ZARD -- Kokoro wo Hiraite（心を開いて）

Went out early this morning to grab as many groceries for the week that I could. About a hundred bucks later, I dragged the entire load back home, and perhaps my arms got a fine workout, to boot. Not a big fan of those automated cashiers, though.

In any case, it's looking really nice out there with the sun and cool temperatures. But of course, we all gotta stay home. I (and my friends) are hoping that maybe some good news will come in about a month or so.

So, in the interim, how about some nice 90s J-Pop with a rock edge by one of the more famous and popular artists of that decade, ZARD? To be honest, I don't ever recall hearing this 18th single, "Kokoro wo Hiraite" (Open Your Heart) and though it's still a typically upbeat ZARD song, it also sounds a bit gentler, as if she's taking a bit of a break between the really soar-in-the-sky numbers. According to the J-Wiki article on "Kokoro wo Hiraite", that music video was apparently filmed in Sydney, Australia and Monaco (dang, what kind of budget did the production have?); nice break, indeed.

Written by ZARD, aka Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）, and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, the single was released in May 1996 and was also a track on her 7th original album "Today Is Another Day" from July of that year. "Kokoro wo Hiraite" ended up becoming ZARD's 9th most successful single, selling close to 750,000 copies and hitting No. 1 in its first week. It ended up as the 32nd-ranked single of the year. As for "Today Is Another Day", it also hit the top spot on Oricon and became the 12th-ranked album for 1996.

True to its summery nature, "Kokoro wo Hiraite" was also used as a commercial tune for Pocari Sweat.