After reading her entry on "Japanese City Pop", I took the plunge and bought her 1982 album, "LIGHT'N UP". And the second track, "Hoho ni Yoru no Akari"(The Light of the Night on Your Cheek), was pure City Pop heaven. The critic in "JCP" remarked that the album was worth getting for this song alone. And he is right. It is a tune to be played in the car stereo while driving on the highway at night...with that special someone. The horns are SO mellow and then David Sanborn comes in with his sax solo. It's gotten a lot of play on my stereo since I got it.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Minako Yoshida -- Hoho ni Yoru no Akari （頬に夜の灯）
After reading her entry on "Japanese City Pop", I took the plunge and bought her 1982 album, "LIGHT'N UP". And the second track, "Hoho ni Yoru no Akari"(The Light of the Night on Your Cheek), was pure City Pop heaven. The critic in "JCP" remarked that the album was worth getting for this song alone. And he is right. It is a tune to be played in the car stereo while driving on the highway at night...with that special someone. The horns are SO mellow and then David Sanborn comes in with his sax solo. It's gotten a lot of play on my stereo since I got it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
please, would you be so kind to upload "light'n up"! it's impossible to find and i've been looking for it forever...
ReplyDeletehello! is there any chance you'd be willing to upload a cd rip of this? this album is near impossible to find, i heard it in japan ages and ages ago and haven't been able to find it...
ReplyDeleteHi, guys and thanks for the comments. Yup, "LIGHT'N UP"is indeed a fine album. Unfortunately, although I would be happy to share, I've been doing this blog from my eccentric Netbook, so there is no CD slot for me to rip it onto the hard drive.
ReplyDeleteBut I came across Amazon.jp which apparently has 5 used copies of it for sale at about 1700 yen.
I'll write about the album itself tonight and see if there's anyone out there who reads this who also has the album.
This song touches my Soul and with the recent passing of The Great David Sanborn, it touches me even more. I just LOVE Minako she is forever a favorite of mine of any genre. Her voice is unique, powerful and vulnerable at the same time. She’s incredibly special and a once in a lifetime talent. I appreciate her so much I’m crying as I write this. I love how she lets the groove go on for 3-4 minutes and won’t let it go and her harmonies are always perfect. She and Sanborn are a perfect match on this great album. All her albums are great and have a unique sound to them. She’s underrated, she’s one of the best that’s ever been and I will love her music as long as I live.
ReplyDeleteHello there. Yes, indeed, it is a classic City Pop ballad. The song was the main reason that I ended up buying the album in the first place.
DeleteThanks very much by the way for telling me about Sanborn's passing. I had no idea about that since there was nothing on media that I could see about his death. He was in his late 70s but it's still too bad that he left us.