Yumi Matsutoya -- OLIVE

Back in the early days of my fascination with kayo kyoku, the singers I knew at the time were separated into two categories: the ones that I could see on television thanks to the wonder of VHS tapes such as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）, and the ones that I had only heard through the radio program, "Sounds of Japan". Those folks included Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）. I had no idea what the singers who often popped up on my old CHIN-FM broadcast looked like for many years.

This brings me to the topic of this article. I actually had seen the cover for Yumi Matsutoya's 7th original album "OLIVE" many years ago in some magazines without knowing who the singer was. Just from the huge serif font at the top, I naturally assumed the singer below was actually named Olive and she was just a little too much in love with herself posing like that. Of course, that was indeed the divine Yuming（ユーミン）on the cover there.

Now, the very first album by Yuming that I had ever purchased was her "Love Wars" from 1989 so she was fully into her vivacious image and high-stepping performances onstage, and basically my history of collecting her material had me going back and forward in time. My impression is that when she was Yumi Arai（荒井由実）in the early 1970s when she helped start off the New Music boom, she didn't strike me as being the most outgoing person. Her early albums often didn't show her face and when they did, she looked quite dour. So it must have been quite something for her fans when "Olive" was released in July 1979 with that cover of her seemingly out-vogueing Madonna...a few years before the Material Girl even debuted. There was an entertainer about to hatch from the Queen of New Music. According to J-Wiki, photographer Alao Yokogi（横木安良夫）and Yuming came up with the idea to have the cover look like something from a 1960s Italian fashion magazine.

So I finally bought "OLIVE".

(tribute version)

 I've listened to the album twice now and I don't think Yuming meant to have any particular overarching theme for "OLIVE". Still it starts off with something that seems to hint at that cover. "Mirai wa Kiri no Naka ni"（未来は霧の中に...The Future's In the Fog） sounds rather French poppy as the singer-songwriter goes autobiographical and sepia when she sings about her memories of the 1960s including the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the moon landing in 1969.

Arguably the most famous song from "OLIVE" is "Aoi Air Mail"（青いエアメイル...Blue Air Mail） which seems to pop up on a lot of Yuming's BEST compilations. And why not? It's another one of those sweet and wistful ballads that she can concoct so well. In this case, it's about a woman in love with a friend who may have been close by but now is far enough away that pen-and-paper correspondence is necessary (remember the time period here...no LINE messaging). I just want to look out a window and sigh whenever this comes through the headphones.

(cover version)

I think another Yuming trope I've picked up over the decades is how her voice can get playful and coquettish depending on the song. Such is partly the case with "Amai Yokan"（甘い予感...A Sweet Premonition）, a happy-go-lucky number about that sunny drive. There is a light tropical beat and Yuming manages to name-drop The Beach Boys. According to J-Wiki, "Amai Yokan" was originally offered by Yuming to Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）back in 1977 as her 13th single.

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

"Tsumetai Ame"（冷たい雨...Cold Rain） is another self-cover which had originally been created when the singer was still Yumi Arai. In fact, I had written an article about the song way back in 2012 when Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）did their own gentle version a few years earlier. Yuming's next try at the song about a very awkward ending of a relationship has got a bit more brass and pop into it. In fact, at one point in the recorded version, I think the instrumental makes it sound as if it should have been put onto the soundtrack of a Japanese comedy.

(karaoke version)

"Inazuma no Shojo"（稲妻の少女...Lightning Bolt Girl） comes across as a cheerful tribute to 50s/60s American pop about a girl who's as good with her surfboard as she is with twirling the boys around her pinkie.

My final song for tonight is the track "Saigo no Haru Yasumi"（最後の春休み...Last Spring Break）. As with "Tsumetai Ame", this was another Yuming contribution to Hi-Fi Set who recorded it in the same year as her version. Once again, it's all about the bittersweet heartbreak as a girl realizes her beloved senpai will no longer be around the school since he graduated. I will shortly be talking about Hi-Fi Set's version but Yuming's take on it has again that innocent Sandra Dee 50s sheen. When she hits that final high note, it's almost as if she suddenly regressed to the age of that lovelorn kid. Aww, you just wanna get her an ice cream at that point.

"OLIVE" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and ended the year as the 35th-ranked album for 1979. Yep, she's another Yuming keeper, and despite that glamourous cover, it's really another album of Yuming's feelings about the life of regular young women.