Kaori Kuno -- Thank You for You

You might say that this is a reincarnation of this article. Originally, I had written this as the first article for singer/songwriter/saxophonist Kaori Kuno's（久野かおり）representation in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" way back in 2012. The song "Thank You for You" did have a YouTube presence until some months later when due to the usual copyright issues, it was taken down. Not having quite the patience back then that I do now, I re-molded the article so that it would take care of another song whose YouTube video was still there "Rifujin na Koi"（理不尽な恋）which was the opening track on her 3rd album "Breath". After all, I had also included how I got to find this album and what this singer was all about, so it would have been a waste to start totally from scratch.

Well, the video has returned much to my happiness. And "Thank You for You" is the one other song along with "Rifujin na Koi" that I do remember from "Breath" which came out in 1989. In fact, it is my favourite song by her from the same album. For the longest time, I had thought that it was the campaign song for an insurance company (the title would certainly seem appropriate), but as it turned out, it was actually the jingle for the Sendai branch of Mitsukoshi Department Store.

"Rifujin na Koi" feels like a city tune with a hint of drama but "Thank You for You" is definitely even breezier...more of a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. Plus, it is representative of a number of the works of female singer-songwriters during the late 1980s and early 1990s which tended to straddle between mellow and sophisticated pop.

Glad to see the song back up online and this time if and when it disappears again, I'll just retire the article back to Draft status. Hopefully, though, Apple or Amazon will have at least an excerpt. By the way, I listened to the entirety of "Breath" yesterday and I have a better appreciation of the other tracks. Provided that there is some more online presence of it, I may be able to do an article on the whole album someday.