Gekijo by natori (Album Review) ▸ J-Music Exchange/Rate
Does the ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ idiom apply here?
Does the ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ idiom apply here?
Hello and welcome back to yet another J-Music Exchange/Rate review! First off, I apologize yet again for delaying a review; I was on vacation for the latter half of May and it got in the way of me finishing this so… yeah (lol). No other excus- I mean, explanations here (although, I will be talking about said trip in a future post so stay tuned) but better late than never!
And in case you’re not familiar with what this is, this is a little segment that I do with my good friend/fellow Japanese music enthusiast Leap250 where we both give each other an album from our respective libraries, listen to them and later review on our own blogs. For the past four years, this has been a great opportunity for both of us to share cool music with each other and diversify our tastes in Japanese music, and we hope that all of you reading have a similar experience as ours.
And as always, Leap and I take turns choosing a specific theme to base our album choices for each month, and for the month of May (which also happens to be our four year anniversary of the Exchange/Rate segment!), Leap decided to talk about albums that changed our initial perception of a band/artist. For me, and I’m sure I can speak for Leap as well, there have been a good handful of artists I’ve come across that have been a bit underwhelming at first, whether it be through a track of theirs that went viral or just something that I discovered one day. However, once I gave some of them a second chance, I understood them on a much deeper level and ended up liking them a lot more. So that’s basically what we’ve dealing with here today.
That said, here are our choices: Leap went ahead and tossed over the first full-length album from the up-and-coming artist natori, titled Gekijo; while I gave him It’s a small world by the seiyuu/voice actress music duo 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝕞𝕠𝕖.
Let’s jump right in!
natori (なとり) is a Japanese singer-songwriter. He was brought up from a music-appreciating family and natori fell in love with a variety of Japanese artists such as Gesu no Kiwami Otome, flumpool, ORANGE RANGE and especially Yonezu Kenshi. He began writing/composing original songs and eventually got his public start in May of 2021, after posting a snippet of a ‘work-in-progress’ song on his TikTok account (which would later become what is now know as “Terminal”). natori would continue to use TikTok as a platform for sharing his work, and even got his big (or rather, ginormous) break with the release of “Overdose” in September 2022. It was quickly well-received, as it gained millions of views/plays on YouTube and music streaming services, as well as the song being used within many social media posts.
natori would continue to ride this wave of success with the release of more songs, with him eventually releasing a full album in December 2023. Additionally, natori held his first one-man live in the spring of 2024.
As of this post’s publication date, natori has released one studio album and nine singles.
(info sources: Billboard Japan, Ongaku Natalie, Rolling Stone Japan)
Tracklist
Gekijo / 劇場
fool’s table / 食卓
Sarushibai / 猿芝居
Overdose
Friday night / フライデー・ナイト
Sleepwalk
Osmanthus / 金木犀
A Night to Sing with You / 夜の歯車
Eureka / エウレカ
Cult.
Love Song / ラブソング
Terminal / ターミナル
Curtain Call / カーテンコール
Released: 2023.12.20
There was a period of time, specifically that brief window between Overdose reaching peak levels of popularity on Japanese TikTok of all places almost immediately after it came out in September 2022 and natori's follow up single Sarushibai in January 2023, where I was convinced without a shadow of a doubt that he was just going to be a one hit wonder. Wild take, I know. I own up to that. However you also have to understand that at the time it felt like a perfectly defensible one to be making. Like, sure, in hindsight that doesn't seem like too far of a gap in between releases, but I do believe I speak for a lot of people when I say that back then it did genuinely seem like it was taking him a while to come out with something new. I distinctly remember looking through his channel to see if natori was working on anything new once the Overdose hype train started to slow down, only to be met with just a bunch of demo tracks he was working on and not much else. I even started to wonder too whether or not the song got too big for him, and that he might have struggled to create something even remotely replicable, as is wont to happen with most songs that end up going viral for some reason or another.
When Sarushibai came out, and then Friday Night not long after that, I actually felt a little vindicated with the things I said and thought about natori. Neither song "hit" the same as Overdose. The hooks weren't as catchy, and both of them didn't have the same loop-able tempo that people came to love about what was looking to be natori's flash-in-the-pan opus. Feeling as there was enough evidence now that supported my earlier claim, I wrote him and his succeeding works off completely. A good while after, I would come to find out that natori was coming out with an album; Gekijou. It would have been roughly a year at this point since I last listened to a song by him and, looking fondly back at how much I listened to Overdose, I thought to give the album a shot. I was already doing the same for albums that I missed before the new year so I figured, why not? I would then proceed to realize that I was wrong about the man all along. The more I listened to his songs, the more his core musical structures began to make sense, and before long it would become one of my most played albums from that year and counting.
