On October 23, 1996, ウーア (UA) released 11, her first full-length studio album. She had debuted only a year earlier, and the June single “情熱” (Jōnetsu) had introduced her to a national audience. But its place on 11 is not quite what a listener coming from the single might expect.
The album opens with “リズム” (Rhythm) in a version specifically identified as an album mix. “Jōnetsu” appears much later, as the eighth track, in a “king wadada dub” version. The record presents two familiar songs through arrangements chosen for the album rather than simply placing the singles at the front.
The musicians behind the songs
Hirofumi Asamoto composed and produced “Jōnetsu”. His earlier work with the Japanese dub group MUTE BEAT gives useful context to the album mix, without making dub the defining sound of all eleven songs. Shinichi Osawa of MONDO GROSSO produced “Rhythm”, while Takuji Aoyagi of LITTLE CREATURES composed and produced “大きな木に甘えて” (Ōkina Ki ni Amaete).
Each contribution introduces a different musical background. Nobukazu Takemura produced “バラ色” (Barairo); Apple Music’s Japanese commentary singles out its irregular breakbeats. By contrast, the same commentary describes the softer groove and singing of “水色” (Mizuiro). Neither track needs to be treated as a detour: their contrast is part of what makes this an album rather than a collection of singles.
“雲がちぎれる時” (Kumo ga Chigireru Toki) offers another change in scale. Produced by Asamoto, it uses a comparatively simple, acoustic arrangement that leaves room for UA’s voice. The song first appeared on 11, then received its own single release on November 21, 1996, a month after the album. Its chronology runs in the opposite direction from that of “Jōnetsu”.
The voice that connects them
Asamoto, Osawa, Aoyagi and Takemura brought their own approaches to composition and production. UA supplied the lyrics across the album, and her low, expressive voice gives these different arrangements a common presence. The variety is documented in the credits; the sense of continuity is the musical reading offered by contemporary album commentary.
The record was a substantial success. UA’s official biography reports sales exceeding 900,000 copies. That figure helps explain the album’s reach in 1996, but it says little about how the songs relate to one another. For that, the track sequence is more useful.
The 2016 Deluxe Edition also documents a hidden “Jōnetsu (radio mix)” after sixty seconds of silence following “ランデブー” (Rendezvous). It is important to distinguish that documented edition from the original 1996 CD, whose standard published track listing names eleven songs.
Thirty years later, the clearest way into 11 may still be its most familiar single. Listening onward from the album version of “Rhythm” to the dub treatment of “Jōnetsu”, and then to the gentler passages around them, reveals what UA and her collaborators put together in October 1996.