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Both relaxing and absorbing, her smooth voice seems to come right from her heart and goes straight to yours. Knowing when to use a clean voice or pour emotion into it at the right moment is part of the art of singing and sometimes you can tell when such a thing comes naturally. This is definitely the case here. Jane-of-all-trades, she is also a superb lyric and music writer and also handles the guitar when required.
 As with the vast
majority of solo artists, everything revolves around the vocals. The most
beautiful voice is useless if it sounds too much like all the others. Onitsuka
Chihiro excels in that sense; her voice is both shy and a bit raw
even if she can reach incredibly high and low tones. She also steers clear
of the pop-idol trends currently raging in Japan and neither sounds nor looks
anything like a carbon copy of some of the anonymous J-Pop stars out there.
It is that same rawness that also gives her songs a more genuine feel,
making most of her melancholic compositions an intense listening
experience yet all
the while comforting and pleasing.
For Chihiro, words are the focal point of her songs and she makes it a rule of thumb to always concentrate on them before the music. Trust me, it shows; rare are the repeated clichés about old boyfriends but instead we discover new facets of her personality and past with every creation. Fortunately, there is no laxity in the music department since the simple yet beautiful melodies used as complements to her prose add greatly to the air. Her songs sometimes appear repetitive but this impression comes from the almost exclusive use of piano, violins and vocals. Digging a bit deeper shows Chihiro is far from monotonous. In fact, she does a great job in keeping everything diversified while retaining a similar atmosphere throughout her albums. The beauty of it all? She is doing what she loves and works very hard to contribute to the music scene in her own personal way.
Since she had a fascination for English but hardly knew a word of it, she could only do covers of American and British songs while clumsily trying to write her own. She later learned the true beauty of her native language but it was one of such covers that got her the first place at an audition by Virgin Records. The hundreds of scribbles in her notebook eventually formed Insomnia which was an unexpected mega-hit due to the use of her second single, Gekou, as the closing theme for the Japanese drama Trick. Chihiro's latest album is called Sugar High and was a major bestseller. Do not be fooled by the small amount of tracks; with only one exception, all songs on Sugar High are well over four minutes and this album is clearly up to par with her previous works. It has been a rough couple of years for Chihiro. Fighting very hard against copy-control CDs has apparently earned her to be dropped from her record label and had to undergo throat surgery in late 2003. Since then, we have seen many television theme songs, compilations and DVDs but I cannot wait for something a little more tangible. Best of luck, Chii-chan, we'll be waiting.
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This Armor
Perhaps gained with experience, This Armor is a bit more complete than her debut album, Insomnia, and has slightly deeper lyrics. Including Infection, Ibara no Umi and Ryuuseigun the former doesn't rely as much on one hit as did her first album with Gekkou, which even has two versions of the said song. Sugar High is a very good one, as well, and I enjoy it a bit more every day.
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Why Infection?
Oh man, this begins as a pleasant but mundane Onitsuka
song, but gradually builds up tension and culminates in an ending that
shows how emotionally driven this vocalist truly is. She also goes
into much lower tones in this piece and pulls them off with aplomb.
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Official Site: http://www.universal-music.co.jp/onitsuka (Tip: use AltaVista's Babel Fish translator)
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Be on the lookout
for this rising star. With only three albums of about ten songs each, Onitsuka
Chihiro seems to have been singing all her life, as I am sure she
has. I first discovered her by accident while looking for some information
on the Japanese animation Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. It only took a
few samples to know how enjoyable her style was. 
Onitsuka
Chihiro grew up with parents who loved American music.
Listening to it day and night, she, herself, discovered a passion for
music without being able to express it concretely until the day she got
her hands on the single You Were Meant for Me by American artist Jewel Kilcher. From that moment on, she knew what she wanted to
do: write and interpret songs. She just did not know where to start.
