Samurai Japan is the last solo release from X Japan's vocalist Toshi. It is a mini-album with 4 songs. All written and produced by Toshi himself. Samurai Japan also features X Japan's Pata and Sugizo on guitars.
The first song "Airport" sounds like an X ballad without Yoshiki's keyboard-mashing piano riffs. The song shows that Toshi's voice is still in good shape. "Airport" focuses on the topic of memories... painful memories. Ideal for my playlist for sentimental days.
The second song, "Amaoto" (translated "Sound of Rain"), is a very slow ballad and is nine minutes long. Fit for an ending of a drama movie. This shows the influence of Toshi's healing music career. The violin pieces are done by Sugizo as well.
The third song, "Samurai Japan", attempts a sort of hard rock sound. We hear Pata in action on this one. It's upbeat, the audience can sing along and jump in it's melody but nothing fancy.
The final song "Haru no Ibuki" (translated "Breath of Spring") has nice acoustic riffs done by Sugizo. Still, it demonstrates the power of Toshi's voice. Consisting of just vocals and an acoustic guitar, this song turned out to be a very nice finale.
Overall, Samurai Japan is a mini album containing a set of very simple songs, It's not as showy as the materials from X which is a good thing. The songs are calm and can be relaxing. It is also a nice way for Toshi to say goodbye to his solo career (He did mention that he will be focusing on X Japan projects)
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