I gotta say that if I were to analogize Japanese singers with comfort food (like a good pot of admittedly unhealthy poutine or a canister of Pringles), there is no one better for me than Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）of the band Spitz (スピッツ).
Long time, no see. It's been almost 2 years since I put up an article about Spitz, so on hearing them again through their 15th single "Scarlet", Kusano and company felt like an ASMR massage video. I forgot that a Spitz performance made for a nice tonic when I have heard a little too much of the Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）technopop/dance music experience. "Scarlet" and their other hits during this time brought things down to earth as a nice melodic cool down.
Kusano's vocals and the guitars and the overall arrangement of "Scarlet" made it a nice welcome back to the mellower side of J-Pop. The vocalist was responsible for the words and music for the song which was released in January 1997 (20 years ago...sheesh). It was their 4th of 5 No. 1 singles with "Scarlet" becoming the 47th-ranked single for the year as it went Triple Platinum. The song also became the theme for the TBS drama "Melody".
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