Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Cindy -- Angel Touch


About 18 months ago, I was first made aware of the lovely stylings of the late singer-songwriter Cindy. Never heard of her or saw her on TV any time during my two stints in Japan but then back in the summer of 2016, I discovered some of her material from her 2nd album "Angel Touch" which came out in June 1990.

The song that first drew me in was "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiteite"(私達を信じていて), a mid-tempo R&B number that grabbed me by the short-n-curlies (sorry for that analogy) and has yet to let go. The arrangement was heavenly (the Future Funksters certainly agreed) but what made it all gel was Cindy's lovely voice.


From "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiteite" and a hearty recommendation in the Comments section for the song, I decided that I had to get the album. And thanks to Tower Records, I was finally able to purchase "Angel Touch" earlier this month as part of my Xmas bonanza. I put it on the stereo earlier today and I am now thrilled that I got it. It is truly ambrosia for the ears.

For example, "Surprise" which starts the album off. That is one lovely intro with a hint of Latin as Cindy takes us on a mellow romantic ride. Chinfa Kan(康珍化), who also took care of another pop chanteuse in the previous decade, wrote the song with Cindy taking care of the melody. It also happened to be the coupling song for "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiiteite" when it was released as a single.


I also like Track 2 "Setsunakute"(せつなくて...Heartrending)written by Masami Tozawa(戸沢暢美)with music and arrangement by Rod Antoon. Was able to hear a lot of the old R&B tropes from that turn of that particular decade which got the nostalgia going. After listening to this one, I just went "Wow! And this was almost a decade before the arrival of Misia".


The same duo behind the classic "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiteite", Kan and songwriter/musician Hiroshi Narumi(鳴海寛), also wove this splendid ballad "Special Ever Happened" for Cindy which also turned out to be her 5th single from November 1990. Warm brandy for the soul. Miho Nakayama(中山美穂)would make a cover of the song in the following year for her album "De eaya".


"Candle Light" is some nice downtown funk with Cindy's great vocals and sax. Listening to this one, I just had to wonder if there had been any sort of duet between her and Sing Like Talking's Chikuzen Sato(佐藤竹善). Rui Serizawa(芹沢類)provided the lyrics with Cindy and Yuji Toriyama(鳥山雄司)coming up with the music.

Plenty of other tracks remain but I will leave those to future articles. In any case, as the commenter mentioned, I owed it to myself to get "Angel Touch", and happy to say that this could be one of those heavy rotation discs.


2 comments:

  1. Hi J-Canuck!

    Thanks to share your review of this album; while it seems like a crowd favorite, I still prefer her first album "LOVE LIFE". Maybe because I'm not that much into R&B sound :P

    Also, I can see that you own the 2015 remaster. How would you rate the sound for this one? To me Tamotsu Yoshida (吉田保) is among a very few to know how to do a proper remastering. His works for Sony, and especially on Minako Yoshida(his younger sister btw)'s albums, are fine examples of remastering made right.

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    1. Hey, Daemonskald! Long time, no read.

      Gonna have to take a gander of "Love Life" then. As for the 2015 remaster, I've just listened to the disc once so gonna have to give it some more tries, especially since I just got a new pair of Sennheisers today! Will definitely be giving Minako Yoshida's "TOWN" a tryout on the headphones.

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