Hang on a minute, how did this happen? Somehow hippie-loving 1960s-throwback pop songstress Superfly has got, like, totally heavy, man. While her previous studio album, 2009's "Box Emotions," featured a couple of belters, new release "Mind Travel" does away with soppy ballads almost completely, favoring instead a sound that takes as its starting point classic hard rock.
It's still pop, of course — No. 1 mainstream artists rarely revolutionize their sound that much, at least not in Japan. But while the production is still silky smooth, "Mind Travel" just sounds cooler from every angle; more relaxed yet more powerful.
Wearing a casual summer dress and looking pretty chilled as we chat at her management company's office in Tokyo's Ebisu district, Shiho Ochi — aka Superfly, whose impressive lungs sound bigger than her tiny frame could possibly allow — explains some of the reasons why.