Lamp -- Yume（ゆめ）

A little over a year ago, commenter Matt Gallais recommended this band called Lamp and specifically one of their songs "A Toshi no Aki"（A都市の秋）which I recognized as one of the number of urban contemporary tunes from the past couple of decades that I've enjoyed over the past few years. Well, I decided to get the album it came on, "Yume" (Dream) some months ago, and I'm finally going to write about some of the other tracks.

For a brief recap, I just wanted to lift one of the paragraphs that I had written for "A Toshi no Aki" and state that Lamp's multi-instrumental members Taiyo Someya（染谷大陽）, Yusuke Nagai（永井祐介）and Kaori Sakakibara（榊原香保里）started their band back in 2000, and up to the middle of 2018, they've released 8 albums and 2 singles. "Yume" happens to be their 7th album which came out in February 2014.

Also, to paraphrase once more from the "A Toshi no Aki" article, Lamp is all about their refined yet complex sounds based on bossa nova. Having listened to "Yume", I think the band has extrapolated far afield from their bossa nova roots since, true to the title of this album, there is something very dream-like about each of the tracks.

Starting off the album is "Symphony"（シンフォニー）which was written and composed by Nagai, and true to everyone's ability with different instruments, he not only handles the main vocals and background vocals, he also handles a Fender Rhodes, classical guitar, electric guitar, organ, Mellotron, synths, and sleigh bells among others. Sakakibara plays flute and accordion and provides background vocals as well while Someya is on electric guitar and other musicians take care of the strings, percussion, etc.

"Symphony" has three stages beginning with a happy but introspective instrumental prologue for the first minute before Nagai goes into a mellower frame of mind. It's here that I discover that Lamp is not only fine with their external instruments but also with their internal ones...namely their voices, as they weave their dreamscape. Then, just before the second minute, Nagai seems to bring listeners into a more intimate and neighbourly environment as he seeks to find some serene beauty in the cacophony of the city. The home video style of the music video of the city and countryside brings some nostalgia, and just when that word "nostalgia" came to my mind, Nagai actually sang that very word as the last word.

Sakakibara wrote the lyrics and Someya composed the melody for "Roku-go Shitsu"（6号室...Room No. 6）with Sakakibara and Nagai sharing the microphone as they sing about someone's reminiscences of a past romance and life in the titular room. The dreaminess continues here but I also like when the key dramatically shifts into a groove when Sakakibara adds her vocals.

"Nagisa A La Mode"（渚アラモード...Beach A La Mode）by Nagai and Sakakibara is a bit more playful and has a whistle in there which somehow reminds me of bossa nova. The song has a brighter atmosphere of a sunny Sunday with a barefoot walk on the shore although things seem to end on a slightly mysterious note.

The final song for the article happens to be the final song of "Yume", "Sachiko"（さち子）also by Nagai and Sakakibara. In fact, Sakakibara also directed and edited the music video which again takes on that nostalgic feeling of home movies from years past. I get the impression from the arrangement that there is a slightly sweeping Shibuya-kei element in there. There is something quite 1960s about it as the main character in the song is recovering from the end of a relationship.

"Yume" is quite relaxing. I would say that it is so relaxing that it's worth stepping away from the desk and just lie down on the bed while listening to the soft whispery vocals. Listeners may just end up heading over to the land of the title. Moreover, there is a distinct sound with Lamp which is made up of a number of influences including the AOR and straight pop under which I've already categorized the album but also there are hints of Shibuya-kei, groove and jazz, and maybe I can say that the band performs a form of alternative pop.