CoCo -- Miss LONELY

CoCo’s “Miss LONELY” was a nice surprise to me earlier this year. Although I’ve listened to CoCo’s singles before, the group’s album tracks were still a mystery to me. The first (and only, until now) album that I decided to check was the 1992’s “Sylph”, mostly because of the beatiful pink cover with the girls posing on it.

Overall, the album suceeded in making a good impression on me, even though it was a rough time for the members, as “Sylph” was the first abum released by the group after the disbandment of member Azusa Senou (瀬能あづさ). In the end, it’s an aidoru album, and its success depends on how much the listener tolerates aidoru vocals and sweet songs. Besides the great “Yokohama Boy Style” (横浜Boy Style) and the generic-but-likeable “Natsuzora no Dreamer” (夏空のDreamer), which were released as singles prior to “Sylph”, the song that really stuck in my head was “Miss LONELY”.

Synths, sax, aidoru vocals, a good pop beat and a melancholic melody was all I needed to fall in love with “Miss LONELY” at first listen. I must say that as an aidoru fan, I was pleased to hear how great the vocals for this song are. In fact, “Miss LONEY” is labeled as Mikiyo Oono (大野幹代) with CoCo, so the lead vocals were done by Michiyo-chan. I will not lie, though. The other three members were essential for making this a great song. Besides harmonies, they alternated with Michiyo during the choruses, contributing to a couple of lines, so, as the lead vocals are somewhat deep, the childish tone delivered by the other girls is beautiful, making this sad song a little cuter. Aso, I’m a big fan of the wordplay used in the song, like when the “miss lonely” title is quickly followed by “misfortune” or “misdoing”, words with a beginning that turns into “misu” when written in katakana. In the end, while not an instant mainstream aidoru hit like their singles, “Miss LONELY” is a more introspective song that is a true hidden gem in CoCo’s discography.

The “Sylph” album reached #29 on the Oricon charts. Lyrics for “Miss LONELY” were written by Neko Oikawa (及川眠子), while music was composed by Megumi Ishii (いしいめぐみ). As for the lovely arrangement, it was done by Seiji Kameda (亀田誠治).