I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Anri -- Christmas Calendar/Mr. Santa Claus
A couple of Anri Xmas songs here. I'm not sure if the singer created these songs out of the same frustration that Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）did (see my entry for his "Christmas Eve"), but like him, Anri（杏里）has always been seen as a musical representative for summer. But strangely enough, she has come up with these very Yuletide numbers.
"Christmas Calendar" is a song that I first came across on an album of music box covers of Xmas songs....the Japanese just seem to adore music boxes. I've known about Anri since "Cat's Eye" in 1983, so to hear her sing a Xmas song intrigued me enough to find the original on her 1991 "My Favorite Songs II". As with a lot of the Xmas songs that have been covered in this blog, broken-hearted or wistful past romance is a die-hard theme here, as the main character reminisces over a long lost love. The song first appeared on her 10th studio album, "Trouble in Paradise", released in November 1986. Anri took care of the music while Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）was the lyricist.
"Mr. Santa Claus" was a track on her 19th album, "Twin Soul" from October 1997. The song starts out like the music surrounding a girl making a Santa Claus wish before it quickly moves into a more mature and uptempo beat....the girl growing up. Anri was in charge of both lyrics and music with Saeko Nishio helping out on the former. That girl is now a woman who still hopes that Kris Kringle can help out in the romance department, perhaps on a matter of unrequited love. The melody still kinda hints at a certain innocence in the request.
Hmmm....Christmas as a season for lonely hearts....that's probably a theme for a post-graduate thesis.
Is this the same Anri who did album called Mystique in 1986? I recall it being quite well-done funk-influenced kayokyoku.
ReplyDeleteSeason's Greetings, Nekromantis. Yup, one and the same. I think Toshiki Kadomatsu got her started on that route from Bi-Ki-Ni in 1983.
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