Misia -- LUV PARADE

As much as I loved the little lady with the big voice when she entered the music scene in the last few years of the 20th century, I found that going into the first decade of the 21st, Misia seemed to get into the ballads a little too heavy and too often. So I decided to wean myself of her for a little while.

But then in 2006, some kind of commercial came on which featured a new Misia song that was something that I hadn't heard in a few years. It was bright and brassy and had that old-style R&B sound that I missed from her. Titled "LUV PARADE", it came out in July of that year and the more I heard it on the telly, the more I wanted to buy it. And I did, as you can see from that really busy CD cover above.

With lyrics by Misia and music by Andreas Grill and Nick Malmestrom, her 15th single had that ol' disco brio that made me want to go over her uptempo hits again from 1998 and 1999. And I gotta admit that the official video with all of the dancers upped the ante on the enjoyment scale. Unfortunately, it didn't quite hit the heights of old, peaking at No. 16 but perhaps times were a-changin'. "LUV PARADE" was also a track on Misia's 7th album, "Ascension" (February 2007) which hit No. 2 on the album charts.

Still, it was good to hear Misia getting happy again.