Aming -- Lover My Love

Just as much as the electric guitar and strings became an identifying trope for me when it came to Japanese popular music of the 1970s, some of Japan's 80s pop was represented by a combination of synths, an introspective piano and some soaring strings.

For that reason, Aming's（あみん） "Lover My Love" hit me right in the heart as soon as I heard it. This wasn't even the A-side but the B-side to the duo's 3rd single "Kokoro Komete Ai wo Komete"（心こめて 愛をこめて...With My Heart, With Love）from April 1983. Just from listening to this ballad, I realized that Aming's discography may be a microcosm of my exploration of Japanese pop music in general: all of the Oricon hits at the very top of the iceberg with a good number of hidden gems deep below the surface of the ocean.

Takako Okamura（岡村孝子）, one-half of Aming at the time, wrote and composed and sang this song about the reminiscences and regrets of a past romance before the decision to move on with life. But it's Okamura's melody beginning with that piano and then the entry of those soaring strings and percussion that made it all worthwhile for me. Perhaps I might grab the BEST compilation that it was finally placed on, "P.P.S. Anata e..."（P.P.S. あなたへ…To You）which was released in December 2007. As for the single "Kokoro Komete Ai wo Komete", it got up as high as No. 18.