Hideki Saijo -- Sweet Surrender

If I could do a decent Lt. Columbo impression, I would say, "May I say, sir, that is one fine album cover you have there...like I was telling Mrs. Columbo...that's my wife, you see...".

Yep, that is indeed one truly gorgeous City Pop-appropriate cover for Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）17th album from July 1985, "Twilight Made...Hideki". All those pastel blues and pinks and peaches....just have this enormous urge to wrap a fluffy pink cardigan around my waist and ask for a Perrier with a lemon twist. It would still be a challenge to tie it into a knot knowing my girth, mind you. But back to the cover, that design reminds me so much of the covers for the albums of AOR king Bobby Caldwell.

However, this is, of course, not a blog about album covers. I would like to have your attention directed to the first track, the oh-so-smooth "Sweet Surrender". The entire album has a lot of City Pop experts helping out on it (you can take a look at the credits on "Rate Your Music") but Track 1 has a couple of heavyweights behind "Sweet Surrender", Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）on lyrics (and backing chorus) and Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）providing the music which is urban and urbane and possesses some rhythmic nimbleness as if Hideki were beating traffic in the city effortlessly by driving his sports car in physics-breaking ways. Trumpeter Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）is also in on the action with the brass arrangement.

There were quite a few keyboardists involved in "Twilight Made" so I can't peg right now who was handling the keys on "Sweet Surrender", but my compliments to him especially when at certain times in the song, the synths take on that Omega Tribe arrangement. Until recently, I only knew Saijo as the long-haired 70s aidoru but with his 80s material, he seemed tailor-made for the City Pop world. OK, "Twilight Made" is going on the wish list!