Akina Nakamori（中森明菜） -- Bitter and Sweet

nakamoriakina.com
Ahhhh...I remember when I was but a wee (well, I was actually quite big but "wee"sounds better in print) lad at the University of Toronto in 1986, my friend, Anthony, and I used to hit the Wah Yueh record store in downtown Chinatown (Dundas and Huron), and searched for Japanese pop albums. I'd already become a full-fledged kayo kyoku freak by then, and had bought Seiko Matsuda's "Train" LP and Akina Nakamori's "D404 ME". I have NO idea how they came up with a title like that for an Akina album, except that it sounds like something you spray on a rusty doorknob. But both albums got heavy play on my record player at home.

But then I came across the album that preceded "D404 ME", "Bitter and Sweet". And it blew me away. I mean, if I were to recommend any album to a KK newbie, this would be the one. Great hooks, great pedigree in the choice of composers, and pretty much every song is a winner. This was the album that finally destroyed the needle on my record player....and perhaps my parents' patience.

The first two songs especially packed a punch. "Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa"(飾りじゃないのよ涙は）was written and composed by crooning KK legend, Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）. Reading the lyrics, I could imagine young Akina walking home after getting her heart wrenched out and stomped on, exhorting to the entire world that these were indeed real tears she was crying ( et tu, Seiko-chan?) The second track, "Romantic na Yoru da wa" （ロマンチックな夜だわ）was created by City Pop princess, EPO, and it's a bit unlike her style since her stuff had been more poppy and happy.

"Romantic" throws out the funk right from the opening groove, and the horn section gives a trashy performance as if they were doing a gig in a strip bar. The lyrics have Akina hinting at something hot and heavy with a potential boy toy. So I guess, in a temporal sense, this song would've come before the first track.

Not surprisingly, the album title has the raunchy bitter stuff on Side A, while Side B has the sweet ballad tunes.

I think it was with this album that Akina graduated from her aidoru days to that of J-Pop diva. The writing pedigree illustrated that. Certainly, her voice started to drop an octave from "Bitter & Sweet" onward, although it had yet to reach her current sultry depths.

Just to give the facts here: this was Akina's 7th album, released in April 1985. It spent 2 weeks at No. 1 just after release and attained No. 9 in the Top 10 albums of the year.

(August 22 2014: I made a follow-up to the album right here.)