Miki Imai -- Kiiroi TV（黄色いTV）

My days in Gunma Prefecture were the period in which I first discovered the lovely tones of Miki Imai（今井美樹）. For me, the two biggest purchases of her were her first BEST compilation "Ivory" and then the follow-up original album "Retour" from 1990. That latter release especially has had me considering it as one of the finest J-Pop albums that I've ever bought.

Weirdly enough though, the original Imai albums that actually preceded "Ivory" were ones that I dutifully bought but never gave a lot of listening time to, and that includes her 1988 release "Bewith", her 3rd album. I guess it was because at the time, I treated the tracks as OK but not overwhelmingly amazing pop tunes. From what I've read in some of the YouTube comments, I wasn't the only one with the same observation.

At the same time, however, at least one of those commenters also pointed out that the passage of time and the growing filter of nostalgia for a type of pop arrangement that doesn't seem to exist anymore have generated a fondness and a newfound appreciation for those Imai tunes (and I'm assuming songs by other artists). I can put myself into the same shoes, and so it goes with Track 9 of "Bewith", "Kiiroi TV".

That title had me initially wondering about its translation. I would have said "Yellow TV" and though such an interestingly-coloured telly is entirely possible, I just thought it rather odd. Then, I checked out the other definition for kiiroi on jisho.org, and it is high-pitched. So, perhaps what Imai and the songwriters were going for was "High-Pitched TV" or even "My Old TV". In any case, Imai is singing about relying on her old set for companionship when her beau isn't around, signifying some lingering loneliness.

Lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）and composer Chika Ueda（上田知華）were the creators for "Kiiroi TV", and the two are songwriters that I've often associated in Imai's early part of her singing career. So for me, Iwasato and Ueda are the ones that are partly responsible for that early Imai sound that I've always cherished. They also had a hand in several of the other tracks on "Bewith" with almost all of them arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）. With "Kiiroi TV" especially, that lush piano intro, Imai's soft vocals and the other keyboards all work together for that quintessential Imai tune of the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to what I've read on the J-Wiki profile for "Bewith" and one YouTube comment, the album provided the first opportunity for Imai, Iwasato and Ueda to work together so perhaps that early Imai sound was finally set on this album.

Speaking of "Bewith", I don't think I can actually write about the album for its own article anymore because I've already written about many of its tracks individually such as the previous article, "Kiss yori, Toiki yori"（キスより吐息より）, the classic "Natsu wo Kasanete"（夏をかさねて）and "Second Engage"（セカンドエンゲージ）.