Yudai Suzuki -- Just Your Life (Heisei Version)

You might call this a happy sequel to that All-Points Bulletin that I had originally posted nearly a couple of weeks ago. Misha had been wondering about some mystery songs and asked for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" assistance, but as it turns out, he didn't need my help. He was able to identify almost all of the tunes on his own hard-won efforts.

I mentioned Misha's success as an update at the bottom of that article, but one of those songs that was featured really caught my ear and heart so I've decided to focus my writing energies on it.

This would be a song that I had assumed was a Sing Like Talking tune that I had never heard of before. Certainly, the vocals there had me automatically thinking the dulcet tones of SLT singer Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）. However, I was completely fooled because the singer was actually Yudai Suzuki（鈴木雄大）who was known as one of the four City Pop gods in the 1980s.

Strangely enough, when I first told Misha of my suspicions that this song "Just Your Life" was a Sato tune, I had no idea that I wouldn't be alone in my assumptions. Even kaz-shin of the blog "Music Avenue" noted how much Suzuki and "Just Your Life" sounded so much like Sing Like Talking from that cool and urbane arrangement, and the heart-on-your-sleeve delivery by Suzuki. SLT itself was already making its own path at around the same time.

As for the song itself, the version that has been put up is the Heisei version from his 7th album "Kimi no Heart ga Kikoeru"（君のハートが聞こえる...The Beat of Your Heart）released in March 1989. An original single of the song had been put out in November 1988 but I don't know how different that one is. I know that I'm more than happy with this Heisei version, though. Along with its SLT similarities, I would peg "Just Your Life" as a late 1980s/early 1990s City Pop/AOR number which makes it interesting to compare it to the first Suzuki song that I put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" back in 2015, "Rainy Summer" (1983) since that one sounds more like a City Pop song from that particular era. Even his vocals were a fair bit different back then.

In any case, glad to make this song's acquaintance.