Ryuichi Sakamoto - Sweet Revenge (1994)

Sweet Revenge is an amazingly sophisticated album in which Sakamoto sets the distinctive and heart-rending chordal and harmonic ideas of his soundtrack work to trip-hop and neo-bossa-nova beats. The songs are fronted by a succession of guest vocalists who each contribute lyrics which add up to an amazingly coherent whole–a mature meditation on love, longing, conflict, revenge and regret. As usual, Sakamoto was ahead of his time. By spotlighting the deep poetry of J-ME and Latasha Natasha Diggs, this 1994 album anticipated by years the introspective hip-hop diva trend popularized by Lauryn Hill.

This is a moody album, by turns dark and sublime. It seems to age better than his equally brilliant 80s pop efforts like Neo-Geo, which can sound pretty dated in spots. With this in mind, I'll venture that this is Sakamoto's best pop album since YMO.

Tracks:

01. Tokyo Story (01:17)
02. Moving On (05:41)
03. Sentimental (05:56)
04. Regret (05:39)
05. Pounding at My Heart (05:30)
06. Love and Hate (05:29)
07. Sweet Revenge (04:09)
08. 7 Seconds (03:33)
09. Anna (04:46)
10. Same Dream, Same Destination (04:04)
11. Psychedelic Afternoon (04:10)
12. Interruptions (04:47)
13. Water's Edge (05:12)