Anzen Chitai -- La La La

Last weekend, I had my brother's family come over for dinner when my sister-in-law told me that her sister had gone to an Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）concert over in Hong Kong very recently (man, those guys are still hitting the concert circuit, I see), and was thoroughly charmed by the dulcet vocals of  Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）. I can only imagine that she would be; after all these decades, the man may have packed on a number of kilograms but he can still sing like no one else.

In any case, I lent my brother and sister-in-law my entire collection of Anzen Chitai so that the sister can pick and choose among the songs she likes by the band. I've got a feeling that she will be taking quite a bit of time on that, but no surprise there.

Going back to some of the earliest days of the Hokkaido band, I remember one particular song from their second album, the appropriately titled "Anzen Chitai II" from May 1984. "La La La" was a track and not a single, but it had that soothing AC guitar sound that evoked a lot of cool mystery and urban settings. As usual, Tamaki provided the melody and Goro Matsui（松井五郎）wrote the lyrics about this tryst in the making although the lead singer's music felt almost like an Anzen Chitai attempt at a lullaby (well, in a way, the tryst and the lullaby are kinda aiming for the same thing, I suppose). I wouldn't be surprised if a die-hard fan actually played the song right by the bed to head for beddy-bye land and into the arms of Tamaki. The whispery vocals of the singer can work just like some good warm milk.