Like A Fable

坂本慎太郎バンドのメンバーを中心にレコーディングされ、ドラムは菅沼雄太、ベース&コーラスはAYA、そしてサ ックス&フルートは西内徹。
ゲストプレーヤーとして2曲にトロンボーンでKEN KEN(Ken2d Special, Urban Volcano Sounds)が参加。

Over the course of his solo career, Shintaro Sakamoto has used his breezy, genre-defying style to express a wide variety of situations and emotions. On How to Live with a Phantom, he created beguiling mirages; on Lets Dance Raw, he delivered post-apocalyptic lounge with brilliant irony. Like so many other artists during the COVID-19 global pandemic, Sakamoto took inspiration from those difficult times, and on Like a Fable, he uses the nostalgic and escapist aspects of his sound to craft a musical sanctuary. Its no coincidence that his fourth album offers some of his sweetest and most immediate songs. Driven by a summery guiro and flirty backing vocals by OOIOOs AYA, the records shimmying title track is a standout that finds Sakamoto comparing quarantine life to Kamishibai ("paper play"), a type of Japanese street theater popular in the 1930s and 40s. The blurriness of pandemic life is a particularly apt subject for Sakamoto, since time feels almost irrelevant to the way his music drifts along at its own pace (six years separated this album and its predecessor, Love If Possible) and borrows so much from different styles and eras. His deep love of sounds from the 70s continues with "Floating Weeds" cowbell-punctuated strut and the bubbling disco whimsy of "One Day," but he reaches farther back on "You Have Time But I Dont," which bears the influence of 50s surf that he introduced on Love If Possible and reaffirms that he can add just about any sunny-sounding influence into his music and make it his own. At the time of Like a Fables release, Sakamoto described it as his pop album, but true to form, he delivers the unexpected. Where his previous work often expanded on a single mood, this record runs the emotional gamut, spanning the wryly wobbly trombone and tinny drum machine of "That Was Illegal" to the dubby sophistication of "The Thickness of Love." Once again, Like a Fables sincerest-sounding songs, such as "Star" and "The Whereabouts of Romance," are among the most winning on first listen, but its impressive that he covers so much territory without sacrificing the light touch thats made his solo career exceptional. As eclectic as it is, song for song Like a Fable is one of Sakamotos strongest albums, and the pleasure his music offers is especially welcome this time around. ~ Heather Phares

実に6年ぶりとなる4作目はロマンティックなラヴソングを多く含むポップス集。簡素なリズムマシーンを用いた"それは違法でした"、トロンボーンが華やかな"まだ平気?"の冒頭2曲からはうっすらとコロナ禍のムードが感じられるものの、その後はムード歌謡～グループサウンズ的な曲調で〈君と僕〉が歌われていて、ベースを担当するAYAのコーラスも含め、その印象はいつになくポップだ。アルバム・タイトルから推測すると、社会の混沌に対する反動から〈物語、寓話〉として描かれているのかもしれないが、こんなスウィートな作品が聴けることを素直に喜びたい。坂本自身がベースを弾いたミニマル・ファンク"ある日のこと"から、フルートをフィーチャーした"恋の行方"へと至るラストの流れも秀逸。
bounce (C)金子厚武