Tomoko Aran's （亜蘭知子）"Midnight Pretenders" is a laid-back tune that I just encountered by grand happenstance in the last few minutes. Just like her "Slow Nights" on her 4th album, "More Relax", "Midnight Pretenders" had that City Pop vibe of gentle nighttime listening from the comfort of one's living room.
"Midnight Pretenders" was written by Aran and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, her fellow collaborator for all of those future hits for beach band TUBE. Right from the beginning with that descending keyboard riff, I got that urge to look out that rooftop bar window and contemplate the sunset....of course, drinking down a couple of rum and Cokes could also add to the ambiance. The song was a track on Aran's 3rd album from May 1983, "Fuyuu Kuukan"（浮遊空間...Floating Spaces）. It's too bad that it wasn't included on the BEST album that I got for her, but that's all the more inspiration to get another original CD by the singer-songwriter.
January 7 2022: Heard from a commenter down below that none other than Toronto's The Weeknd sampled "Midnight Pretenders" on "Out of Time" for his "Dawn FM" album which came out today.
Had to leave a comment on this article but the news today is that fellow Canadian singer The Weeknd sampled this song on his new song, "Out of Time." I'm sure they paid a hefty sum to clear it. It's on his new album, Dawn FM, which also came out today. The album is very much inspired by 80's synthwave, so it might be up your alley.
ReplyDeleteOh! My! Goodness! The Weeknd actually did take that rhythm from "Midnight Pretenders". I wonder whether composer Oda is going to be buying any real estate in Tokyo in the next several months. :)
DeleteHeard about The Weeknd's release of "Dawn FM" with Jim Carrey as the DJ. "Sacrifice" sounds darn good! Thanks for letting me know about "Out of Time".