I don't think she has any intention of doing something new. It's been like this for quite a long time now. I don't necessarily mean this in a negative sense -- it's just, judging by the pattern of her releases, she doesn't seem in any way interested in shaking things up.

Yeah but the exact same song over and over? Come on, at least dress it up different... especially when you only release ONE new track a year...

Looking around at comments... Japanese people are saying she looks fat. Dunno where they're getting that from (a teeny bit bloated perhaps, is she pregnant again???) but it's pretty stupid lol

I like the vocals - one of the better duets she's done - but the song is basically a remix of some of her other recent mediocre efforts.

At this point I really don't know why she keeps doing this at all. Maybe her clients keep asking for it? It can't be because she likes it, because she obviously doesn't.

SHE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!


This guy is rock Jesus and a reheat of the Ginza 6 jingle is SERIOUSLY all she could muster? He clearly had zero creative control and phoned in a vocal as that's all Ringo required, a trending cool guy to hype the track. Beyond contemptuous to release this trash in as cynical a form as she has and piggybacking Kashimashi in the process for hype.


She really does give no fucks. As long as she warms a Kohaku bench and keeps the ad companies happy, I guess.


As a MASSIVE Elekashi fan, this is double the insult of her usual fare. What a waste.

I don't think people are wrong in calling a duets album as her next move.


Lets hope its not ALL showtunes, I wanna be able to tell at least 3 tracks apart lolol.


Finish Ma Cherie with a guest, Daoko anyone?

I don't think she even gives a shit about the money anymore. She's just done with it.

Hey, I'd take mediocre and novel over plain ol' mediocre. She's already released two self-covers and a tributes album; she's gotta run out of album ideas soon.

Then why else release this tripe? It's not even that she has anything to prove anymore - she could have called it a heyday after the first couple TJ albums, or hell, after KZK - but what else could be propelling her other than the money?

Power and/or influence within the industry would be my guess. She needs to maintain her active status at least.

Shinra is probably right about Kouhaku.

I still hope she is working in a whole new direction for her music, but because she needs money and time for her kids it's taking her too much time to finish conceptualizing it. That would be an explanation of why she puts almost no effort in her latest releases and at the same time she keeps on going.
But understand that this is a very small hope that I have inside of me, and it's more a wishful thinking than an actual belief
.-.

I hope it's something like that too...but as you say, the chances aren't too great.

I'm also still holding out a little bit of hope that she'll get back to normal when she gets done with her Universal contract. She's been with them for over 5 years (since they bought EMI). The decline in the quality of her work seemed to occur within about a year after that, so maybe she just hates her boss? She can't have much longer to go with them though.

Wishful conspiracy theory: She has no creative control anymore and is being held hostage by her label to continue churning out mediocre jazz-pop show tunes that they can market to a variety of other soulless enterprises. This is why she doesn't give a fuck anymore and why she looks so dejected so much of the time.