VELVET THUNDER

Upiko has created thirteen small masterpieces of varying moods, all united by her distinctive voice and her unerring ability to draw out beautiful melodies.

Upiko is most likely a name that is unknown to you, as it was to me a few weeks back. It’s the stage name of a young female Japanese singer-songwriter whose real name seems to be a bit of a secret. She moved to Tokyo in 2020 to pursue a music career and gained some initial visibility by posting covers on TikTok and YouTube prior to her 2024 breakthrough song, Crow. That led to a debut album, and this present release is her sophomore effort. The first thing that strikes you immediately about Upiko is her image. While Japanese artists in general seem to love bright, colourful and often extravagant atire, Upiko dresses almost exclusively in sombre black. She is usually shot holding her trusted acoustic guitar, as if to remind people that she can actually write and play songs (perhaps distancing herself from the multitude of Japanese Idols that can rarely do either?). That serious look certainly aligns well with the mood of her music and her lyrics (which have been described as exploring themes of loneliness, youth resilience, and societal struggles).  

Getting to the music itself, the second thing that strikes you about Upiko is her voice. It’s definitely not your typical bright J-pop voice, and instead is bluesy and husky, residing mostly in the lower registers. I’m not sure you could say it is an attractive voice as such but it’s a powerful one and Upiko has an innate ability to communicate deep emotions, even managing to overcome the non-trivial obstacle (for Western listeners) of singing in Japanese much of the time. Musically, Upiko is a classic singer-songwriter, not sounding dissimilar to many of the Anglo-Saxon singer songwriting stars of the ‘70s. Even though her acoustic guitar is her main instrument, this is not some folksy acoustic guitar-based album – there are plenty of band and orchestral arrangements across the thirteen songs of Upheaval. Thirteen songs might imply lots of short material but there are only three tracks less than four minutes in length, with several getting towards the six-minute mark.

Upheaval opens with Fate, something of a hard rocker. It opens with Upiko’s distinctive voice singing the chorus accompanied only by acoustic guitar before a heavy riff emerges. There’s a frenetic verse with pummelling percussion before the chorus bursts in brilliantly again. It’s a surprisingly energetic track and surely heavier than anything she has done before. Her vocals are on the aggressive side compared to elsewhere, but she’s certainly got the vocal power to carry a track like this, and Fate is one of the highlights of the album.

Another highlight is the irresistible My Savior which has a lovely melody which races along breathlessly, initially supported by frenetic acoustic guitars (reminding me oddly of the legendary Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André), and gradually becoming lusher as orchestral elements take over.  Not only is this a great song, but it’s also an example of the excellent production you can hear throughout this album. Wrapping up the more upbeat numbers are another hard rocker, The Words Stuck In My Throat Burn – a good song but not at the level of Fate, and the cheerfully optimistic closing track, Look Up To the Sky, which is a good bookend to finish matters with a smile.

While Upiko shows that she can rock, it’s when the pace slows down, and the emotion in her voice comes through, that she really shines. Take the superb Angels On Earth, for example, which opens gently with just voice and piano before the sublime slow-moving melody builds up to a striving chorus in the style of a bombastic ‘70s power ballad.  It’s quite brilliant and probably the standout track on the album. In contrast to Angels On Earth, the beautiful Lotus uses the orchestra much more sparingly. It tends to ebb and flow through the song in support of another stunning melody. Here, Upiko wrings every ounce of emotion out of her voice. A fabulous performance.

Slightly more left-field is the slow-burner Tokyo which starts tentatively with voice and piano and a slight jazzy feel to it. You think it’s going to maintain that mood, but Upiko can’t resist the impressive big orchestral arrangement for the final chorus.  There are however a couple of tracks which are just pure voice and acoustic guitar(s), shorn of the orchestral elements. Life Goes On is one of these and it has a simple chorus and a world-weary feel about it, while My Diary has another fine melody, even if to these ears it has echoes of John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads to it. 

Curiously, the two most well-known songs from 2024’s Compass album are re-presented here in different guises: a lush orchestral version of Crow which I feel is better than the original; and an acoustic reworking of the rocker Weak Warriors With Broken Wings, which works best in the first part where the pace is slowed down considerably.  

In Upheaval, Upiko has created thirteen small masterpieces of varying moods, all united by her distinctive voice and her unerring ability to draw out beautiful melodies. One to hear for sure, even if you don’t understand a word of Japanese!