Akina Nakamori -- BEST

Well from today, I've started a new category which is called BEST....profiling compilations of a singer's best hits. I'll provide the list of the songs and then perhaps any personal insights about what I've heard, and see if anyone out there has a particular favourite among the favourites. Consider this category as the opportunity for a kayo kyoku kaffeeklatsch!

So, I've decided to launch with Akina-chan.

Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜） BEST was released in April 1986, and these are the tracks:

1. Slow Motion （スローモーション）
2. Second Love　（セカンドラブ）
3. Twilight - Yugure Dayori　（夕暮れ便り）
4. Kita Wing　（北ウィング）
5. Southern Wind　（サザン・ウィンド）
6. Sand Beige - Sabaku e　（砂漠へ）
7. Solitude
8. Meu Amore　（ミ・アモーレ）
9. Kazari janai no yo Namida wa　（飾りじゃないのよ涙は）
10. Jikkai (1984)　（十戒）
11. Kinku　（禁区）
12. ½ no Shinwa　（½の神話）
13. Shojo A　（少女Ａ）

Strangely enough, though, this wasn't the first BEST album by Akina. There was a previous BEST compilation by her titled "Best Akina Memoir" released in December 1983. Like it, "Best"hit the top spot on Oricon right from its debut and stayed there for 3 weeks. Having sold over 770,000 copies, it was the 6th-ranked album of 1986. The following year, the inaugural Japan Gold Disc Awards awarded the album twice with The Grand Prix Album of the Year and The Best Album of the Year in the Pop Solo category. Pretty heady accolades.

I had actually bought the cassette tape here in Toronto at Wah Yueh but later got the CD for it. All of the tracks are the original single versions, including "Kazari janai no yo Namida wa" which has an extended version on the album "Bitter and Sweet"(already profiled), and yep, that is indeed the song Akina is performing above.

The layout of the tracks isn't the usual temporal progression from her debut up to 1986, but instead it rather goes into a mountain pattern of sorts, reaching her most recent hits at the time in the middle of the album with "Solitude" and "Meu Amore" and then going back in time until the album ends with her second single of "Shojo A".

The above videos here have Akina performing her first two singles, "Slow Motion" and "Shojo A". With the exception of ballads "Second Love" and the sweeping "Twilight", both written and composed by Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・たかお）, the songs are mid-tempo to high-tempo contrasting with her later tendency to go for slower ballads and more near-operatic delivery. And speaking about her delivery, "Best" is also interesting to listen to just on how her voice gradually changed from the high tones of "Slow Motion" to the sultrier "Meu Amore", although it would continue to deepen beyond 1986.

To finish up, I have to say Akina cut a fine figure on the cover in that gray outfit.

And below is "Kinku".

Akina Nakamori -- BEST