Keiko Maruyama -- Glass no Mori（ガラスの森）

It's been a good 4.5 years since I've written up any article on Keiko Maruyama（丸山圭子）. For those who may not know her, this singer-songwriter is probably most famous among kayo fans for her 1976 hit "Douzo Kono Mama"（どうぞこのまま）, a bossa nova-influenced ballad that brings back memories of Henry Mancini and Antonio Jobim.

The other articles that I've written about Maruyama were on songs that she recorded back in the 1970s, so I'm quite happy to introduce one that she created and sang in the following decade. This would be "Glass no Mori" (Glass Woods), her 1983 single that was also placed in her album of the same year "Lady Good".

Of course, with the length of time passed since "Douzo Kono Mama", I wouldn't think that she would have stayed with the bossa nova, and the melancholy "Glass no Mori" has that contemporary sound which brings to mind that small genre of Fashion Music sung by singers like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Asami Kado（門あさみ）. Maruyama's lovely voice, those strings and the piano really stand out to me as the protagonist wonders in her darkened room (or plane cabin as you can see above) whether love will ever come to her. The overall sound makes me feel that the ideal setting would be some place in Tokyo which is why I gave it the City Pop tag.