Mami Yamase -- Modern City

I just got to see the veteran tarento Mami Yamase（山瀬まみ）on her regular NHK variety show "Tameshite Gatten"（ためしてガッテン）. Usually, the show is broadcast on Thursday nights on TV Japan, but since we are in the Holidays, tonight's episode was shown on Monday night as an extended year-end special.

Just a few days ago, I came across one of her old songs when she was a late 80s aidoru. Titled "Modern City", I was rather struck by this particular song which was actually the B-side to her 4th single from New Year's Day 1987, "Strange Pink". I mentioned once before that I've observed that a number of the aidoru tunes during this part of the decade had somewhat lusher and more exotic arrangements such as a more European twist as if Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）had come to the rescue.

The title "Modern City" had me intrigued enough as it was, but the actual song itself didn't strike me as being the run-of-the-mill aidoru tune. I gather that one reason would be the songwriters behind this one: lyricist extraordinaire Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and singer-songwriter Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）with arranger Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）at the helm as well. Quite the pedigree here. It's light and airy enough to be an aidoru song but there is also a bit more refinement with "Modern City" that could have brought Yamase into the straight pop category. And once again, Yamase's singing voice reveals that her squeaky speaking voice on various programs is a TV artifice.