Toko Furuuchi – And Then... ~20th Anniversary Best~

Disclaimer first (or better, again): like any good artist,
Furuuchi has her music living enough from (studio) albums rather than
these samplers. This said, this is a compilation for the 20th
anniversary of her music debut, here focusing more on her
more recent works. With her repertoire, basically any cross-section
would do, and it's nice to find some old gems like "朝". My
own list of favourites would bring me into war with any record
label, but on the opposite end, the absence of "はやくいそいで",
or for that matter any other content of the "SLOW DOWN" album,
is puzzling, being the place where all began for her... Much
"better" the absence of tracks from "Dark ocean", which at least
here they avoided dismantling into assorted fragments. New are
the first and last tracks, both with fully approved Furuuchi
quality seal. "Stay" has special importance for me, being the track
I discovered her with. I saw the video on a screen waiting at
a departure gate of Kansai airport. Her name was peculiar
enough to look her up later. (As Tanaka or Suzuki she wouldn't
have had a chance.) "誰より好きなのに" cant be missing,
and occurs here twice, once in the piano version, from the
CD of single "大丈夫", and once sung with (mostly by)
Makihara, from her "Legends" duet album. That album
also contributes "さよならレストラン", an immaculate
piece of Furuuchi work, with Ken Hirai's voice on top.
How nice to hear him singing (again, in comparison to some of
his more recent "productions"); Furuuchi's composition fits
him so well. It somehow makes me think, why we didn't have more
of this earlier. She had been doing backing vocal for him in the
old days, so they have known each other for long. (She was singing
then that she wishes she were by his side... - damn, why didn't
they date?!) In the end, as a sampler much better than I expected...