My discovery of Angela Aki's music was pretty much a leap of faith. I had no initial interest whatsoever towards listening to her music even though back then I almost always came across her name on forums because people were always talking about her during the Home era.
That was when I made a trip down to HMV at the ~*tender age*~ of 12 in early 2007 and chanced upon her Home album and thought, what the heck, I'll just give this caucasian-looking chick a shot (Clearly back then torrenting or downloading wasn't exactly a thing I knew about - I was a law-abiding citizen alright). I even wondered whether or not she made English or Japanese music because of her name and perceivable race lol.
Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with her music. Back then, my Japanese music knowledge wasn't exactly great (the only artists I listened to were ayumi hamasaki and Utada Hikaru, and back then I actually disliked Koda Kumi) so listening to her organic, light piano pop songs were somewhat a breath of fresh air. To date, Home probably remains as one of the best Japanese records ever made, at least to me. At one point, I even considered learning the piano because I was so captivated by her live performances. Of course, I was too lazy to actually make that happen.
As of today, Angela Aki has officially embarked on an indefinite hiatus from her Japanese music career to enter a music college in the United States, and I have also embarked on an indefinite period of depression. But you know what they say — don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened (woohoo for clichés)!
Angela has undeniably left behind a kickass tapestry of songs for us to always remember her music by and more often than not, we tend to undermine just how talented Angela Aki is. She never needed glamour whatsoever to support herself — her music was all it took, and that is exactly how badass Angela Aki is. Chances are, she can outsing all of your faves any time of the day, and can probably outmassage your faves too (after playing the piano for so many years, imagine just now much force her fingers can exert on your aching shoulders? holy shitballs)
But let's not mope over the Japanese music industry's loss of talent and celebrate her existence by talking about the number of fucks Angela Aki really gives everybody.
