Sanae Johnouchi - 冬芝居

I just randomly stumbled on the fact that today (May 17th) is Sanae's birthday 🎈🎉🎊 and I was planning on posting about her soon enough anyway, so what the hell, here you go!
This is the best J-Pop album! Have I made this claim before? Yes. So let me get more specific: This is the best Enka album ever! But this is not 100% Enka, so "close enough" I guess? You probably are not familiar with this genre, and I can't claim to be an expert. You can look trough Wiki, Discogs,  maybe do some research about it, if you curious enough. What I can say for sure is, I've listened to some Enka (some of the 5 or 6 most popular artists) and it wasn't to my liking, but this album here, this gem right here, this I like. REALLY like! It's Kayo influenced by Enka, that I can say for sure too. You got the cover art with her standing in a field, with some longing look, wearing some kimono with haori, all very traditional. But the music is much more in tune with 80's Pop than with Enka, though you can clearly hear the influence. It's a mish-mash. It's complicated.
It has a fascinating background, which explains this threshold position it occupies. Johnouchi Sanae san was part of Onyanko Club, a large Idol group, percursor to the contemporary, (in)famous AKB48. As the name implies, a group of many Idols, which works as an agency sort of, allocating its members into other smaller groups, acting jobs, etc. and they perform with the whole cast too. The thing is, this kind of bussiness model ensemble produces super catchy, bubblegum, lowest common denominator, teen Pop, and you probably are starting to see the dissonance arising here, right? We can only assume that young Sanae managed to join the group in order to fulfill the dream of having a carrer, and we can't fault her for that. Before joining, she participated in a music competition named (if the translator is doing the job right) "All Japan Enka Championship", and even before that she learned to play the shamisen. So you see, she was into more traditional music early on.
While still in the group, she managed to record her solo debut, this album here in question, 冬芝居, fact that contributes to the cross genre sound, I believe. [the full package is super interesting, as it contrasts this serious look with some cute graphs; it's even New Year themed; check it] So, yeah, pretty similar to this other great album here (where that "best" claim was made), but with much heavier focus on balladry. You have some Folk-ish melodies (typical to Enka), but also some strong Rock/Blues ballad and Jazz influence. The last part of the first song, "悲しみの粉雪", for example, reprises the main melody but changes the initial rhythm for some Jazz swing; super classy stuff. The arrangements are what really elevates the whole album. As mentioned earlier, it resembles more 80's Pop, with reverb-y drums, lead guitars, some synth lines, but all very restrained. The string section (also very typical to Enka) pops up occasionally, but it's not overpowering (doesn't sound like a huge ensemble, more like a quartet at most if I were to guess), neither super corny. You also got some super interesting clarinet (oboe maybe?) and violin (viola perhaps?) solos. It's all super well arranged and performed. Four of these songs are composed by Tsugutoshi Goto, which also explains a lot. The song "流氷の手紙" has a total Goto sound, super folkloric, super him. Last but not least, her vocal performance is DIVINE! Super smooth, restrained, but knows when to be flashy. She will occasionally come up with some vibrato, typical to Enka (and traditional folkloric music), called kobushi, just to make her influence even clearer. That's what I think makes this album so successful, its insistence on existing in more than one place. Aren't most great records those that bring many outside influences and mix everything well togheter? 
Well, hear it for yourself.