OTO MAYUMI - Good and Bad Shades (2023)

In December, OTO MAYUMI, an Italian-Japanese singer-songwriter, released her debut studio album "Good and Bad Shades" in digital (download and streaming) and physical CD formats. 

Oto wrote about the album: "It talks about the “grey” side of people. Complex, twisted and often contradictory emotions that every human being experiences. There is not only black and white in people’s life. Life is a continuous intersection of beautiful and bad things, which mixed together create different shades of grey".

The album is comprised of 10 songs for 37 minutes of music. The opener "Kahami mite Goran" opens with a very tasty guitar riff and the song features a very catchy chorus. Very good choice as an opener and very good song. Very peculiar vocals for the beginning of the second track "Haisuikou no gomi", very original. "Asso" and "Datte" are extremely radio-friendly and are among my favourites on the album (fantastic guitars on the second one!). 

Going forward, very jazzy is the beginning of "MNHR" (very cool arrangement and great pop/rock chorus), and very energetic are "Owl" (great rhythm section and guitars!), "Zembu" (pure alternative rock from the 90s!), "Lavender" (very cool riffs and bass lines) and "Tsuki ni Kiku", showing the rock side of Oto while the closing track "Red, Blue and Violet" is different in the pace/mood and in the production, with electronic sounds and synths. A very atmospheric track, different from the rest but definitely interesting.  

"Good and Bad Shades"  is a very enjoyable and quality album, well written and arranged, with lots of contaminations and very well performed by Oto and her band. Give it a go by clicking on the Spotify player below and remember to follow OTO MAYUMI on social media.

https://linktr.ee/otomayumi
https://www.facebook.com/OTOMAYUMIofficial/
https://twitter.com/oto_mayumi0204
https://www.instagram.com/mayumi___0204/
https://www.tiktok.com/@mayumi24official