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MIYAVI released his newest album, Found in Pain, on Oct. 23. This new album is a companion album to Lost in Love, which he released in April.
The theme running through these two albums is “Duality.” The albums mark the first time that MIYAVI has created a set of albums with a single united concept. They are also the first original album releases in three years for MIYAVI, who has been traveling around the world as a rock musician, actor, and humanitarian aid worker. With this pair of albums, MIYAVI has nimbly transcended his past public image, boldly exploring new territory. He has created an explosive and ambitious work that suddenly opens a new chapter in this artist’s life.

What led him to want to explore this theme? MIYAVI’s motivation lies in giving people courage, energy, and a zest for life, both through the music that he writes and plays and through his humanitarian aid efforts. His goal is to be someone whose path in life moves others to find their own strength to carry on. That’s why MIYAVI goes out on stage, a samurai guitarist, exuding the aura of a rock star. It’s why he makes such a striking impression as he plays his guitar, his powerful and energetic vocal delivery combining with his stage performance to excite the audience and elevate their spirits with his positivity. But while some people are receptive to that kind of straight-forward encouragement—to being told “you can do it”—there are also people who feel crushed by the reality around them. People who can’t put their chin up and push forward, even though they might want to. In his humanitarian aid work, there have been times where MIYAVI couldn’t simply tell someone “You can do it.” In these albums, he wanted to share the loneliness, pain, fear, and conflict he has faced as a rock star. He wanted to show people how he struggled with these issues and how he overcame them by grappling with his own weaknesses and overcoming them, discovering new sides of himself. By depicting this process, he wished to send out a message to those facing their own struggles. That is what led him to create these two albums.

One of the noteworthy things about the albums is that they use a lyrical approach that differs completely from past albums. What’s more, the music and sound of the songs, depicting subtle changes in states of mind, are unlike anything in his previous work. MIYAVI created the songs on the two albums by jamming with a prodigious number of collaborators, beat-makers, and producer. He has taken on the challenge of writing songs in previously unexplored veins. While Lost In Love has darker songs and opulent mid-tempo tunes, Found In Pain has everything from cheery dance numbers to full-fledge ballads. To convey subtle changes in states of mind using a storytelling approach, all of the lyrics on the songs on both albums are entirely in English. Another notable feature of the albums is that, along with these English lyrics, the music itself has a consistently Western groove, with no effort to include J-pop-like melodies.

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Even on first listen, the most striking aspects of the albums are MIYAVI’s vocals. Falsetto, multilayered harmonies, sultry vocals, whispered singing that is almost like speaking directly to the listener—MIYAVI’s talents as a front man are on clear display as he switches between diverse vocal styles not seen on previous albums, acting out the emotions depicted in the varied songs and lyrics. His talent can be stunning. The listener will find themselves thinking “Is this MIYAVI singing?” “I knew about the expressiveness of his guitar playing, but I had no idea that he had such emotional range in his singing, too.” MIYAVI has clearly awakened as a vocalist and singer on these two albums.

MIYAVI has been able to showcase his abilities as a vocalist, sharing his message through his melodious singing, precisely because he has so thoroughly established his identity as a musician through his main instrument of choice, the guitar. As if to demonstrate this, on these two albums, one seldom hears his past approach of singing through his guitar, or focusing on the kinds of phrases that would best highlight his guitar-playing. On these two albums, the highest priority is arranging the songs to best showcase the essence and flavor of their melodies. While on previous albums, keyboard parts or guitar parts by other musicians would be replaced by MIYAVI’s own guitar playing on the final song, on these albums, he kept these parts as-is when they worked well. It’s one of the things to listen for on the albums. The delicate phrasing and tone of MIYAVI’s guitar parts, and each of his performances, stands out with an even greater sense of presence, arranged with pinpoint accuracy.

The best way to listen to MIYAVI’s two latest albums is back-to-back.

The first album, Lost In Love, starts with “Intro,” which opens the gates to the darkness within ones heart. This is followed by “Broken Fantasy,” with its memorable head-shaking choreography. The hip-hop-styled “Real Monster” starts out with falsetto vocals before launching into rap. Then there is “Tragedy Of Us,” a song with a dark, heart-wrenching melody, followed by “Last Breath,” which, through its piano and whispered vocals, punctuated by MIYAVI’s lightning-like guitars, bids a farewell to pain, smothering love, and the darkness within. Heading into the second album, Found In Pain, the first track is the eponymous “Found In Pain,” which starts with a gospel-like chorus and evolves into a dance beat, like a phoenix being reborn and taking flight. On “You Already Know,” MIYAVI, Fender in hand, tells the true story of his own life, starting with his struggles as a teen. “I’m So Amazing” is a collaboration with one of the legends of funk, George Clinton. Later comes “Put Your Hands On Me,” a ballad with sensual lyrics and vocals. The album comes to an end with “One More Time” and “Sanctuary,” through which MIYAVI shares that no matter how his dreams might be dashed and his hope might be lost, his guitar gives him wings to fly, and every time he sings he soars up into the air. For him, music is a holy place. It is a place where he can rediscover his dreams and his will to live, bringing him face to face with himself and allowing him to discover new sides of himself.

One can only hope that this masterwork, in which MIYAVI constantly explores new territory, reaches the people who truly need to hear it, so that MIYAVI’s music can help give them hope and a renewed will to live.

—This article by Sachie Tokito first appeared on Billboard Japan