Top Runner

Well, what would you guess? Rie goes as hard rocking and fast driving as ever. Nothing new so far. But Rie knows to satisfy. Her music is a great example of headbanging heavy rock, joining with beautiful melodies and technical skills aswell. For 'Top Runner' she obtained the support of Mitsuru Sutoh and Shingo Tanaka (both: T-Square) and Juna Serita on electric bass, and 16-yrs.-old Kanade Sato (Ear Candy Jazz Factory) on drums - some really tight Rhythm Group combinations, that lead Rie through all the songs in just perfect manner. Beneath all these hard rocking and sometimes melodically fine tunes, one song is to mention particularly: 'Wangan Street' is an uptempo rocksong with a lot of different components and feels - partly melodic, hard-driving, sometimes funky and even jazzy… - really overwhelming! My personal favorite. The only point to criticize is the lack of balance between guitar and bass/drums, and a littly to much reverb on guitar and snare drum, which makes the sound too washy for me. But that does not affect the superb work on instruments, and the great songwriting. So, if you know Rie already, there's not much more to say. If you don't: check it out! You won't regret!