Yoko Oginome -- Lazy Dance

Yoko's manager: Hey, Yoko? Anri just called. She'd like her style returned right now.

Just joking there. I'm sure that things were amicable if she and Anri（杏里）had ever met back then. I've known for decades that 80s aidoru Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）was closer to the (relatively speaking, anyways) danceable and dynamic side of teenybopper tunes when compared to the more conventional cutesiness of her contemporary Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）. Both have apparently dabbled into the urban contemporary genre of City Pop, though.

I'm surprised and delighted that even now that I can encounter material that I'd never heard before by singers that I've been cognizant of like the back of my hand for years. That also goes for Oginome and this song called "Lazy Dance" from her 4th original album from April 1986, "Raspberry no Kaze"（ラズベリーの風...Raspberry Wind）.

This is anything but lazy. It begins with an intro that had me thinking of the stuff that Vaporwave dreams are made of, and "Lazy Dance" overall does indeed sound like something that Anri would tackle during this time, and maybe I can even pick up some Omega Tribe-friendly riffs there, too. I love the horns, especially when they strike me with that 1970s disco feeling. And don't forget that emulation of George Benson and his guitar in the middle there! Someone really went down to town on the production for this song at least.

Lyrics were by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）while the melody was provided by none other than Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）in the really early days of his own career. Although it doesn't really sound like him, maybe he's the one behind the backing vocal of "Please don't let me be lonely tonight...". Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）took care of the arrangement. As for "Raspberry no Kaze", that peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. The album also has the English version of Oginome's most famous contribution to her discography, "Dancing Hero".