We’ve all seen opening acts that vastly underperform the bill they mean to support.
After having been burned time and time again, one is sometimes inclined to skip the opener.
This is the quandary by which the reviewer or promoter of an artist is met with. But few pedigrees may be as worthwhile as Shugo Tokumaru. He has opened for the Magnetic Fields, Jens Lekman, and Animal Collective, who together literally make up three-fifths
of my heart.

It is not an overstatement to say Tokumaru earns his place among these. His third album,  “Exit,” released this month, is a tremendous delight.
“Button” is as cute as a … well, you know. A local kindergarten class in his native Tokyo was invited to sing along on the chorus, which has the percussive flair of the Boy Least Likely To.

“Future Umbrella,” an instrumental track, reminds me of nothing more than the soundtrack to the Nintendo game “Kirby’s Adventure.” This is complimentary. The arrangement on this song and others (especially “Clocca” and the opener “Parachute”) is ornate and wonderful.

Tokumaru sings only in his native Japanese, but the music transcends this linguistic obstacle. I do not know what he sings about, but I know the conviction in his voice. The songs, though as a rule upbeat, are not one-note affairs (excuse the pun) — they are multifaceted and from time to time melancholic.

“Exit” will certainly have a place in many top-10 lists in a few short months. It is delicate, but forceful, original and accessible. It is inventive and harmonious, but complex enough to avoid becoming
unpleasantly cloying.

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