Yasuha -- Mizuiro no One-Piece （水色のワンピース）

Another one of my purchases this time around from CD Japan was "Golden Best - Yasuha"（GOLDEN☆BEST 泰葉）which was a bargain at only 953 yen before taxes! But it wasn't just a bargain financially speaking. Having only known singer-songwriter Yasuha for her only hit, "Fly-Day Chinatown"（フライディ・チャイナタウン）from 1981, I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of her tracks were pretty solid songs which didn't just stay in the realm of City Pop which is where "Fly-Day Chinatown" resides.

I had said in the article for that song that Yasuha Ebina（海老名泰葉）reminded me of some of the more powerfully-voiced kayo songstresses such as Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Junko　Ohashi（大橋純子）. But when I went through the album last night, I discovered that Yasuha could also take on a tone similar to a few other singers.

One of those singers is Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）, and for those readers who have tried listening to her material either through YouTube or this blog, Nishijima has straddled the line between gentle folk and AOR. Yasuha does the same with her 3rd single from August 1982, "Mizuiro no One-Piece" (Aqua-Coloured One-Piece Dress).

As with "Fly-Day Chinatown", Yasuha took care of the music while Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）provided the lyrics. However, instead of a fun night down in Chinatown, Yasuha's music is very wistful and sweet here while Araki's words plumb the singer's own experiences of heartbreak. Vocally as well, Yasuha also seems to approach the delivery of future pop singer Mariko Nagai（永井真里子）during the refrain.

But there is more to explore with the discography of Yasuha and so I will most likely whip up a BEST article for the singer soon.