Junretsu -- Propose（プロポーズ）

One of the other NHK kayo kyoku-based shows that I've seen is the Friday afternoon "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）hosted by tarento/actor Kazuki Kosakai（小堺一機）, and on the episode that I caught a couple of days ago, the Mood Kayo chorus group Junretsu（純烈）made an appearance.

Noelle was the first to talk about this group which seems to be a blend of Arashi（嵐）+ Mood Kayo so you can take a look at her article on "Konya wa Romantic"（今夜はドラマチック）for the details on the guys. However, I wanted to talk here about the song that I heard on Friday, "Propose" which is their latest single from Valentine's Day this year. In fact, for some reason, the powers-that-be have released Type A and Type B recordings for the single.

What I like about "Propose" is how the melody by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）has that old-fashioned Mood Kayo feeling combined with a big and brassy horn arrangement which almost takes things into the funky side of urban contemporary. And as Noelle hinted in her article, Junretsu isn't satisfied to merely stand around the microphones and stoically sing like the old Mood Kayo groups; leader Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）and company like to use their choreography as well.

Smart idea to release "Propose" on Valentine's Day, too. Miyuki also wrote the lyrics which talk about the encounter of a lonely man and a woman who's afraid of love to bring about a romantic relationship together. You can pretty much squeeze a bucketful of valentines out of this song.

Speaking about songwriter Miyuki, he's had an interesting career. In the early 1970s, he was a percussionist for the rock band Tranzam（トランザム）before getting into songwriting for aidoru beginning in the later part of the decade. It looks like for the past number of years, though, he has been focusing on creating songs for enka/Mood Kayo singers.