Off-Course -- Omae mo Hitori（おまえもひとり）

If I'm not mistaken, my collection of Off-Course（オフコース）CDs consists of their BEST compilations at this point which is a pity, especially when I consider the song here.

"Omae mo Hitori" (You're Alone As Well) is a track from Off-Course's "We are" album from November 1980, and like its trackmate, "Yes-No", it's one pretty cool dude of a pop song although I don't think I would place it as a City Pop tune per se. "Yes-No" was written and composed by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）, but for "Omae mo Hitori", it's Off-Course guitarist Yasuhiro Suzuki（鈴木康博）taking care of things with bassist Hitoshi Shimizu（清水仁）also working on the lyrics.

As is often the case with an Off-Course song, "Omae mo Hitori" is a case of love gone wrong where a boyfriend is psyching/chastising himself to do what he thinks must be done and break things off with his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. The overall beat seems to imply that determined walk from home to wherever she is waiting for him. I gotta admit that the guitar play before the refrain is very kakkoii.

"Omae mo Hitori" wasn't an official single but the album "We are" hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 6th-ranked album of 1981. The album also earned Best Album honours at the Japan Record Awards in that year. I think that I will need to break that habit of merely getting BEST compilations of the band and actually get a studio album by Off-Course, starting with "We are".