Miyoko Yoshimoto -- Wanna Catch

Just on the heels of writing an article about a singer with the initials of M.Y., I've suddenly done a sharp veer to another different singer from the 1980s who shares those same initials. This would be 80s aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto（芳本美代子）.

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And the reason that I suddenly decided to put up one of her songs onto the blog is that as I was listening to New J Channel's broadcast, a Yoshimoto song came on board. Now, as I've mentioned before in the only other article on her, I barely have any read on her discography. I'd only known her as the typically snaggle-toothed aidoru

But then this song by Yoshimoto made its appearance that caught me off-guard. It was actually very City Pop soulful. "WAIT!!", I went, "This is the aidoru Miyoko Yoshimoto, ain't it?" Yup, the cover was for her July 1987 album "I'm The One" and the final track "Wanna Catch" was indeed included, and I've already listened to it four times now as I write this. I had no idea that Yoshimoto could sing this well. In fact, I was reluctant to put on an aidoru tag on this one since "Wanna Catch" doesn't sound anything like an aidoru tune but that's how she's been categorized during her singing career, so it's in the Labels section. But I've definitely put on the City Pop tag, too.

"Wanna Catch" is definitely something very downtown Tokyo with all of the swagger of folks painting the town red on a Friday night. Written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and composed by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, the song comes off as a tune that could easily be performed by Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）, who I thought was the late 80s aidoru for urban contemporary dance-pop, or even by City Pop chanteuse Junko Yagami（八神純子）. However, it's indeed Yoshimoto handling the reins with rather good aplomb, may I add. A very pleasant surprise tonight.