10 Ichiko Aoba – qp (Contemporary Folk, Singer/Songwriter)

The latest from emergingly sacrosanct dream-folk artist Ichiko Aoba is another step backwards conceptually. A backward facing trend that has begun to feel like an earnest decision to sidestep her newfound attention. Running a brief 37 minutes, qp sees Ichiko turn away almost completely from the wild experimentation of her international breakthrough 0, and even a bit back from the more restrained studio-work of it’s follow-up Mahoroboshiya. Ichiko seems determined to completely abandon her new image as an “avant-garde” artist and returns to the restrained songwriting and predictable dream-like blanket of her first three albums. Of course qp still has flashes of experimentation, like the choral opening song or the more english-folk style songs on the albums final ⅓, but as a whole it shifts wholeheartedly back into the same dreamscape-folk format her debut efforts utilized.

Despite it’s exasperating predictability at a time where Ichiko seemed to be creatively blossoming, it is a beautiful effort, from one of Japan’s best artists, working in an incredible period of song-writing excellence. It’s a great shame for all people who truly love music that the odd world of Ichiko is shrinking when just a few years ago it seemed to be growing without limit. In doing so she may well have found a bit of certainty, and relief from the mounting pressure of being called an “important” artist, but she has also made what is without a doubt, one of year’s most disappointing albums. Which is not to detract from the fact that it is also one of the years absolute best. A candle flickering down still emits light.