1 ▸ the impressive rise of natori
Just like probably the majority of people who indulge in Japanese media/music, this is definitely not my first go-around with natori and his music. I initially found out about him through the viral hit that is “Overdose”, and while I admittedly and mostly think about the various covers that people have made of this track rather than natori’s own version (a couple of my favorites being the ones from POLKADOT STINGRAY’s Shizuku and Raychell of BanG Dream/RAISE A SUILEN fame), I’ve always enjoyed listening to it since it really is a cool and catchy tune. The steady percussion, the mellow-yet-bright keyboard playing in the back, the bassline is tight and to top it all off, natori showcases his deeper vocals that fit pretty well with a low-key song like “Overdose”. It’s even more interesting to learn that, according to an interview he did with Rolling Stone Japan, natori did take music trends into consideration and- sort of, analyze what made viral songs click when he wrote/composed this track. And to now see it be widely appreciated, used within thousands of TikToks and Instagram reels, and almost have 200 million plays on Spotify… it’s pretty astounding to see the sky-high trajectory of natori’s career and what he managed to pull off here.
That said, I kinda get why Leap chose this album in particular when it came to this month’s theme. Don’t think it’s much of a reach to relate natori’s success so far to the likes of Vaundy or his good friend imase, where it *essentially* only took one song for these solo indie producers/vocalists/artists to pop off and become household names within Japanese pop and music culture (imase with “NIGHT DANCER”, Vaundy with “odoriko” or “Kaiju no Hanauta”). And natori does seem to be experiencing the same outcomes as those two, since his popularity is certainly not waning and the songs he put out after “Overdose” still get millions of views/listens. The point I”m trying to get at here is that when it comes to these types of artists who crash onto the music scene with this one super viral track, some folk could have doubts that they may not have the ability to follow it up with something as good, different and/or better than that first popular hit. In the case of natori, the bar was certainly set pretty dang high with a track like “Overdose” and he even said that its massive reception made him feel a bit anxious and lose confidence in himself (according to that same RSJ interview)... yet, and like I mentioned earlier, I do feel like this most recent album release of his in Gekijo shows that he is much more than a potential ‘one-hit wonder’.
2 ▸ a surprisingly diverse showing
One reason why I say that can be explained from the few couple tracks on this album, as you’re able to hear significantly different atmospheres, sounds and, most importantly, instruments being used. Coming from someone who only really listened to “Overdose” before taking a stab at Gekijo, never did I expect natori to start off with a wild, jazzy tune in the album’s title track which featured blaring horns, bouncy bass and even some strange ad-libbed noises like him coughing or pouring water in a glass. I honestly thought this was a really strong beginning to the album, especially with how crazy and ‘in-your-face’ it is; think it also easily reflects the ‘theater’ themes that were already established within the album’s title and cover art, as it definitely feels like a ‘grand’ opening number to a theater play or circus show.
What follows is natori going even further into- I’d say, experimenting with new instruments, styles, paces and sounds that keeps the album fresh and interesting throughout. “Sarushibai” goes heavy with the resonant basslines (even threw in a couple cool solos) and the hook intertwining natori’s vocals with record scratches was an interesting touch. I enjoyed his take on a more rock-focused song in “Eureka”; not only did he execute it in a pretty solid way (via strong uses of guitar riffs and loud drumming) but it did also remind me of certain Japanese rock tracks that I’ve heard in the past, which made it feel a bit nostalgic. Even a more simple-sounding pop song like “Friday night”, with its easy-going instrumentals, felt nice to listen to and didn’t feel too out of place in this album’s tracklist.
But probably my favorite ‘aspect’ of Gekijo was 100% the use and implementation of an acoustic guitar. I dunno about you but based on my initial knowledge of natori’s music, I would’ve thought that he would kinda stick with the ‘electronic’ vibe that was heard in “Overdose” (meaning he’d lean more towards the synths, etc). But to my surprise, he really did go hard with the acoustic guitar in many of the tracks on this album; some of which ended up becoming ones that I favored the most. With how busy “Osmanthus” sounded, I was still able to appreciate the acoustic guitar heard throughout, especially when it’s given an opportunity to shine a bit between the choruses and verses (same sentiments can be said for “Love Song”). And yeah, while the guitar does take a bit of a backseat in a good handful of the tracks that include it, it still does its job fantastically and adds a cool little touch to the already intense/lively songs like “Osmanthus”, “Cult.” and “Terminal”.
