Kirinji -- Sweet Soul e.p.（スウィートソウル）

Ahhh....memories of my first meal during my trip back to Tokyo in late 2017. I didn't go to any fancy restaurant, not even a Yayoi-ken or a McDonalds. Just dropped in at the local konbini across from the R&B Hotel in Otsuka and picked up a glorious bento and a carton of Lipton Milk Tea. That helped take the edge off the usual arduous flight.

The cover for Kirinji's（キリンジ）March 2003 single e.p. has that image of a Kirinji convenience store at night, and that rather reminded me of that oasis in the form of a midnight 7-11 or Lawsons or am/pm (more poignant now since perhaps a good number of them may no longer go 24 hours) to grab a bite to eat. Plus, the music for the title track "Sweet Soul", created by Kirinji songwriter Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）had me experiencing the quiet joy of munching down on my karaage bento in my hotel room while drinking in the milk tea. Maybe it should have been made into a commercial song for one of the convenience store chains.

And yet, "Sweet Soul" has nothing to do with karaage or milk tea but is about a young couple one night realizing that there is plenty of love between them. The music by Horigome is so mellow and romantic that it can bring listeners to tears, and there is that feeling of contemplative Beatles in there. And what can I say about that instrumental bridge near the end?

Another song from "Sweet Soul" is "Ai no Coda"（愛のcoda...Love Coda）which brought back some of the memories of some of the Latin-tinged urban contemporary side of J-Pop from the early part of the 2000s. I couldn't confirm it but I bet Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）may have had something to do with "Ai no Coda" since the arrangement sounds so much like his work (and in fact, he did...he produced the e.p.). From listening to the song, it sounds as if that young couple from "Sweet Soul" are now taking a whirlwind date around Tokyo.

"Sweet Soul" managed to reach No. 48 on Oricon. As much as I adore Kirinji's catchy spacey dance-pop songs recently such as "Jikan ga nai"（時間がない）and "Killer Tune Kills Me", there is also something wonderful about Horigome's love ballads from early in the band's career. I read a comment for one of Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）songs on YouTube in which the person marveled whether Tats has actually ever made a bad song, and I do love my Tats. However, I've also gotta add that I'm starting to wonder the same about Horigome. In any case, I'm now having to think seriously about picking up both "Sweet Soul" and the album that has the two recent singles.