Yoshitaka Minami -- Hometown

Some years ago, I wrote about Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）classic 1982 album "Seventh Avenue South", a mix of urban jazz and resort pop that I fell in love with after listening to tracks such as "COOL" and "Scotch and Rain". The final straw for me to purchase "Seventh Avenue South" was seeing the cover of the album with the splendid painting of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks". I'm not an art aficionado at all but that painting has always been one of my favourite pieces of pop culture.

"Hometown" is one of the tracks from "Seventh Avenue South", and it is the one middle-ground song of the album. Not jazzy and not necessarily sounding like something to be heard on the beach, Minami has crafted a musical picture of old friends getting together for the first time in ages in the titular hometown while they enjoy a barbecue and some beers. Considering some of the current turmoil in the world as of this writing, this wouldn't be a bad number to listen to. The timing of this writing is also good in that August is the O-Bon season in Japan, one of the prime times of the year for families to head back to their hometowns for a few days of recuperation.