Friends [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]

I'd seen Erina Mano perform as something of a novelty act inserted into the middle of Hello! Project Wonderful Hearts or Elder Club concerts where she comes out and sits at a keyboard and plays and sings a somewhat haunting little song mildly at odds with the rest of the concert. Then I saw her own "Debut Concert," which I've reviewed here, and was treated to a whole concert of such numbers, which wasn't a bad thing at all. Ever since getting hooked on "Hajimete no Kei Ken" and "Lucky Aura," I've been waiting for her first full-length CD album and here it is. I finally get to hear her songs without watching her seated at a piano or keyboard while wearing a party dress or dancing with the members of S/mileage. It's just her voice and the music. I like it. It's the best example of her work I've yet encountered. The highlights are, of course, "Hajimete no Kei Ken" and "Lucky Aura," songs that are sweet, bouncy and impossibly catchy. And the rest of the songs on this are pretty good, too. While the faster songs are fun ("Osozaki Musume," "Sekai wa Summer Party"), I especially liked the softer, gentler tunes, including tracks 4 ("Itsumo Itsudemo"), 5 ("Rara Sososo") and 9 ("Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo"). Several of the songs have an older American pop song vibe ("Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo" made me think of Connie Francis ca. 1960), which is fine with me. Track 11 ("Oyasuminasai") has nice Brazilian-flavored instrumentals. Only one or two songs came close to annoying me, tracks 8 ("Santa no Saxophone") and 10 ("Matsuge no Saki ni Kimi ga Iru"), but they don't do much damage. And Erina's actually a pretty darn good singer. You hear it more in studio recordings than in live performances. I wish they'd give her a greater range of things to do. The kid's got great possibilities. All in all, quite an enjoyable listen. This edition of the CD comes with a DVD that offers a 54-minute "History" of Miss Mano. Actually, after three childhood photos, it cuts to her stint with Ongaku Gatas, when she was 16, and continues on to last year (2009), when she turned 18. So it's really a short period, but there's lots of footage: concerts, backstage, rehearsals, promo events, press conferences, handshake lines, TV dramas, commercials, etc. And she introduces each of the 4 segments from some pretty odd settings. Fascinating stuff. The more I see and hear of Mano, the more of a fan I am.