Anri -- Goodbye Future

Several months ago, I did a profile on Anri's（杏里） "Boogie Woogie Mainland", the album that had Eiko Kawashima embracing her full R&B-ness. As the beginning to another phase in her then-decade-long career, she and co-producer Nobuo Tsunetomi amped up the instruments and the music to create something that sounded like the spirit of Earth Wind & Fire had decided to descend upon them. And I mentioned in the article that the one song that I wasn't able to get was this really snappy track called "Goodbye Future".

Well, hello "Goodbye Future". The track finally got uploaded (and hopefully will stay that way), and the reason that I was so keen on this one was that out of all of the tracks on "Boogie Woogie Mainland", this song just seems to have everyone working even harder to make it as funky, groovy and lively as possible. Starting with a staccato blast from the Jerry Hey horns, the drums pound on in followed by some thick bass by Neil Stubenhaus, before Anri hurls out the sunniest delivery accompanied by that horn section and then a blistering electric guitar interlude. Those people were in a very good mood.

As was the case for the rest of the album tracks, Anri was behind the music with Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）as the lyricist and Yasuharu Ogura（小倉泰治）as the arranger. I mentioned in the article on the album itself that I thought "Goodbye Future" was an ironically depressing title for such a power-packed tune. But it turns out that there was a reason behind it. In the lyrics, the protagonist is a young lady who willingly throws away her predicted (and probably predictable) future with an erstwhile beau to run away to the big city for a chance at a better life. Although the tone of the words sound a bit bittersweet, the music probably reflects how the runaway girl really feels. Time to pack those bags for LA. Still, I feel sorry for the guy.

But lyrics aside, I just love the music and I'm glad that I could get the song in here at last.