Huma-rhythm
Huma-rhythm is the sixth studio album by Japanese singer Hitomi. It was released on January 30, 2002, through Avex Trax. Following the highly successful Love Life (2000), Hitomi began to notice a "disconnection" between her perception as a public figure and her true self in private. She sought to pursue the core of her being; articulating "our dissatisfaction with society" yet wanting to "live happily as [herself]". Huma-rhythm is lyrically centered on themes of love and individuality, and Hitomi challenged herself to expand her vocal expression during its recording. Longtime collaborator Zentaro Watanabe returned as the album's predominant arranger, programmer and instrumentalist, while a much more varied cast of composers contributed to Huma-rhythm compared to her previous releases. The album features contributions from indie rock band and Dai Nagano from Do As Infinity. The album was preceded by four singles: "Inner Child", "Is it You?", "I Am/Innocence" and "Samurai Drive", with the latter three reaching the top ten of the Oricon chart. "Samurai Drive", promoted as Huma-rhythm's lead single, became Hitomi's highest-peaking entry at number three and is considered to be one of her signature songs. She later performed it at the 52nd Kōhaku Uta Gassen. At the 43rd Japan Record Awards, Hitomi received an Excellent Work accolade for "Is it You?". Huma-rhythm was a commercial success, peaking at the top of the Oricon charts and charting for eight consecutive weeks, selling over 521,000 copies in total. The album was supported by the nationwide Hitomi Live Tour 2002 Huma-Rhythm, which visited twenty-one cities and closed out at the Nippon Budokan. At the time of the album's release, Hitomi viewed it as a "culminative work" which would allow her to pursue "different possibilities", a sentiment she would repeat in developing her second greatest hits album Self Portrait released later that year. Background and development In June 2000, Hitomi released the single "Love 2000", which became widely successful after marathon runner Naoko Takahashi stated that the song helped to raise her tenshōn (テンション) or "excitement" before races, leading to a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. The single became Hitomi's longest-charting entry at twenty-six weeks, and its parent album Love Life (2000) sold over 766,000 copies at the end of 2001. The success of "Love 2000" prompted her first performance at the 51st Kōhaku Uta Gassen. Despite this newfound popularity, a sense of dissatisfaction began to pervade her thoughts. Hitomi developed her follow up from the notion that, "the wave of my 2000 self came crashing against the wall of my existence". In a February 2002 interview with Beat Freak magazine, she explains: While Hitomi stated that she always tried to write lyrics as truthfully as she could, she noted a growing desire to "pursue the core of [her] being" and set the word "humanity" as her personal theme during the album's development. The title Huma-rhythm itself is coined from "human", meant to express individuality, and "rhythm" to represent joy and freedom. The title further articulates her view that "[one] should