Mariya Takeuchi -- Secret Love

"Secret Love" is a track from Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Miss M" album from 1980. As I mentioned in the article for her 4th album, "Miss M" is about as City Pop/AOR that the divine Miss M has ever gotten. And "Secret Love" seems to be Ground Zero for that genre. It sounds so West Coast circa that decade that I wondered whether Takeuchi had decided to put up stakes somewhere along the Ventura Highway in California.

Written by Marc Jordan and composed by Jay Graydon & David Foster (aka Airplay), the AOR keyboards start things off as if they are welcoming in the sunrise and then Mariya brings in her mellow tones with backup from the horns before everything and everyone takes the song into broad daylight in Los Angeles. Listening to it, it felt like I was sitting by that off-pink plastic radio that used to sit on the dining room table back in the late 70s. 

"Secret Love" is about as nostalgic and slick as they come for me. However, the only thing that irked me is during the bridge when those sunrise keyboards came back in for a couple of seconds only for the horns to suddenly blast in. It seemed like the guys wanted to lure the listener in up close to the speakers before playing that sonic joke on him. Happened to me the first time and just struck me as being a bit intrusive. Still, if someone asked me about what City Pop was all about, I could just point him to this song as an example.