Happy Sunday to you readers at "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Had the day off yesterday since I was meeting up with a couple of old friends for lunch. Ended up at our old university haunt of the Madison Ave. Pub where I had the meat loaf platter, cheekily labeled as "Bat Out of Hell". Then it was a good walk for a while after which my legs were about to give out but certainly after the Holidays, the exercise was necessary.
Commenter Daemonskald tipped me off some hours ago that Junko Yagami's（八神純子）8th album "Communication" from February 1985 has been remastered and is now on sale at Tower Records. Not only that, but apparently her 9th album "Jun"（純）which got out later in November is also available there.
Many thanks to Daemonskald since Yagami albums in the 1980s aren't exactly easy to get. Furthermore, as I've learned through experience when tracking down hard-to-find CDs, when an opportunity like this comes along, I will not let it go. I had already done some buying at Tower when the announcement came in from the store via my e-mail and then Daemonskald's tip arrived, so not letting fate slide and at the risk of seeming rather ravenous to the good folks at the music shop, I pulled off another purchase by securing both "Communication" and "Jun", along with Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）debut album "Hikoki Gumo"（ひこいき雲...Vapor Trails）. As the uploader for the above video has stated, I have supported Ms. Yagami by buying her albums.
Speaking of which, then, I will provide some advance communication on "Communication" (sorry, couldn't resist) by talking on one of the tracks, "1984~ Seireki Ni-Sen-nen ni Mukatte" (Towards 2000 AD). Starting off with what seems like a hard technopop riff granted by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一） (nope, Yagami still took care of both words and music), the singer then launches into a fairly dreamy but urban contemporary tune that has me imagining folks not so much walking on the city streets at night but floating above them like spirits (I'm writing this after catching "Doctor Strange" on TV).
There's a part of "1984" that reminds me of the ballad "Mystery" performed by the Manhattan Transfer and then by Anita Baker on her second hit album "Rapture", and though I've still classified the song as a City Pop number, I think there's a lot of that American R&B from the same time period influencing it. Of course, at this point, I'm still awaiting getting "Communication", but listening to "1984" and another track from the album "Cashmere no Hohoemi"（カシミヤのほほえみ）, I've been reminded of what I said in that article about Yagami making another turn in her career by going for that US dance-pop sound from City Pop while still remaining in the urban contemporary field.
By looking at Yagami's lyrics for "1984", it seems like that the year was a significant one for her. From my impression anyways, they seem to convey that Yagami had just returned from this exotic country (maybe the United States) with a whole new view and information and is inviting listeners to come with her back to America. However, according to the J-Wiki biography on Yagami (original source: Yagami's "Sagashimono wa Kokoro no Naka ni"/ 探しものは心の中に [What You're Searching For Is In Your Heart] pp. 17-21, 1997) the big move from Japan wouldn't occur until 1986 when she married John Stanley and then moved over to Los Angeles later that autumn.
In any case, I would like to say to Tower Records: Mata yoroshiku onegai shimasu（又よろしくお願いします。）.
Since I listened to this song while getting under the rain a few times, I can't listen to it now without thinking of rain. The mood of the track feels reminiscent of it too. This song makes me feel very nostalgic.
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