For all those city lovers out there, I give you Junko Yagami's（八神純子）"Wonderful City", a track from her 3rd original album "Mr. Metropolis"（Mr.メトロポリス）in April 1980. Written and composed by Yagami, I really love the keyboards especially in the intro which starts things off dramatically but the song turns into an ode to the metropolis...whether it be New York, Los Angeles or Tokyo...right from drawing open the curtains on a sunny morning.
It's listening to this song that has me hankering for another visit to my old stomping grounds. If I could pull off another 2-week vacation in Japan's capital, I will endeavour to check out all of my old areas such as Ginza, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Omotesando among other neighbourhoods. However, the megalopolis is so big that even after 17 years of life in the area, I think there are still districts that I have yet to enter. It's one thing to be a resident and teacher but it's another thing to be the free and happy tourist in one of the world's biggest cities.
Anyways, "Mr. Metropolis" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and the album finished the year as the 27th-ranked release for 1980.
Great song, J-Canuck.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Yagami’s late night City Pop songs are among the best. Lately, I’ve been listening a lot to “Toki no Nagare ni”, from her debut album.
Like you said, the keyboards are great here, and I also like how piercing Yagami’s vocals are in the chorus. Well, that’s something common in her songs, but it’s also nice to hear.
I don’t know why, but never heard her third album “Mr. Metropolis” (I have it in my HD, though). Maybe I listened to her first one, alongside a couple of compilations, too much. “Wonderful City” just gave me a good reason to dive even more into her work.
Thanks, Marcos.
DeleteI'm going to have to re-direct my attention back to Yagami again. I don't have "Mr. Metropolis" but it's now going on my must-buy list for Xmas. As you said, those vocals are razor-sharp. I was talking with JTM the other day, and I'm not much of a downloader. I'm more of the old school in which I prefer to get the actual CD or LP.
Hi, J-Canuck.
DeleteI'd rather buy my CDs as well, but it's impossible
for me to afford everything. So, unfortunately, I have to rely on downloads as well. I'm more than happy when I find some cheap oldies on ebay, though. Right now, for example, I'm waiting for an old copy of Eriko Tamura's debut album, "May be Dream", to arrive.
In the end, with the economic crisis in Brazil, I had to stop shopping for a little while. The main things I bought this year were Perfume's new album "COSMIC EXPLORER" and, of course, Megumi Hayashibara's duets compilation "DUO". Other than that, I bought cheap and used CDs on ebay.
I'm also planning on buying a more expensive CD (probably Minami Kuribayashi's compilation) for my birthday in August, so let's see...
Nice disco!
ReplyDelete