Tapestry of Songs: The Best of Angela Aki | ||||
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Regular edition cover
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Compilation album by Angela Aki | ||||
Released | March 5, 2014 | |||
Recorded | 2005–2013 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length |
74:08 151:46 |
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Language | Japanese, English | |||
Label | Epic Records Japan | |||
Angela Aki chronology | ||||
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Singles from Tapestry of Songs | ||||
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Tapestry of Songs: The Best of Angela Aki is a greatest hits album by Japanese singer-songwriter Angela Aki, released on March 5, 2014. The album compiles Aki's singles released from 2005, until her final single "Yume no Owari, Ai no Hajimari" in 2013 before her hiatus. The album was also released in a special two disc version, featuring additional songs Aki considered her favorites.
In July 2012, Aki released her sixth Japanese original album, Blue, led by the single "Kokuhaku", a song that was used as the ending theme song for the anime Space Brothers. A year later, Aki released the single "Yume no Owari, Ai no Hajimari", a collaboration with producer Seiji Kameda, featuring an entirely computer generated arrangement.
After releasing Life in 2010, Aki felt as if she were in a slump, and was not inspired to write music. In January 2011, Aki discovered she had an ectopic pregnancy, after taking ill. After these things, soon followed by the tragedy of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Aki contacted a close friend and author, to collaborate on a musical project. She had met him during her unsigned years in Japan (2003-2004), at the same time he was having difficulties becoming published. Eventually the book became a best-seller, which he one day hoped to turn into a musical. Aki eventually decided she would enrol in a music school in the United States in order to study how to write Broadway musicals. She decided she could not continue her career in Japan, as she did not want to split her efforts and underperform. At 37 years of age, Aki also felt it was her last chance to realise such a project before it was too late.
Aki plans to look for a house immediately after her final Japanese concert in August 2014 for her family to live in, before her school term begins in Autumn 2014.
The project was first unveiled on November 30, 2011. Disc 1 features all of Aki's singles, including her digital single "Again" (2007) and both A-sides of "Hajimari no Ballad/I Have a Dream" (2011). The limited edition featured a bonus CD, featuring Aki's favorite songs not already found on the first disc. She compiled this CD as she believed the songs released as singles were not fully representative of her work, singling out "Uchū" and "Moral no Sōshiki" as songs with "dark world views" which were not singles. The limited edition also contained a DVD containing most of Aki's music videos. It excludes "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (2009), and her three videos from her independent period, "Aisuru Mono", "Rain" and "We're All Alone" (2005).