Kumiko Yamashita -- Toriaezu New York（とりあえずニューヨーク）

It must have been quite the time at the switchover from the 1970s into the 1980s for students of Japanese pop music. Along with the usual enka and aidoru, plus the undercurrent of City Pop and the in-vogue technopop, there were the elements of good ol' 50s rock-n-roll (also in Harajuku) and then New Wave to a smaller extent.

Strangely enough, I've encountered a song which seems to bring the latter two elements together in a fun 4th single by Kumiko Yamashita（山下久美子）called "Toriaezu New York" (First, New York). It gets started with that 50s theme but then when the refrain clicks in, that Merseybeat-sounding keyboard had me thinking Elvis Costello and some of those other skinny tie-sporting pop musicians from the 1980s. There's even some disco at the end. I thank legendary Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）for the music and then there is lyricist Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）who creates a story of a woman alone with her TV set after some romantic downturn and thinking that maybe the Big Apple may be the place to run from her woes. The travel expenses would be more expensive than the Tsugaru Strait, though.

Knowing Yamashita only for her big hit "Sekido Komachi Doki"（赤道小町ドキッ）, it's nice to learn a new and boppy tune by her.