Introduction
Turquoise, Inori Minase’s tenth-anniversary half album, is more than a milestone release—it is a travel talisman, a narrative woven through memory, hesitation, gratitude, and forward-looking hope. Each track functions like a chapter, and together they map out a voyage: from silence and calling, through dreams and uncertainty, into resonance and finally toward an open horizon.
As Minase herself explains:
“Turquoise is my birthstone, and it carries the meaning of a ‘travel talisman.’ I wanted this album to feel like both my journey so far and what is still ahead.”
This intention—to create an album that protects and accompanies both past and future—shapes the entire design.
Overall Theme
The album’s central theme is the tension between loneliness and connection, past and future, words and silence.
Turquoise as a color is liminal: between blue and green, sea and sky, depth and horizon. It represents a threshold, a moment of becoming.
Minase herself frames the album not as a closure but as a passage:
“By clearing the 10th year, I feel like in the 11th year I can step into a new field.”
Track Flow, Narrative, and Behind-the-Scenes
1. Calling Blue (overture)
- Narrative role: The pre-chapter. A still moment before departure, where anticipation trembles in the resonance of blue.
- Behind the scenes: Minase revealed that at one point the album had no track directly bearing the title Turquoise. Working with composer YD, Calling Blue was shaped into the overture, a threshold piece designed to set the journey into motion .
2. Turquoise
- Narrative role: The departure itself. Compass, horizon, and the call of voices.
- Behind the scenes: Minase asked YD to capture images of “the movement of the earth, the voices of living things, and springs welling up.” It is the only track for which she gave such detailed imagery, emphasizing natural vitality .
3. Yume no Tsuzuki (Dream’s Continuation)
- Narrative role: A dialogue with her debut song Yume no Tsubomi. Dreams persist, bridging memory and aspiration.
- Behind the scenes: Minase co-wrote the lyrics with Eiko and Cher Watanabe. The MV re-uses the sketchbook and glass bowl from her debut video—symbols of continuity, where the once-unopened bud now blooms .
4. Mada, Iwanaide (Don’t Say It Yet)
- Narrative role: A meditation on restraint. Intimacy arises not from declaration but from silence, from “not yet.”
- Behind the scenes: Minase explained that for most tracks she gave almost no stylistic instruction—simply, “write me a 10-year song.” This openness allowed songwriters to craft natural expressions of hesitation and suspended intimacy .
5. Anniversary
- Narrative role: Gratitude and memory. Everyday gestures—marks in a notebook, unchanged smiles—become sacred rituals.
- Behind the scenes: Minase reflected that this track embodies her desire for the album to “feel the footsteps of 10 years.” It celebrates not only anniversaries but the countless ordinary days transformed by love .
6. NEXT DECADE
- Narrative role: The axis of transformation. A confrontation with multiplicity: running away versus standing firm, fear versus courage.
- Behind the scenes: Written by Yusuke Shiroto (composer) and Yuho Iwasato (lyricist), this track is what Minase calls a “musical challenge.” Every instrument is tricky and individualistic, colliding while still forming an elegant whole. Recording sessions included Shiroto analyzing vocal nuances in real time, making it one of the most technically demanding songs .
7. My Orchestra
- Narrative role: Resonance and harmony. Solitary voices overlap into symphony; joy and sorrow, when shared, transform into music.
- Behind the scenes: Again, Minase gave no detailed direction beyond “create a 10-year song.” The orchestra metaphor naturally emerged from this openness, embodying her trust in collaborators and her growth into resonance .
8. Umifumi no Spica
- Narrative role: The closing chapter. Memory as bookmarks, Spica as guiding star. Not resolution but affirmation: “Let’s walk on together, no matter how many decades.”
- Behind the scenes: Minase tied this song to her sense of moving beyond a finish line: “After clearing ten years, I feel I can step into something new.” Spica is that guiding light toward the horizon .
Motifs & Symbols
- Dreams and Continuity: Yume no Tsuzuki explicitly converses with her debut, reusing imagery as symbolic response .
- Time and Milestones: Anniversaries and 10 years are not endpoints but markers for continuation.
- Journey and Compass: Across the album, Minase describes herself as on an endless voyage, the songs as maps.
- Nature and Protection: Springs, skies, rainbows, stardust—natural motifs embody vitality and Minase’s idea of the album as a talisman .
- Language and Silence: Everyday greetings recur, yet are never enough; silence itself becomes expressive.
Why This Album Matters
For Minase, Turquoise is not merely commemoration—it is liberation. She admitted that in earlier years she felt constant pressure to be perfect. Now, through this album, she has embraced imperfection and multiplicity as part of herself:
“In the beginning, I always felt I had to be perfect. But now I can accept fragility and multiplicity as part of me.”
For fans, this makes Turquoise not only a reflection of her ten years but also a gift of reassurance. It acknowledges fragility while transforming it into strength. It affirms that the journey continues—and that the listener, too, carries a “travel talisman” in these songs.
Conclusion
Turquoise is an album of thresholds.
It begins with a call (Calling Blue), embarks on departure (Turquoise), dreams and hesitates, celebrates continuity (Anniversary), faces evolution (NEXT DECADE), discovers resonance (My Orchestra), and finally, under the light of Spica, affirms the path forward.
Enriched by Minase’s own insights, we see the careful intentionality behind every track: an overture and a symphony, a mirror of ten years and a promise for the next.
Above all, Turquoise is unfinished by design. Its openness is its hope. Its resonance—both solitary and shared—is the gift it leaves behind.
Sources
: Real Sound – 水瀬いのり「Turquoise」インタビュー
: Billboard JAPAN – Special Interview with Inori Minase
: SPICE – 『夢のつづき』MV解説
: LisAni! – 制作裏話（NEXT DECADE）
: KAI-YOU – 10周年を振り返るインタビュー
Comments