Mari Iijima's first US independent album "No Limit" feels like a Best Of album of her 1990s recordings (which are out of print at the time of this review), because on here, there are English language versions of some of the best songs that first appeared in Japanese versions on Mari's albums from that era. She plays with the creme of Los Angeles studio musicians on this disc, amongst them being the guitarists Michael Landau, Tim Pierce and Michael Thompson, the Bissonnette Brothers, Neil Stubenhaus, John Robinson, and Mari's longtime collaborator on keyboards, James Studer. My favourites include the upbeat dancepop title track "No Limit", the mellow semi-acoustic "For A Little While", "Irony Of Fate", "D" and the sad story set to sweet music that is "Us". If you've gotten to know Mari's voice through one of her guest vocals with other artists (e.g. Van Dyke Parks), this album is the right place to start exploring her solo recordings. The physical copies have almost run out it seems, but it's still downloadable. A few of the tracks from this disc are also included on the compilation album "Gems" that came out a while later. Enjoy!