Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
Instead of simply giving us everything she’s got in the chorus and limiting the climax of her lyricism to this one isolated moment in the track, Anna Aya wants to spread the catharsis out as far as it will reach in her single “Someone Else” this fall. She isn’t flirting with rousing beats and ebullient harmonies for the sake of flexing some studio muscle alone in this piece – Aya sounds like a musician on a mission here, and that mission undeniably starts with exploiting a lush hook for everything it’s worth and then some. Some might label her technique as a bit over the top, but even if this description did fit the model, it wouldn’t change anything about this stately single and the effect it could have on listeners craving fresh J-pop lust this September.
Bottom-end tones are clandestine but ever-present in “Someone Else,” guiding forth a verse as they would the percussion, though they needn’t do either in this single on Aya’s behalf. This songstress has such a kinship with the rhythm that it’s frankly a little surprising there’s any audible bassline in this master mix at all, particularly given how little she relies on its contribution here. Now I’m not suggesting the bass doesn’t serve an important purpose in this track, but instead pointing out how insignificant a purpose it is in this scenario compared to what one might anticipate finding in a single from another artist not quite as skillful as this incredible singer most definitely is.
The confidence this singer puts into her vocals extends to the rhythm of the music seamlessly and grants us access to raw charisma like nothing else could have, and I think this is one of the main reasons I liked “Someone Else” right off the bat. Instead of drawing me closer with a lofty instrumental intro or a lot of synthesized interplay between the beat and the foundational melody, Anna Aya is getting right into the guts of this performance before we ever have a chance to question whether or not she knows where she’s about to take us. She grabs us from the jump and brings us along for a thrill ride as no mainstream artist has been able to construct in the last couple of years, let alone execute as freely as she does.
With nothing to hold her back, Anna Aya throws down a fabulous fall J-pop jam in “Someone Else” that could easily appeal to serious fans of the genre, casual connoisseurs, and club-goers the same, and I’ve got a feeling this is only the start of her good fortune. She scratched the creative surface with her modeling career, but it’s evident there’s even more for her to give up behind the microphone than she already has when hearing this song. This is a stirring and inspired piece of material that doesn’t need any artificial buffering to find a spot on the FM dial sometime between now and the end of the year, and given the uneven opulence of her rivals, an undisputed treasure like this singer shouldn’t have difficulty finding her way to the spotlight.
Kim Sullenberger
