Anzen Chitai -- Y no Tension （yのテンション）

I thought I had heard all of the big Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）songs thanks to all of the karaoke at Kuri, the frequent appearances by the Hokkaido band on the music ranking shows, and a mix tape of their music that I got from a good friend for my birthday. Then, over the Holidays in 1989, I got to stay at the apartment of a distant cousin living in Kawasaki City right beside Tokyo. My first night there, my cousin and his wife kindly set up a fine dinner for me and put on some music for me. It turned out to be Anzen Chitai's 3rd album, "Anzen Chitai III - Dakishimetai"（抱きしめたい....I Want to Hold You) which had been released in December 1984.

Well, that first track was something that I hadn't heard before. "Y no Tension"(Y Tension) had that classic Anzen Chitai sound by lyricist Goro Matsui（松井五郎） and composer/lead singer Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）. The melody was smoky and mysterious while Tamaki gave his usual seductively silky vocals. And the song in general just felt introspective yet urgent at the same time. It hooked me right then and there on my cousin's stereo, and my hosts were fascinated and delighted that a far-off relative from Canada would even know these guys. It made for some nice dinner conversation on a winter night...not something that I can do often on this topic.

Of course, the big single from this album was "Koi no Yokan"（恋の予感） which was a Tamaki and Yosui Inoue（井上陽水） collaboration. The album itself peaked at No. 3 on Oricon but higher and better were coming for Anzen Chitai. Still, it was enthralling to hear a new wonderful song by the band that never got onto the BEST compilations but was still a winner. Just not quite sure what the title is all about. Y-chromosome, perhaps?