A Quiet Couple

AMG Review of A Quiet Couple

Ted Mills
All Music Guide

Part of the glut of Pizzicato Five releases that fulfilled the end of their contract with Sony (including five album that were remastered, and a collection of Yasuharu Konishi's solo work), this is an instrumental version of the group's first full-length release. While not a thrilling prospect on paper, actually the record is quite good, with these Bacharach-esque arrangements getting their full due (it's also perhaps a comment on Sasaki Mamiko's vocals that the songs don't exactly suffer from her absence). One year after the fey techno pop of their Non-Standard releases, these are lush orchestrations, with French horn and trumpets prominent. The CD even comes with a booklet of sheet music for those daring enough to sing along.