Miki Imai -- Retour

"Retour" is not only my favourite Miki Imai （今井美樹）album but one of my favourite Japanese CDs bar none. It's kinda like the Japanese equivalent of Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly", one of those albums that seems to get better over time, with every song a winner. The songs from both albums didn't immediately scream "HIT!" but gradually permeated themselves over the years. The singer had great support from composers Chika Ueda（上田知華）& Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美）, and lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）. Even Imai provided lyrics for some of the tracks. Unlike "The Nightfly", there isn't any overarching theme to "Retour"; just 12 wonderful pop songs. Strangely enough, none of them were ever released as singles. The album was released in August 1990 where it reached a peak of No. 2 on Oricon.

The above video is for the first and title track itself, penned by Imai and Kakihara. In it, Imai pensively sings of a change of sorts in her life. The album was her first original album in over 2 years and several months after "Ivory", her first Best album of hits from her first 4 albums, so perhaps the song is a signal of things to come.

(cover version)

The second track is "Sol y Sombra", a lovely bossa jazz tune which was written inspired on festivals such as the Falles in Valencia, Spain and Carnaval. I love the song but there is one line that Imai sings which keeps me wincing since it sounds like "Hairy Hombre".

The final video is the official video for the 6th track, "Shiawase ni Naritai"(幸せになりたい...I Wanna Be Happy)....something that I hadn't seen since I saw it the first time two decades ago on MTV Japan. Generally, Imai is known for her ballads but this is an uptempo tune written and composed by Ueda. Finding her early videos is not that easy so it was great that I could track this one down. But watching it again, I almost felt like telling her to try that tradition called eating regularly.

March 29, 2016: I've a written a follow-up on the album right here.