Well, nearly 3 months and a payment later, I have been able to acquire that very debut album. Considering how obscure the name was (didn't even see her on "Japanese City Pop"), I thought "Style" was gonna be something that I could only admire online. However, the good folks at CD Japan actually had it on sale.
One of the other tracks on the 1988 "Style" is "Coltrane de Aishite" (Love Me By Coltrane) which also served as Kimura's debut single (presumably in the same year). Written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composed by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, it's a fairly dreamy ballad involving rain, hotels and jazz legend John Coltrane...about as atmospheric as a romantic City Pop tune can get. Kimura's vocals get all breathy to the hint of bossa nova as she gets into the torch song of it all. At the beginning of the imported video above, there is a picture of the singer as it was taken on the cover of the debut single, and I think she had that look which was a mix between Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）and Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）.
As for the rest of the album, "Style" keeps it nice and urban contemporary for the most part except for a cover of the Yuki Okazaki（岡崎友紀）hit "Do You Remember Me?" which also happens to be the B-side to "Coltrane de Aishite". Probably if I were to relate another Japanese city aside from Tokyo to the album, it would be the resort area of Hakone.
Mmm, I love this album, but I was worried about ordering through CDJapan. Did you actually have to wait for three months for it to arrive?
ReplyDeleteHi, Taizo. Thanks for commenting.
DeleteTo answer your question, I've ordered through CD Japan about three or four times. And from ordering to delivery, it took an average of two weeks (perhaps three tops) for my packages to arrive. I know that there is some sort of clause which states that the packages could take as long as 3 months to do so, but I have never experienced that long a wait.
By the way, I read your profile. It's nice to know that there are people who still like the classic movies like "Citizen Kane".
Thank you for this informative write-up on Kimura. Never heard of her before, but this and "Denwa Shinaide" are awesome hidden City Pop gems. Lovely atmosphere and beautiful dreamy vocals. I should listen to more of her stuff.
ReplyDeleteTo answer Taizo's question, the pressing of "Style" available on CDJapan is called On-demand CD, which is used for out of print releases. It's a professional version of a CD-R copy done by CDJapan staff from the original master, so they would ship it quickly because they don't have to contact the original distributor.
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/CORR-10383 : Availability says that it ships within 3-7 days after you place the order.
You're very welcome, nikala. It's amazing what gems I'm still finding out this late in my kayo career. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that "Style" was available through this format, and I've had no problems listening to the disc.
DeleteSpeaking of purchases, I hear that Tower Records Japan is now able to ship CDs overseas due to some collaboration with a company called Tenso.com. I may use the site to get some Rajie albums since they don't seem to be available at CD Japan.
Hi J-Canuck,
DeleteTo comment on the Tower Records bit, they don't ship directly overseas per se. You will first obtain a Japanese mailbox address at Tenso and have them ship to that, and then Tenso will ship the package to you. The process is actually pretty quick. I recently ordered from them last Saturday and received my package this Friday. If you need any support with this process refer to the guidelines on Tenso's website or email me.
I saw these Rajie remasters on the site and cheered, too. This is wonderful, despite being a site-exclusive offer. You may also want to keep an eye out for their Light Mellow's Picks CD reissue series for the rare City Pop galore.
Man, that is fast. Does Tenso supply a F-16 for its deliveries? :) I think I may give Tower a try then.
DeleteI've actually got a few more Light Mellow discs since last time we spoke. And in fact, I'm waiting for another one to come either this week or next...this one is subtitled "Dancing" which I really never associated with City Pop/J-AOR. One of the reasons I picked it up was that it also had Nobuo Ariga's "Rain Dolphin" which your wrote about on the blog.
The Light Mellow Picks Series I'm referring to are CD reissues of studio albums that are featured in "Japanese City Pop" and "Light Mellow Special" books (e.g. Mai Yamane's early albums, Masayuki Kishi). When you search for "Light Mellow Picks" or "Tower to the People" on the online store under J-Pop, you can see more from the series. Outside of Tower Records, the only way to obtain most of these is in LP format.
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