Yoko Oginome -- Verge of Love

Yoko Oginome (荻野目洋子) is well-known for her classic Eurobeat songs, such as “Dancing Hero ~Eat You Up~” (ダンシング・ヒーロー) and “Roppongi Junjouha” (六本木純情派), to name just a few, but I like to think of “Verge of Love” as her most ambitious work ever. So, with that in mind, I was more than happy to buy it very recently here in Brazil.

Like many other 80s aidoru singers, Oginome also went overseas to record an album with a famous producer, this time the ubiquitous Narada Michael Walden and his brand of R&B that helped elevating Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey’s careers, among others.

Recorded and released in two different languages, the English edition of “Verge of Love” appeared on Japanese stores in December 1988, while the Japanese version had to wait until February 1989. Personally, I don’t really know why she decided to record the same album in English and Japanese, but maybe she wanted the English version to be a gateway to the American market, which obviously didn’t happen. Or, being more realistic, from what I could see in the Discogs page, she could have been just aiming at Hong Kong, since, besides Japan, the album was only released there – and it was, indeed, the English version that was released in the then-British island. Anyway, I think of it as a very big investment just for the Hong Kong market, so another option is that she recorded in English for "artistic" reasons, since the album was probably originally planned in that language. Who knows, right?

The album starts with “This Could Be the Night”, a disco-infused number that, while not unique by any means, is a great opener to the album, since it already establishes the sound Oginome and Michael Walden were pursuing here.   

Following two slow R&B numbers, “Something About You” and “Passages of Time”, we reach the funky “Wicked”, in which Oginome showcases one of her strongest vocals in the album, especially during the verses (it’s the first song in the City Pop compilation posted above in the upper link). Next, there’s the amazing title song, “Verge of Love”, which I’ve already written an article for before (click here). Right now, of course I still love its mature mid-tempo groove and the whole arrangement, full of delicate synths. And it makes me feel even happier when I find a live performance of such great song on Yoru no Hit Studio (夜のヒットスタジオ). This classic show makes a perfect song sound even better, in my opinion.

“Postcard from Paris” is a more straightforward dance song that, apparently, was written for Whitney Houston (there's a demo version on this link). However, since she never recorded it, Oginome made it a part of “Verge of Love”. Also, in my mind, I could totally see Madonna recording this song, and even some bits in the arrangement are kind of similar to what she was releasing around her “True Blue” (1986) era. In a similar vein, there’s also something quite Madonna-esque to “Is It True” and its party-friendly house arrangement. In fact, besides the title song, “Is It True” is my favorite here. It’s just so fun and glittery that I can’t help but shake my head to the funky beat.

Between “Postcard from Paris” and “Is It True”, there’s the mid-tempo and soulful “Swoopin’ In”, another song that could have been recorded by Whitney Houston. Following, there’s the quirky Motown-esque girly pop “Dizzy Dizzy Dizzy” and, then, the album comes to an end with the pleasant “You Take It All Away”, a return to the disco-pop sound, kind of similar to the first one, “This Could Be The Night”.

Besides being my favorite album in her discography, what this album achieved, in my opinion, was the maintenance of Oginome’s position as one of Japan’s top female aidoru singers in the late 80s, since its English edition reached a solid #5 on the Oricon chart and the Japanese version #11. It also showed some variety in her repertoire, with a change in style from the famous hyper-pop/Euro-oriented sound in favor of R&B. After its release, she kept experimenting with other Western genres, such as in "You're My Life", for example, but I don't remember if she tried recording R&B in other occasion.