Keisuke Yamauchi -- Kuchibiru Scarlet（唇スカーレット）

(short version)

The last time that I wrote about a Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）song, it was for his 2018 single "Sarase Fuyu no Arashi"（さらせ冬の嵐）, a wintry and haunting enka piece created by lyricist Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composer Hideo Mizumori（水森英夫）. Almost a year later, the three of them got together again to produce Yamauchi's 20th single "Kuchibiru Scarlet" (Lips Scarlet) released earlier in March 2019.

(cover version)

Now, we have quite the opposite result here...a passionate love song with Yamauchi promising all sorts of hot action to his lady love. It's been categorized as an enka at J-Wiki, but I think it's more of a Latin-spiced Mood Kayo, since I don't really see trees of any particular season or a single person walking in a lonely manner through the forest. This is more some fellow having his usual time of his life in a swanky establishment in Akasaka.

(empty karaoke version)

Yamauchi's hit peaked at No. 7 on Oricon and according to J-Wiki, there are 8 (count 'em...8!) versions of "Kuchibiru Scarlet" sold depending on its colour label with the difference lying in the coupling songs with the CDs ranging in time between around 16 and 22 minutes. I'm kinda wondering whether the singer's recording company has taken a page out of the AKB 48 playbook with that maneuver.

I actually caught Yamauchi singing this on an episode of NHK's "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）yesterday, and I realized as I was watching the lad doing his Latin bump-and-grind with the style of song and that certain nasal quality in his delivery, his performance reminded me of a young Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）! It would be intriguing to see whether Yamauchi and Go will collaborate in a future Kohaku Utagassen or even "Uta Kon"（うたコン）.