Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Friday, July 31, 2020

Jin Kirigaya -- Return to the Sky


It's after dinner as I write this and I need time to digest the Friday meal (especially with all of that fibre). Well, I don't really drink so no digestif for me.


However, I can get that effect to a certain extent thanks to a Jin Kirigaya(桐ヶ谷仁)number called "Return to the Sky" from his 1979 debut album "My Love For You". The album also has the melancholy "Yotsuya Yuumagure"(四ツ谷ゆうまぐれ)which involves a man dealing with perceived romantic betrayal. However, "Return to the Sky" is quite the opposite, thanks to that mélange of a bit of jazz here and a good dollop of bossa nova there within an AOR arrangement. Interesting thing I noticed was how Kirigaya's vocals sound like a combination of the voices of Kazumasa Oda(小田和正)and Yasuhiro Suzuki(鈴木康博)from the band Off-Course(オフコース).

Kirigaya took care of the music while Fumiko Okada(岡田冨美子)provided the lyrics. As I said in the "Yotsuya" article, I purchased that double-CD package "Complete Alfa Years - Jin Kirigaya" which consists of his first two albums, the aforementioned "My Love For You" and then his 1981 "Windy". While "Windy" is more solidly in the City Pop/AOR genres, I think "My Love For You" is a bit more free-wheeling as the singer-songwriter was probably exploring across the music spectrum which might explain some of the influences in this track especially.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.