Hiroshi Sato feat. Wendy Matthews/Yukiko Haneda -- It Isn't Easy

Was hoping to return to this album, "Awakening" by Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, a release that got the seal of approval by none other than Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. Most fortunately, I did find a song that I hadn't covered in the original article for Sato's 1982 magnum opus.

After listening to the track "It Isn't Easy", my first and continuing thought was that it really doesn't need Sato's introductory vocal because I think it almost belongs to a different song. Once it hits 22 seconds, though, that's when we get the ironically easy melody (considering the title) by Sato, the musical equivalent of a hammock swaying gently on the beach. Wendy Matthews is back to provide her lovely voice for the English lyrics against the background of some synth-Asian arrangement, rather reminiscent of the material by Japanese-American band Hiroshima. Sato himself adds a brief jazzy element on the piano along with the background vocals. Lorrain Feather came up with the lyrics.

Yukiko Haneda（羽根田征子）is a Tokyo-born singer who was definitely blessed when she first started out in the late 1980s. Her 1988 debut album "Beating Mess" was produced by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, and then her sophomore effort in the following year, "Sora", had Hiroshi Sato in the producer's chair.

So it's not surprising then that one of the tracks on "Sora" happens to be a cover version of "It Isn't Easy", given the alternate title of "Renka Senri"（恋唄千里...Love Song Long Distance）. Not sure on my reading of that title although YouTube uploader Keir Hardie's transcription has it as "Renka Chisato" (that first attempt of the second word is based on jisho.org). In any case, Haneda's cover is still within the AOR genre although it tends toward a more soulful arrangement and the singer delivers the song in both Japanese and English; apparently the lyrics in the former language were provided by someone named Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）according to JASRAC.

Haneda has provided 3 singles and 6 albums up to 2008, and according to her website, her full stage name is Johanna Yukiko Haneda, although her real name is Yukiko Ito（伊藤征子）. On finding out that kaz-shin at "Music Avenue" reviewed "Sora", I also discovered that he has proclaimed her 3rd album from July 1997, "Good Times, Bad Times", as an AOR fan's must-have. Therefore, I will have to continue the exploration into her discography.