Sumiko Yamagata -- Kumorizora （曇り空）

Long time, no see Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）. Welcome back to the blog! I was kinda looking for something City Pop and thought that I could find an entry in Yamagata's discography since she had her period of urban contemporary starting from the late 1970s.

However, I ended up making a detour when I found this interesting and lovely song by her. It's titled "Kumorizora" (Overcast Sky) and was a track on her 5th album "Orgel"（オルゴール...Music Box）from August 1975. Before Yamagata made that right turn into New Music/City Pop, she had been known as a young folk singer. But I think there is more of a drama in this song that was composed by her and written by Tadashi Akai（赤井正...I hope that's how the name is pronounced）so that the arrangement takes things into a more New Music area. Perhaps, there are other tracks in "Orgel" that may have been slowly convincing her that she could make a crossing between genres.

In any case, the lyrics by Akai have a woman silently pining for someone she's fallen for under that titular overcast sky and exhorting him to notice her, especially since there is a hint that he may have just broken up with someone else and is mourning that loss. I do love that guitar, that piano and Yamagata's voice here.