Minako Honda -- LIPS

 

Some days ago, I was generously gifted with some 80s albums that my friend no longer wanted due to a need for space in their abode. I will not mention that person's name just in case that they would like to keep some semblance of confidentiality but allow me to give them my thanks. Anyways, one of those albums happens to be 80s aidoru Minako Honda's（本田美奈子）sophomore album "LIPS" from June 1986. The album cover has what I think is one of Honda's most famous shots...looking like a Japanese Madonna (the singer) with the get-up, the hair and the cross around her neck. 

One surprise is that on opening the album, I saw that the record itself was a peach orange-red. Haven't come across a vinyl disc in anything other than a black colour in many years. Getting into the nitty-gritty of the songwriting, the J-Wiki article about "LIPS" has made it quite easy stating that lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）were responsible for all of the tracks and there were three big arrangers helping out: Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）and Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）.

I've already covered a couple of the songs from "LIPS", "1986 no Marilyn"（1986年のマリリン）and "Ribbon Hodokenai"（リボンがほどけない）. Also before we get into some of the tracks here, allow me to say as I've already said twice before that I had been initially unimpressed with my first view of Honda when she was performing on one of the 80s music ranking shows since she seemed to botch "1986 no Marilyn". However, since then I have come to realize over the years as she made transitions into pop, rock and musicals that she did have talent, and now that I've been listening to her 80s material through the records and the YouTube videos, I was quite wrong in my early and hasty assessment, especially on listening to her "Ribbon Hodokenai" recently. So this isn't a redemption on her part but it's mine.

From listening to the first track "Sold Out", I started to make analogies among the other big aidoru of that decade. If I could make loose comparisons between Seiko Matsuda and Akina Nakamori（松田聖子・中森明菜）as the Beatles and Rolling Stones of 80s aidoru-dom, then I can reiterate that I could see Honda digging into her niche as Madonna, albeit with a bit more innocence than the Material Girl.

I don't think Madonna used a horn section a lot in her songs back then, but with "Sold Out", there is quite the tight brass in there and let me not forget the downtown bass that starts things off. Honda's vocals are steady and she knows when to be sultry and when to rock out, so perhaps if I can bring in Seiko and Akina once more, the former might be the girl next door, the latter can be the misunderstood teen rebel while Minako is the already successful rock star on tour. Otani was the man behind the arrangement here on this first track and though I wouldn't say that this "Sold Out" is City Pop, perhaps it can be a form of Japanese City Rock.

"Schedule"（スケジュール）seems like a rather mundane title for a track that has been lifted from a mid-tempo "breather" song into something more epic, thanks to Honda's vocals. As I heard the first verse, I thought about Akina singing this one with the exception that Honda has more of a projectile delivery in certain parts of "Schedule".

"Bathroom Angel"（バスルームエンジェル）has the Sagisu arrangement and I'm uncertain whether it was indeed created by Akimoto and Tsutsumi specifically for that Toshiba YuuYuu Haru Matsuri（東芝「ゆうゆう夏祭り」...YuuYuu Spring Festival） campaign commercial. The intro riff reminds me of a late 60s/early 70s pop tune, and I think that "Bathroom Angel" is more on the pop side of things. Incidentally, the commercial below does feature Honda in that Toshiba campaign but there's no sign of the song.

I get Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" vibes when I listen to "Dramatic Escape"（ドラマティックエスケープ）. From the title to the urgent beat to the horns and even to the backing chorus, the track seems to want to be part of a soundtrack to an 80s Hollywood action flick starring Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

The B-side to "1986 no Marilyn" was "Marionette no Yuutsu"（マリオネットの憂鬱...A Marionette's Depression）, although the track here has been labeled as the album version so I'm not sure if there have been any major changes in Shinkawa's arrangement. It's gutsy and brassy and the only thing missing is a fleet of punk-riding motorcycles causing mayhem on the highways as Honda describes a high school girl's frustration to break out of her good-girl mold and do something wild and crazy and utterly shameless. The background chorus makes that final point perfectly clear.

Allow me to throw in one more track from "LIPS", "The Yokosuka Rule"（YOKOSUKAルール）, which once again puts the Kanagawa Prefecture city in the spotlight. This time around, it looks like Honda was going for some funk as well as some rock here and a personal observation is that when the singer throws out the title syllable-by-syllable, "Yokosuka Rule" almost sounds like something that Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）would sing.

"LIPS" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and so I've finally gotten to listen to the tracks after seeing and remembering that album cover for years. I'm glad to say that I do get to eat some crow as far as Honda's abilities are concerned and I'll be looking forward to listening to her very first album "M'Syndrome"（M'シンドローム）. The poignant thing here is that I'm writing all this up just a few days following the 16th anniversary of her untimely passing at the age of 38.