Anri -- Heaven Beach

Got on my CD-buying binge...coming to the end of the year, y'know. One of the first albums I purchased was Anri's（杏里）"Heaven Beach". It's been a target for some time so I was glad to finally get my hands on it, especially after listening to the mellow groove of "Last Summer Whisper".

(full album)

This was Anri's 4th album from November 1982, released some 14 months after her last album, the more European-and-exotic-sounding "Kanashimi no Kujaku"（哀しみの孔雀）. With "Heaven Beach", according to the J-Wiki write-up on the album, this cemented Ms. Kawashima's status as the summer-sounding pop singer that we Anri fans all know and love.

At first assumption, I had thought that at least half of "Heaven Beach" was handled by musician-songwriter Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）but he actually just took care of three of the original 10 tracks. Still, this was the beginnings of a good collaboration between him and Anri in terms of the sunny summer pop that would hereafter characterize the singer. Case in point is the opening song "Ni-banme no Affair"（二番目のaffair...The Second Affair）which has all that Kadomatsu goodness with the skippy bass and galloping beat as Anri sings about struggling to keep from falling for the charms of a friend who may be trying to bring their relationship to another level.

Side A of the original 1982 LP seems to have gone more of the City Pop/dance-pop route that Anri would navigate for the next number of years with Kadomatsu's help. However, one of the songs that I've instantly liked from Listen 1 at 13:02 is by Takeshi Kobayashi（小林武史）, "Resolution". The ballad not only shows the singer's strength in her vocals but also that when it comes to the genre in question, it isn't always about Anri and Kadomatsu.

"Resolution", which seems to be about a woman in love thinking about things on the harbour at sunset, starts off as a J-AOR ballad but then gradually morphs into something even more old-fashioned and romantic.

"Lonely Driving" at 9:40 is some good on-the-road pop written by singer-songwriter Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）and composed by Anri herself.

Side B of the LP goes more into what Anri was doing in her earlier years with perhaps some of that exotic influence from "Kanashimi no Kujaku". Things start off with a bang at 22:02 with "Flash Back Memories" which was also written and composed by Kobayashi. And unlike the mellowness of "Resolution", "Flash Back Memories" actually flashes back memories of 1980s New Wave and Billboard pop. I love that keyboard in there as I get reminiscings of bands like Hall & Oates.

"Natsu ni Se wo Mukete"（夏に背を向けて...Turning Your Back on Summer）at 34:24 is a melodically sweet if lyrically bittersweet take on the inevitable end of a summer fling. Kanda once again provided the lyrics while Fuyumi Iwasawa（岩沢二弓）, one-half of the duo Bread & Butter, came up with the music. The song has that mellow pop sound that I would usually attribute to someone like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）but again Anri sounds great here.

She also sounds wonderful for the final and title track at 38:46, "Heaven Beach". In fact, I would say that she almost has the voice of her younger teen self in tackling this ballad which makes for an appropriate end to the original album. It has that sort of sunset feeling there but Anri, who wrote and composed it, wanted to imbue a good amount of inspiration, in my opinion.

(1:03:46)

The 2011 re-release of "Heaven Beach" contains a bonus track which originally saw the light as the B-side to Anri's 10th single "Omoikkiri American"（思いきりアメリカン）from April 1982. "Kaze no Naka de Loving You"（風の中でLoving you...Loving You In The Wind） has got that happy light samba beat; Anri has done a number of Latin-tinged songs but although I think the song is fun and all that, it feels as if it has been grafted onto the singer like she is doing more of a karaoke of a song done by the original singer. Machiko Ryu and Michihiro Kobayashi（竜真知子・小林みちひろ）took care of this one.

As I mentioned in the article for "Last Summer Whisper", "Heaven Beach" the album got no higher than No. 89 on Oricon when it was first released. I gather that folks had yet to cotton onto Anri although better days were just around the corner. However, I think in retrospect, the album is an important one for Anri fans since it was a crossroads of sorts for showing what she had been doing and what she would be capable of in the coming years. Definitely happy to get this one.