Why monkey with a winning formula? That seems to be the logic behind singer/songwriter Hitomi Yaida's third album, "i/flancy," which reached No. 1 on the Oricon album chart for the week ending Oct. 28.
Like her previous albums, "i/flancy" includes punchy rock numbers like the opening track, "Creamed Potatoes" and the brilliantly catchy "Andante," delicate ballads such as "I Really Want to Understand You," as well as midtempo tracks like "Ring My Bell."
As with her previous album, "Candlize," Yaida and her producers (the four-man collective Diamond Head) have done a great job in sequencing the songs on "i/flancy." Deciding which song will follow which on a record doesn't exactly sound like rocket science, but getting it just right -- knowing when to alternate between "peaks" and "valleys" -- can make all the difference in terms of an album's success.