Shiho Nanba -- Cobalt Blue（コバルトブルー）

Last night, I wrote an article on another one of Blue Peppers'（ブルー・ペパーズ）mellow tracks from their 2017 album "Retroactive", "Hachi-gatsu no Kageboushi"（八月の影法師）, and in fact, much earlier this year, I had written about the album itself.

One of the tracks that was tackled on the article for "Retroactive" itself was the innocent and warm "Cobalt Blue" as sung by former AKB48 member Michiru Hoshino（星野みちる）. Well, in the last few days, I found out that this particular track was actually a cover of the original version provided by Blue Peppers to Fukuoka-born singer Shiho Nanba（南波志帆）.

Nanba has been around as a performer since 2008 with her major debut beginning in 2010. "Cobalt Blue" is a track on her third album "meets sparkjoy" released in April 2016 (and reaching No. 45 on Oricon). With only a few differences in the arrangement (including some electric guitar at the end), and a slightly less whispery delivery by Nanba, the song is an ironically titled track. On first seeing the title, I would have thought that it was prefacing a cool-as-ice hard techno tune. Instead, it's referring to a girl's accessory on the ideal day to have that wonderful date in the park.