their original form later appears on the group's only compilation album Original Tracks Vol. 1, fully credited to Namie Amuro with Super Monkey's. Amuro's debut was a commercial success, topping the charts and selling more than a million units.
Development and production
After leaving Toshiba-EMI and signing with Avex Trax in 1995, Amuro started working on new music. Avex Trax hired Tetsuya Komuro, who previously worked with Amuro while she was with Super Monkey's. Sweet 19 Blues featured a diverse cast of collaborators and composers, including Cozy Kubo, Akio Togashi, Takahiro Maeda, M.c.A.T, and Randy Waldman. Komuro worked on Sweet 19 Blues while also recording his debut album with Japanese band Globe, which was finished around the same time as Amuro's album.Throughout the process, Amuro and her team were influenced by African-American music and artists from the 1990s, particularly Janet Jackson, TLC, and the Fugees, whom Amuro admired musically, as well as the notable success of girl groups SWV and Total. She wanted to incorporate these artists and influences into her own music and market it in Japan, where she was popular with the younger generation. Aside from that, the majority of the album's themes were inspired by Amuro's daily life, which she believed could inspire women of the same age in Japan through her music.
"Body Feels Exit" was one of the first recorded songs, released as a single in October 1995. The track features an uptempo dance and eurobeat sound that was common in Komuro's collaborations with other artists at the time. Three additional singles were released during the album's production: "Chase the Chance", "Don't Wanna Cry", and "You're My Sunshine", all of which echoed similar dance-oriented elements. However, Komuro chose to rework each single for the album. To complete this, he invited several musicians and management personnel to his private studio to work on it. During the sessions, he wrote several songs that would appear on the parent album.
Amuro recorded her vocals in various studios in Tokyo. During studio sessions, only Amuro, Komuro, and the director in charge were present. Amuro would usually enter the studio session without having read the lyrics and would receive them upon arrival. Her team believed that if she had received them before these sessions, the outcome could have been different. Amuro and her team would frequently finish a song per day and record it once, unless they were dissatisfied with the outcome. After finishing the album, Keith "KC" Cohen mixed it at Avaco Creative Studios and Studio Inn Studios.
Composition and content
Sweet 19 Blues consists of 19 songs: 11 full-length recordings and eight interludes with instrumental or vocal sections. Musically, the album incorporates a wide range of popular music styles and genres from the 1990s, including pop, dance, R&B, jazz, blues, and eurobeat. According to AllMusic, the album "typified the songwriting and production values of Komuro-namely, a highly polished dance-pop sound characterised by disco rhythms and funky basslines." According to Ted Mills of the same publication, the album includes "some slinky dance numbers that could have been singles in their own right," as well as re-works of "Body Feels Exit," "Chase the Chance," "Don't Wanna Cry," and "You're My Sunshine" with remixes, new arrangements, or extended jams."The album's first interlude, "Watch Your Step," features Amuro saying the title in acapella. "Motion" is a 51-second composition of humming. "Let's Do the Motion" is the album's first full-length track, featuring rapping by Amuro and Komuro. Takahiro Maeda, the song's songwriter, said the lyrics were metaphorical political references. "Private" was one of the first songs written for the album, and draws inspiration from R&B and African-American music, and includes a rap by Amuro. Komuro sent Maeda a demo recording of himself scat rapping and asked him to provide additional lyrics for "Private". He found the process challenging due to the simplicity of the singing lyrics and the difficulty of the rap, so he wrote the lyrics as a short story instead.
Randy Waldman composed the interlude "Ocean Way," which lasts more than one minute. The rework of "Don't Wanna Cry" features a groovy blues-inspired sound with piano riffs and replaces the original composition's bass guitars with various live instruments. The lyrics have a darker undertone, and Maeda had to slightly revise them after being told they were too heavy for Amuro. "Rainy Dance" is an R&B song inspired by Maeda's dislike for rainy days, but had thought rainy sounds could influence the rhythm of a song for Amuro. The CC Mix of "Chase the Chance" replaces the original sound with a band-oriented sound that incorporates live instrumentation.
"Joy" is an interlude that includes rapping by Amuro and uncredited artist M.c.A.T It was re-worked as a single released by the latter artist under the title "Thunder Party", which featured Amuro as a featured artist. "I'll Jump" is an R&B song with influences from 1970s jazz and soul music. "Scratch Voices" is a four-second interlude that transitions into "I Was a Fool," which sounds similar to "I'll Jump." The demo version was initially performed in English before Maeda translated it to Japanese. "Present" is a re-work of the same-titled song, which was released as a B-side to "Don't Wanna Cry"; both versions were considered sequels to "Don't Wanna Cry".
The interlude "Don't Wanna Cry " lasts one minute and 24 seconds. The Hollywood remix of "You're My Sunshine" and the Latin House remix of "Body Feels Exit" both featured Latin music. The interlude "77~" spans one minute and 45 seconds. The title track is the album's final full-length recording, replacing guitar riffs by Kazuhiro Matsuo with Michael Thompson. The songwriting process took longer than expected, but Komuro felt it accurately represented Amuro. The lyrics explore Amuro's feelings about leaving her youth behind. The song was produced simultaneously with Globe's "Is this love" in late May 1996. The concept of the two songs share a common theme: "a girl who stopped baring her belly button and wearing a mini-skirt and started wearing pants" and "a girl who hides her body and tries to show her inner self." The album concludes with the interlude "Soon Nineteen," in which Amuro recites lyrics from the previous track.
Release and artwork
Sweet 19 Blues was first promoted on July 20, 1996, and then widely distributed in Japan by Avex Trax two days later on July 22. A standard CD was issued in a standard jewelcase, while four limited edition slipcase versions featured four different photographs of Amuro. Each limited edition format was printed one million times. In October, the standard format was distributed in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while a cassette tape with alternative artwork was released in Hong Kong and Indonesia in 1996. Sweet 19 Blues was reissued in Taiwan in 1999 with a limited edition slipcase and 24-bit gold disc. In 2012, the original format was re-issued to commemorate Amuro's 20th career anniversary in the entertainment business.The album artwork was photographed by Itaru Hirama, with Tycoon Graphics in Tokyo, Japan, designing its booklet. Komuro requested that Amuro take several photos for the album without hair or makeup to highlight her natural side. Shot in black and white, the photography style was a deliberate departure from the blue and white color scheme utilized on the "Body Feels Exit" single cover. Wearing a dress and high heels, Komuro stated that Amuro had an insecurity about her bare feet and found that the monochrome was "a good way to offset , and not make the photos look sexy".
Komuro was impressed with the finished work and contacted Avex Trax's upper management to have different artworks for the album printed, resulting in four limited slipcase editions. A fifth and sixth version were scheduled to be released, but the plan was later abandoned. In a retrospective interview with Spur magazine, Annie Fuku compared the photographs to the work of English model Kate Moss from the same period, to which Komuro referenced her Calvin Klein ads, which were also monochrome, "a bit decadent and not at all vulgar."
Mills explains that the album's name, Sweet 19 Blues, refers to the "melancholic passing of another sweet year of youth."