Yasuhiro Abe -- SLIT

Well, it took me a while but I'm finally getting around to writing about Yasuhiro Abe's（安部恭弘）third album "SLIT" from December 1984. Mind you, it feels like I've already talked about half of "SLIT" since I've provided articles for four of the tracks: the brilliant City Pop of "Irene"（アイリーン）, the driving "Thrill Down", the ballad "My Dear" as penned by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, and the catchy pop of "Double Imagination".

The one reason that I'm taking care of "SLIT" is that in the last couple of weeks, I purchased Abe's fourth album "Frame of Mind", and from reading kaz-shin's reviews of both albums (which he dearly loves) on the Japanese music blog "Music Avenue", I felt that I ought to take care of both over this weekend.

Unfortunately, not all of the tracks are represented on YouTube but I was able to track down three of them. First off is "New York Night", Abe's classy tribute to the Big Apple. As he did with "Irene", Chinfa Kan（康珍化）also wrote the words to this one which has the singer-songwriter giving an Airplay-esque mid-tempo tune that would be very welcome on any 80s radio station. As usual, I do love those horns.

It's not a genre that I often associate with Abe, but "Heart Trick" is a pop/rock song that also had me reminiscing about some of the harder pop I used to hear on the radio back in my high school and university days. Again, Kan was the lyricist here as Abe takes us listeners on a pretty intense drive on the Kan-Etsu around midnight, and strangely enough, the arrangement is such that I could have easily imagined Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）of an earlier age tackling this one. "Heart Trick" was also the B-side to the singer's 7th single "Kiss Mark" from April 1985.

My final song is "Cause I Love You", a happy doo-wop-ish which brings back memories of jazz vocal groups doing the standards from the 1950s and 1960s. Sandy Muse wrote the completely English lyrics here, and kaz-shin from "Music Avenue" has even referred to a bit of Beatles in the song; he also mentioned that Abe is a big fan of the Fab Four. Come to think of it, "Cause I Love You" in some areas reminds me of the band's classic "Eight Days a Week", although I also get hints of "Walk Between The Raindrops" by Donald Fagen on his amazing "The Nightfly".

By his own admission, kaz-shin is a huge Abe fan and he (and I) feel that if there is anyone who is entering the Abe zone for the first time, then "SLIT" and "Frame of Mind" are the two must-gets. In addition, the blogger stated that when comparing the two albums, "SLIT" is arguably the better one since the singer decided to dabble in a wider palette of styles while still keeping the mellowness, whereas the following year's "Frame of Mind" is on a tighter leash genre-wise. Anyways, I will go ahead with my article on the 1985 album in the next couple of days.