Haven't seen singer-songwriter Reimy（麗美）in a while, so it's nice to have her here right at the beginning of this new year.
As I've stated in the past regarding Reimy, she seems to have had three stages in her singing career. Her first phase in the early to mid-1980s had her often covering Yuming's songs or providing some pretty aidoru-esque fare. In her second phase, she was doing more West Coast dance pop stuff for a short while, and then finally the third phase in the late 1980s going into the early 1990s involved her own creations which followed a gentle pop style.
"Saigo no Yasashisa" (The Final Kindness) was a B-side to her June 1987 single "fa・ri・ra". Written by Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）and composed by Reimy herself, it's a step away from the dance floor although the arrangement by Trevor Veitch still keeps it within that Los Angeles disco. It's a pleasant groove tune with some introspection about the nightlife that could fit LA or even Tokyo. And in a way, the song might be a fusion of those last two phases that I was referring to above.
Saigo no Yasashisa seems a little different than what usually comes to mind when I think of 1987, but whatever Saigo no Yasashisa is one of the most refined samples of city pop I think I have heard in a while. I also love the album cover very creative. I think film has or can have a different feeling to it than digital.
ReplyDeleteYes, usually when I think of 1987, Eurobeat and West Coast dance-pop come to mind. Reimy was covering the latter during that intermediate period in her career.
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