And going even further, I do feel like it's best shown off in a song like “A Night to Sing with You”, aka hands down my favorite track on the album. Everything comes together so well with the super nice guitar picking performance, natori’s more somber vocals and harmonization, the backing instrumentals, and so on. It’s very a raw-sounding song that creates a calming atmosphere within it, making it fitting for its title; something that would be so nice to listen to during the winding hours of the day (maybe even in front of a campfire… but that’s just my personal interpretation at this point lol). While “A Night to Sing with You” certainly feels like more of an outlier in terms of the overall themes and styles that are heard on Gekijo… as I’ve said in many of my recent Exchange/Rate reviews, tracks like this honestly do a great job giving us a breather from the craziness heard on this album so far. And that’s something that I’ve seemed to appreciate more and more as a music fan, with this one being another great example.
3 ▸ natori’s smooth + consistent vocals
Continuing off that point, another strong suit I noticed within Gekijo is that natori’s vocals legitimately feel like the main reason why this album sounds really consistent. Sure, you can probably say that it’s because his voice is pretty same-ish throughout many tracks where he has a much deeper, dark-sounding and almost alluring tone (also, I may be off-base with this comparison but I am reminded a bit of fellow JP singer-songwriter Eve whenever I listen to natori). But jeez, I kept thinking how well he was able to bring this entire album together with his vocal performances; to the point where, despite many of these songs sounding a bit different from one another, it didn’t feel that jarring.
Because of that, it kinda showed the ‘versatility’ of natori’s voice. Whether he’s performing alongside a hectic jazz number, a traditional rock song, or even something that’s more on the imitate side… to me, his vocals and the way he sings fit most of the compositions that were heard on Gekijo. His ability to even reach a few high notes when he needed to, such as in “Sleepwalk”, seemed very well-executed and because of those things, I gradually started to like and appreciate natori’s voice more and more throughout my time with this album, especially during my more recent listens. And like I alluded to earlier, I would certainly compare his vocals to other solo singers with indie/utaite backgrounds such as Eve or yama or Ado or ZUTOMAYO; not only in terms of how good and consistent they sound, but I do feel like natori has the potential to become a pretty recognizable doujin-style singer within the current Japanese pop landscape.
After reading a few web interviews that natori did, I really started to like who this person is, where he came from and the overall mindset he has when it comes to creating music. While he does lean very heavy into music trends, engagement stats and the types of songs/sounds that get you the most amount of exposure (especially in the environment of online social media sites), I could still tell that the songs which were shown on Gekijo are ones that he truly enjoyed coming up with. He has a genuine appreciation for writing and composing songs, and I feel like it’s even more telling when you consider his musical influences and, most notably, the variety of styles and instruments he showed off in this album.
Being able to hear him branch out towards tones that are- I’d say, pretty different from the one we all heard within “Overdose”, he was able to display his musical talent and expertise, as many of these songs were really well-executed. Giving off a funky vibe on the keyboard in “Sleepwalk”, creating a soothing and amorous aura with “A Night to Sing with You”, and even showing a sense of cool album composition with the last song kinda tying everything together (as you get to get a quick summary of what you just heard through tiny snippets of the previous songs) and continuing the ‘theater’ theme… not that this is something that should be important when taking in Gekijo as a whole, but I do feel like natori showed that he is so much more than a guy who made a popular TikTok sound. THAT is how well of a job he did with creating his first full-length album.
Rating: 8.5/10
Aaaaand that’s all I got for you today!
Again, sorry for posting this late but regardless, this was a pretty sweet album to listen to and review. I honestly didn’t have much interest in natori after his sudden stardom, but I’m glad I got to hear some of his other stuff cause it really is solid. He’s gotten off to a great start to his young career and I’m definitely looking forward to whatever he releases next.
Now that you’re finished here, head on over to Leap’s blog where he talked about my choice for this month: It’s a small world by the seiyuu artist duo harmoe. It’s actually a pretty fascinating album if you ask me, and if you’re in any way familiar with the Revue Starlight (and D4DJ) series, you’ll probably recognize the two members in that vocal unit so click here to see what Leap said about it!
Thanks for reading!! :D
-al