Akina Nakamori -- My Best Thanks

After getting "D404ME"and "Bitter and Sweet"(her 8th and 7th albums), I managed to borrow Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜） mini-album, "My Best Thanks" on audiotape from a friend of mine. It wasn't Akina's first dalliance with a smaller record....during her pure aidoru days, she had also released a couple of other mini-albums, "Seventeen" and "Silent Love" in 1982 and 1984 respectively. This third one was released in late December 1985. As for the title, I have always assumed it was to commemorate an anniversary of sorts (most likely her 3rd in the music business) and to thank the fans for their support....and perhaps to say goodbye in a way.

The three songs in "My Best Thanks" continue on her transition from aidoru to pop chanteuse which started from "Bitter and Sweet". In fact, the 2nd song is lifted straight from that seminal album.

Track 1 is "Arifureta Fukei"（ありふれた風景...Commonplace Scenery), an atmospheric, mysterious song that sounds as if it had been created for Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子） in that period. It's rather strange to say but the first time I heard it, it sent a shiver up my spine (as it did when I heard it again for the first time in years just an hour ago)....the combination of haunting melody and vocals had that effect on me. And speaking of effect, listening to "Arifureta Fukei" has that feeling of floating above the city at night, just peering into the contrast of darkness and lights that make up the nightscape. The song was written and composed by Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）, who had her own huge hit more than a decade previously with "Anata"（あなた...You).

Track 2, as mentioned, is from "Bitter & Sweet". The ballad, "Yokan"（予感....Premonition), was created by Ryo Aska（飛鳥涼） of Chage & Aska fame, and on Akina's 7th album, it acted as a nice little brake after the first two uptempo songs on that album. Akina seems to be singing about loving a certain someone while being uncomfortable with the fact that he's somewhat hard to read.

Track 3 is "Don't Tell Me This Is Love", which was sung totally in English. Written and composed by BIDDU, a UK music producer who had come up with the huge 70s disco hit "Kung Fu Fighting", he had also prior experience in Japan when he made a hit song for the Group Sounds band, The Tigers, back in 1969. I think it was with this song (and to a certain extent, the first song) that Akina may have been signaling to her millions of fans that it was time for a Doctor Who-type regeneration of sorts. There is even a radio static fade out from "Yokan" and a fade-in (with bits of her past songs quickly weaving in and out) to the final track with Akina pulling out a dance number that sounds a bit Frankie Goes to Hollywood, a bit Pet Shop Boys. Like "Arifureta Fukei", it knocked me for a loop when I first heard it, although the arrangement sounds a bit dated now. Still, I always remember this one for the way Akina yells "LOVE" in the refrain. I wonder if this was a bit of a launch point or a teaser for her next 1987 studio album, "Fushigi"（不思議...Strange） which was a definite change in direction for the singer.

"My Best Thanks" debuted on Oricon right at No. 1 near the end of the year and remained there for a month, and spent 4 months in total on the charts. Selling about 300,000 copies, it became the 27th-ranked song of 1986. I think for all those Akina fans out there, despite its status as a mini-album, it's a must-get.

Akina Nakamori -- My Best Thanks