J-Canuck's Favourite Anri Songs/Tears In Crystal

 

Well, a week after putting up my favourite Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）songs onto the blog, I realized that I hadn't put up a similar list for singer-songwriter Anri（杏里）...and I'm such a fan of hers, too. But the timing couldn't be better because today happens to be Eiko Kawashima's（川島栄子）birthday, so what a perfect opportunity to celebrate one of the queens of City Pop.

So, allow me to give my own favourites by Anri and once again in no particular order. She's certainly come a long way and through a few genre prisms and songwriting influences since her debut in 1978.

(1978) Olivia wo Kikinagara （オリビアを聴きながら）

There have been many versions of Anri's debut single but I'm always going to go with the humble original which she recorded as a teenager. It sounds so innocent and poignant as a girl probably around Anri's age at that time is going through some tough times and she goes to an Olivia Newton-John record to help assuage some of that hurt. Considering the recent passing of Newton-John, perhaps "Olivia wo Kikinagara" has now taken on a further poignancy of a time and a music gone by.

(1987) Last Picture Show

As I mentioned in the original article for "Last Picture Show", this stylish City Pop ballad comes from her 1987 "Meditations" which showcases the best of her balladry up to that point in her career, and it struck me as being a crossroads between her early-to-mid-80s City Pop era with Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）and her future R&B-tinged dance-pop days going into the 1990s due to the partnership with Yasuharu Ogura（小倉泰治）and Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）. What I didn't mention was that I first heard "Last Picture Show" at karaoke and fell in love with it immediately. I really dug through the shelves to get my copy of "Meditations". 

(1986) Innocent Time

This wasn't particularly a City Pop tune, but that beefy bass is still intact within "Innocent Time". It did have its ski connections through a TV show, but being a non-skier, I simply enjoy this one for its, yes, innocence and footloose and fancy-free ways. I can listen to it and for a few minutes at least, I can forget about the burdens of the world and just imagine walking through some resort, winter or otherwise.

(1988) Snowflake no Machikado （スノーフレイクの街角）

As was the case with "Last Picture Show" above, it was a case of love at first hear with "Snowflake no Machikado", although for that article, I did mention the fact that it was also a karaoke discovery. I didn't pay too much attention to the title, though, so knowing Anri all that time, I'd assumed that it was another summer-themed tune. Little did I know that it was that other season. Regardless though, that tight battery of horns and the jazzy flute near the end did me in.

(1984) I Can't Ever Change Your Love For Me

Anri and Toshiki Kadomatsu did make some literally beautiful music together in the early 1980s, a lot of them uptempo songs. However, "I Can't Ever Change Your Love For Me" is one of the finest City Pop ballads that Kadomatsu ever created for any singer. It's that feeling of 70s soul, another round of great horns, a wonderful sax solo, and a sensation of sunset urban contemporary that makes this gem one of my favourites by the singer.

(1988) Goodbye Future

Maybe there was no Kadomatsu here and this wasn't actually part of any single, but "Goodbye Future" still remains as one of my favourite Anri songs, period, let alone one of my favourite tracks on her 1988 album "Boogie Woogie Mainland". This time, it was the new triumvirate of Anri, lyricist Yoshimoto and arranger Ogura who came up with these new high-octane R&B songs including "Goodbye Future". It's so upbeat, cheerful, and cool that it never fails to lift my spirits.

(1983) Shyness Boy

Another song that sends thrills up and down my spine, "Shyness Boy" hails from one of those great Kadomatsu/Anri collaborations "Timely!!". The whole song seems to have been created specifically for City Pop fans to blast on their car stereos for a drive through Hawaii or California. My only regret about it is that it's barely over three minutes. Well, that's why we have a repeat function on our audio players.

My last song for this birthday tribute to Anri is actually what I had been planning to do as a solo subject for the article before opting for the whole Author's Pick of my favourites for the singer. "Tears In Crystal" was Anri's 41st single released in October 2001, and it was written by Yoshimoto and composed by the singer as a calming pop tune. However, it was used as one of the many ending themes for NTV's "Kayo Suspense Gekijo"（火曜サスペンス劇場...Tuesday Suspense Theatre） with all of its stabbings and strangulations. The single was also a part of her 23rd album "My Music" which came out at the same time as the single. 

It's already September 1st in Japan so I hope that Anri was able to have a fine birthday with family and friends in Los Angeles.