Kahimi Karie

The Best of Trattoria Years Plus More (Trattoria)
by Michael McCarthy

Like plenty of American metal bands, many French language artists who can’t get record deals in France do very well in Japan. Kahimi Karie has released a couple discs here in the States recently, but she was the queen of pop in Japan long before that. Singing in French and English, she released a dozen or so singles and a few full-length albums there. In fact, the self-titled disc she released here on Minty Fresh was originally released in Japan under the title Best Of Trattoria, since it compiled her Trattoria singles. Speaking of singles, it should be noted that most J-Pop artists will release a half-dozen singles before an album. Many of the albums are more like a compilation of singles, rather than albums as we think of them.