Beers -- Mistress

I guess I can finally say this:

I'M A CANADIAN AND I'VE GOT BEERS, EH!🍻

Yes, the sound of crickets and crows can be rather deafening, I know...

Now, to be exact, what I do have is the album "Mistress" by the pop duo Beers. It is in fact the only album that was ever released by the tandem of Megumi Saito（斉藤恵）and Yoko Takahashi（橋本ヨーコ）in 1983. And perhaps it is so obscure that even my bible of "Japanese City Pop" hasn't even bothered listing it...at least, in the first edition.

Thanks to YouTube, I was lucky to have come across Beers and was instantly charmed by the first track "Kowareta Wiper"（壊れたワイパー）and one other song to the extent that I decided to pick up "Mistress". And thanks to Tower Records, I was able to do so.

That one other song I mentioned in the previous paragraph is "Random ni"（ランダムに...At Random）which is Track 3 on "Mistress". Written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）, it's a bit of radio-friendly morning drive disco that would probably have me get this urge to invest in one of those ancient listening boxes by SONY. It was between this and "Kowareta Wiper" as to what I would have first put onto the blog but ultimately I went with the latter. Still, "Random ni" is plenty fine music from the old days, and although I've put in that commuting theme, there's a part of the song that seems to soar softly into the sky. Makes me hope that those experimental flying cars finally become a reality.

But it's not all about the glitter ball here. Saito and Takahashi put their songwriting skills to use to make this soulful ballad "Ai no Kagi"（愛の鍵...Key of Love）that takes things further into the 1980s rather than the late 1970s of "Random ni". At the same time, I could recommend this song as another nice driving tune but for more of a nighttime spin on the highway close to midnight.

Heard of the Marlboro Man and that famous theme of "The Magnificent Seven"? Well, I don't know whether this track ever did help out in the commercials for another brand of cigarettes, but here is "Lucky Strike Man"（ラッキー･ストライク･マン）. Unlike the Western theme for the Marlboro dude, "Lucky Strike Man" has more of a laidback mix of reggae and pop or even New Wave. Inoue took care of the music once more but Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）provided the lyrics here.

This is another fine song as the second track, "Aoi Asa ~ Day Break Rain"（蒼い朝...Blue Morning） with Inoue on music and Rui Serizawa's（芹澤類）words gracing it. I like the AOR-ness of it all especially with the string section. In a way, it's rather timeless...I could really imagine it spanning the 70s and 80s as Saito and Takahashi give "Aoi Asa" more of the softly, softly approach.

I'm not sure how long the relationship lasted but this duo with the unusual name has provided me with some comfortable music. I can have repeated dai jokkii of this.🍺