Michiru Kojima -- Key of Dreams

Nice and smooth like a good Brown Cow (sorry, can't handle brandy), this is a pleasant Michiru Kojima（児島未散）number to discover. The title track from her 3rd album in December 1989, "Key of Dreams", this is another fine example of City Pop in the late 1980s or perhaps that sophisticated pop that I've often characterized the latter part of that decade by.

However you want to look at it, it's a bright traipse down a glorious Tokyo avenue during the Bubble Era with those champagne synths and oh-so-mellow chorus work leading the way. Drop by that nighttime cafe-bar? Go shopping in Aoyama? The song seems to be stating that the sky's the limit. According to Music Avenue, Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）, the frequent songwriting partner with Anri（杏里）at the time, took care of lyrics with City Pop maestro Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）coming up with the urban contemporary music. Finally to add that sophisticated shine in the arrangements is Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, no stranger to the genre.

Considering I was living in the mountains of the Japanese Alps at the time, I do wonder what it would have been like to have resided in the urban jungle of Tokyo at the time. I wouldn't have minded music such as this as my personal BGM.