All too often, albums of cover songs are just stopgap efforts put out by artists whose creative juices have run dry. So when I heard that Ringo Shina was making her comeback in the form of a covers album after taking a year's maternity leave, I was skeptical. But my expectations were raised as the names of the songs she was covering were announced one after another on her Web site. It was a weirdly eclectic list, including songs as utterly different as The Beatles' "Yer Blues" and "I Wanna be Loved by You" from the movie "Some Like It Hot."

I've been listening to the album, titled "Utaite Myori -- Sono Ichi" (which translates very roughly as "I'm So Happy to Be a Singer -- Volume 1") over the past few days, and it is anything but a time-filling, contractual obligation collection. In fact, I think it's one of the best albums released in Japan so far this year.

The first thing that strikes you is just how widely Shina has cast her net in gathering material to cover on this two-CD set. Besides Japanese, she sings in English, German, French and Portuguese. And she tackles the foreign-language songs with assurance and aplomb. Not many Japanese artists could handle this kind of linguistic challenge.