Perfect* albums

[Jassassino]

There's a couple I want to post about and write about, but one takes priority; that's 'An Insatiable High' by Masayoshi Takanaka.
(Mooooom! Grandad is talking about Takanaka again!)


This album is such a versatile and tight piece of art. Takanaka is one of, if not my number one all-time favourite musician these days, and his guitar solos are so intricately characteristic of him as a person - it's rare, truly rare I feel, that somebody's absolute personality can shine through an album, but listening to this - I feel like I'm with him on a beach in Brazil, sipping a cocktail and listening to him groove. He knows exactly when to punctuate the song with jazz rhythms and fun, funky licks and the samba style backing gives it a perfect backdrop. I've listened to this album the whole way through countless times on longer runs, and where I previously said it's versatile - that's where it really shines and demonstrates itself to be so - it can not only accompany you on a chilled out afternoon in the garden with some friends on a summer's day, it's not only beach or rest and reset tracks, but it's upbeat, fun, motivating dance tunes which you can pace yourself to whilst on a run, sun beating down on your shoulders and sweat lightly dripping from your hair - when you feel like you can't take another step, songs like Sexy Dance or E. S. P. come on your shuffle and your foot just naturally lifts with a bubble of air beneath and a slight jolt of energy down your calf. 

One of the first times I listened to this album on a long run was when I ran from my home village in Kent to a neighbouring seaside town - along the route, there's a mile long straight road with nothing but wheat fields surrounding it - in the distance, you can just make out the beach and sea around 4 or 5 miles out, past the field on the left is a train track - never before have I felt bliss (an insatiable high, if you will) as running down that road whilst listening to this album, running down that road, sun on my back and a train gradually rolling by. I'd recently finished replaying Persona 4 Golden for the first time in a while at that point, so I felt a deep fondness for 'small town' life at that time too, and it felt truly cathartic to enjoy that experience as a more wholesome, unique element to where I lived just before moving to London.