spiritual state (Japan Version)

Spiritual State remains faithful to the signature Nujabes sound - hip-hop beats infused with acid jazz compositions. The album slowly eases listeners into its tone with opening track Spiritual State (completed by fellow hip-hop producer Uyama Hiroto), which features a strong piano and light percussion presence - not exactly typical hip-hop material.

Spiritual State does finally get into its groove with Sky is Tumbling (Track 2), which has frequent collaborator Cise Star (of CYNE) on rap vocals. The song is a better representation of the album's general tone and atmosphere, which is essentially an evolved version of acid jazz. In Nujabes' music, the English-language rap lyrics and other hip-hop elements are only part of Nujabe's complex musical structure.

In fact, it's Nujabes' complex arrangement style that sets his easy listening jazz compositions and arrangements apart from his contemporaries. Unlike typical hip-hop music that hits listeners with aggressive beats, the hip-hop flavor in Spiritual State and the rest of Nujabes' works is exactly that - a flavor. It is only one of the several elements at work in each song, meaning that Nujabes' works can appeal to a broad spectrum of music fans with its addictive hooks, rich arrangements, and of course, smooth beats.

Rather than just pointing out several individual tracks worth recommending, Spiritual State is better experienced from beginning to end. Despite different compositions, the album has a unified style that remains consistent from beginning to end, perhaps with the exception of the samba-style Yes and the exotic Far Fowls. After several listens, Spiritual State becomes more than just music; it becomes a long hypnotic trip into Nujabes' world - a world that will sadly never produce new works again. However, what's great about music is that they live on forever once they're complete, and it's never too late to discover the greatness of Nujabes.