The Boundary-Pushing Pop Album You Might’ve Never Heard Of
Japanese-Filipina Singer Ena Mori pushes the boundaries with DON’T BLAME THE WILD ONE!
If you’ve been over on my Instagram, The Left Ear with Lee, you’d know I’m quite the fan of ena mori.
If you’re from the Philippines, You’ve probably heard of her from the Wish 107.5 Bus, one of Manila’s most mainstream platforms for Live music.
Or you’ve heard of her from legendary musician Ely Buendia, being the flagship artist of Ely’s label, Offshore Music.
I always found her to be such an intriguing individual, specifically her peculiar appearances from her live album artwork, which evokes this sense of innocent eccentricity like early Björk.
She often called herself a musical paradox, which is fitting after finding out her music is just as intriguing, which is a delight.
However, it wasn’t always that way.
She started off as this neat and polished singer-songwriter with rather slick and breezy beats, testing the waters with her self-titled EP.
But here in her follow-up, Don’t Blame The Wild One, her singing started to become an art of its own.
Getting cozy into harmonious layering, playing with different tones, and more effects like vocoding and auto-tune.
Her production, co-produced with timothy run, also progressed sonically.
From the conventional tropical house-tinged indie pop of her debut to a similarly slick yet softly absurd concoction that pushes its own boundaries.
Her music’s percussion seemingly evolved from thin and smooth into almost like soft industrial, her mixing turned from straightforward into well-layered.
Her brand of accessibly surreal synth pop in tandem with quite elaborate songwriting feels like a combination like no other, and it certainly shows in her follow-up.
Don’t Blame the Wild One! is full of catchy pop hooks but it never loses what makes it set the bar, its sense of stellar distinction.
It’s unique and weird in all its idiosyncratic ways, all while it raises the flag of the downcast along the way.
The album starts off with the abrupt there’s a fire in my kitchen up it goes I’m to blame which compared to the forward-sounding instrumentations moving forward, this interlude is in stark contrast.
There’s a grainy quality to ena’s ragtime-style voice in here, along this old-timey instrumental is too short to really have an impact, but it does make way for the title track.
The title track DBTWO! opens with minimal, transgressive synths with ena’s songwriting serving as this record’s ethos, this refusal to conform to the norms of society and finding your own identity.
With the album’s plethora of lead singles, came a trilogy that consisted of the songs OH! BLEEDING HEARTS, VIVID, and SOS.
And now I find VIVID to be the weakest of the three.
Now let me be clear, it’s not bad in any way. In fact, the song really won me over and made me get more into ena mori’s music.
But in retrospect, it’s a more inoffensive track that has its softer, attractive edges. With the song being about jealousy, it’s relatable but still special.
KING OF THE NIGHT! is a bold step into Electronic Dance, which fits the song’s lyricism about being the greatest you can be. This track definitely grew on me the more in tandem with this record.
‘Cos I’m the King of the night (Yeah)
The brighter the light (Yeah)
I don’t wanna see ya
In front of my face
Mystical creature
The cooler the loser
I win the night
I win the night
I’ve always found TALK! TALK! To be such a insanely manic banger, especially the way it pulls musical moments out of a hat like magic.
Like seriously, this deserves more recognition.
From how it creates a more soulful tone in the beginning with her voices, going into slick and manic territory with even more layers of her voice, introducing verses like hooks like crazy.
Then a 2-second grand symphony comes when she mentions a symphony. Then it turns to a completely different song with a harmonizing bassline, another hook introduced, then recalls the chorus from the first half, then clashes in the tail end.
The songwriting details multiple manic anxiety attacks happening all at once, with all the voices in your head, to hating your other self and all.
And oh, all of that happens in just 2 minutes.
That track alone feels like a monumental feat production-wise, and made me realize the capacities of ena mori’s talent.
OH, BLEEDING HEARTS! is so captivating, from the surreal chorus and the brash drums, this definitely grew on me since its release.
I applaud her personal and layered lyricism here, which is about her consciousness in being too ignorant of the world at large.
Feeling compelled enough to break her cycle in a way, her desire to be better and more socially conscious in spite of her ignorance.
Personally, I’ve never seen anything like it, and it’s so captivating in that regard, because it feels… relatable, in a lot of ways.
You could blame
Blame on the higher ones
Shame on the ignorance
Now what do you want from me?When the strong is tired of dimes
And the weak is blinded by lies
All I ask is, where do we go now, oh, bleeding hearts?
The deep cut A HIGHER PLACE is more of a palate cleanser with its minimal and somewhat tender balladry.
Once again, timothy run’s glossy synthetic beats strike again, and… oh, it cuts on the high note.
SOS picks up the pace with its glitchy exterior and immediacy.
Ena’s performance goes pretty steady onward from here, the song being about being disillusioned by isolation in the pandemic, calling for help not just for her, but for a whole generation who felt lost.
Look at me I’m so alone!
Tired of being in the place singing
Save us, SOS!
Look at her, She’s so alone!
Tired of being in the place singing
Save us, SOS!
What do we live for?
There’s nothing to die for
You and I singing,
Save us, SOS!
It has such an infectious chorus and one of the most effective hooks on here.
SOS lets loose in the bridge from the keyboards onward, it peaks and only calms down until layered monotoned voices proclaim “Youth make up our beautiful future” in English, Filipino, and Japanese.
FALL INLOVE! calms the whole mood down with a love song that starts out apologetic and yearns for dancing together in the rain with a lover.
It’s certainly reminiscent of her older summery music, only with a more heightened quality, especially with the bass solo featuring a certain zild.
Though there’s also a reimagined version of FALL INLOVE! as a bonus track, it has a completely different, more sudden downtempo.
WHITE ROOM is another tender yet moderated ballad à la ena mori which, lyrically serves as like the antithesis to SOS, where that SOS soaks itself in its desire for empowerment, WHITE ROOM is empowerment.
Who are we? Who are we to say?
Who are we? Who are we to say?
Who are we to say that we are not enough?
Who are we to say that we are not enough?
The bouncy closer RUNAWAY HOLIDAY is my favorite deep cut, its heavy and dynamic house-influenced chorus coupled with her coinciding vocals feel downright infectious.
There’s a lot of cool little knick knacks in this track, like her humming on the second verse, to her lower register in the chorus, to the chopped up ending, to the Ow! that feels like an homage more than anything.
Overall, it’s quite a stellar closer that brings the album to a high, leaving you wanting more of this strange synth-heavy body of work.
